For a long time the future of Stratovarius was unclear. But after ex-guitarist Timo Tolkki agreed that the remaining members can continue under the old name, the songwriting begun and Timo Tolkki was replaced by Matias Kupiainen. But with Tolkki as long term member and guitarist/songwriter a person left who gave the band a face. Will the new album be different—maybe like Kotipelto’s solo project?
Well, indeed they have changed the band logo a bit and Lauri Porra took over most of the songwriting. So when I plugged in the the new CD and listened to the first track Deep Unknown I felt like “hm, this isn’t really what I’d like to expect for the new Stratovarius album?” …and before you ask, yes, I’ve bought the CD without listening to samples first. But the following track Falling Star, has won me already over - Stratovarius are back!
So let’s walk through the album track by track: The next song King Of Nothing is actually my favorite song. I like the choirs repeating the refrain – catchy and animating to sing along. Blind sounds like a Stratovarius song from the old days and will rock when performed live. The fifth track Winter Skies is a true metal-ballad like you know them from their older albums. While listening to this song I thought, the next song should have some high speed keyboards from Jens. And I was right! Forever Is Today and Higher We Go as next tracks are really speedy. Afterwards the sound becomes slower with another great ballad Somehow Precious and followed by two more ballads Emancipation Suite: I Dusk and Emancipation Suite: II Dawn that remember a bit of the sound of the Elements double album. With When Mountains Fall as acoustic song the tempo goes down even more and the album fades to an end.
All in all, Stratovarius have a slightly new sound, but as long term fan like me it is good to hear something different and not waiting for and Infinity II or something similar.
Tracklist
- Deep Unknown
- Falling Star
- King Of Nothing
- Blind
- Winter Skies
- Forever Is Today
- Higher We Go
- Somehow Precious
- Emancipation Suite: I Dusk
- Emancipation Suite: II Dawn
- When Mountains Fall