Best song TT has done since leaving Strato

[adrian9]

Hey, so in your opinion what's the best thing (recording/album/song) Timo Tolkki has done since leaving Strato.
for me "Enshrined in my memory" from Avalon 1

haven't heard the whole album in a while but it's pretty decent.
In Paradisum close second.

just for the record here's the list of stuff from Tolkki

New Era - 2008
Saana – Warrior of Light Pt 1 - 2008
Age of Aquarius JVC- 2009
Trinity - 2010
In Paradisum - 2011
The Land of New Hope - 2013
Angels of the Apocalypse - 2014
Return to Eden - 2019

[AAAAAAAAAA]

I like almost all the songs on Trinity. The album production is a bit unusual, the songs are formulaic and musically too simple, and I admit I am not 100% sold on Gus Monsanto (could be a production issue). But there is a certain energy and sense of melody I find cool. Especially Falling to Rise & Just Let it Rain. I wish Stratovarius would record and produce this album!

In Paradisum was not great. The songs were generic and lacking energy (e.g. Come by the Hills, Don't Let Me Go) and as much as I hate to say this, Andre Matos' voice lost his characteristic piercing quality by this point and did not sound very good. In fact, he would never sound as good as he did in the 90s. Moreover, everything from the song titles to the album title, cover art, band name, and lyrics, sounds very pretentious, pseudo-intellectual and "bullshitty". To be expected considering the two people involved.

"Rhapsody in Black" by a band called "Symfonia" on an album called "In Paradisum" with a bunch of winged ladies on the cover, it all just sounds like a bunch of try hard bullshit. Like they are trying to imply some divine forces coalesced to forge this masterpiece (roman gods maybe?), when in reality its just recycled power metal that was written in a couple days. With that said, I really enjoy the song Forevermore- that one is my favorite.

As far as the Avalon albums are concerned, I only heard a few songs here and there. If I had to classify it as a genre I'd call it "Pavlovian Metal" because it has everything on paper to make you associate it with greatness (huge saga with many characters, involvement of big names, grandiose titles like "I'll Sing You Home" and "In the Name of the Rose" that mean absolutely nothing but sound kind of cool), but I have so little confidence in the quality of the product that I'm too lazy and unmotivated to commit the time.

[NeverendingAbyss]

I really like Age of Aquarius as a whole. Aside from Behind the Mask, I think all the songs are in exceptional shape. This was at a time when TT was still considered a great composer.

Trinity is also powerful, but the songs do get more mundane. Anything after that I really had trouble getting into his songs.

[Motha-faka]

I like it a lot timo tolkki style, including to my mother love to timo tolkki and she have 63 years old

the tops songs for me:

1- All the album


2- All the album


3-

4-

5-

6- I love the song but not sammet, for me he is not a good singer,


EDIT

and all the stratovarius timo tolkki songs, i started to be a fan of stratovarius by timo tolkki, and after with the new formation, music speaking, production i continue loving timo tolkki in stratovarius, in his post stratovarius albums sound very common

7- plus i love the revolution renaissance demo by stratovarius - sadly this could by a great album in stratovarius hands....

[robocop]

The guys that still want to ride the Tolkki dick....listen.

Quantity over quality is how this is. How many times do you want to hear those boring old tired songs rehashed with some polished turds sprinkled in?

Of course this is my opinion. You may like hearing the same thing over and over.

[Sth2112]

New era - a nice and safe album, but nothing spectacular.
Age of aquarius - haven’t heard it in a long time, but don’t really like it.
Saana - BAD
Trinity - Not too bad, I really like the opening track
In paradisum - his best album since Stratovarius, pretty good. Wish he would have pushed this band 110 percent forward.
In the land of new hope - Also a good album, a good start. He should have spent more euro on a high profile guest or two instead of vacations to Spain and Greece.
Angels of the apocalypse - a few good songs, but overall a poor album
Return to Eden - is this a Tolkki album, other than the songwriting? It sounds like he coudn’t give a shit really...

[Motha-faka]

The guys that still want to ride the Tolkki dick....listen.

Robo, the forum only can ride the timo tolki dick iF he have a huge dick, CAPISE?

[robocop]

The guys that still want to ride the Tolkki dick....listen.

Robo, the forum only can ride the timo tolki dick iF he have a huge dick, CAPISE?

I have seen the dick, it was a micro surprise.

[Motha-faka]

I have seen the dick, it was a micro surprise.

what do you are innuendo?, that all the metal boys have a small dick?

Zorriez, but I'm a super nigga from Argentina, we have a big dick.. just why we are in the same level to one african country, economically speaking, culturally speaking too...

[robocop]

I have seen the dick, it was a micro surprise.

what do you are innuendo?, that all the metal boys have a small dick?

A picture was physically posted of his pee pee before. But let's shift back the conversation to his overrated albums.

[SentineLEX]

The RR demo sounds better than New Era but it's literally a Strato album so it doesn't count.

+1 for Trinity. I think it is the last time Tolkki tried to do something new and didn't retread on his former work. I liked In Paradisum and Avalon 1, and a few songs on 2/3, but all of those seem like pale imitations of what TT did on Strato.

The title track on Trinity does rip a lot from Infinity, but as an album it has a pretty innovative sound (probably because of the solos and maybe because of Gus) without being unlistenable like Saana/AoA are to me.

Also I think Trinity is exactly what the 2005 self-titled should have been.

[adrian9]

Now I feel bad that I didn't give it a chance to that Trinity album, might check it out again on spotify

[Rebel]

Echo everyone's sentiments on Trinity being surprisingly good, and In Paradisium definitely had some stinkers, but the chorus of this song was NOT among them

[robocop]

Cum by the hills.

[Pancio]

New Era - I don't like it, too generic and uninspired

Age of Aquarius - Sometimes I listen to it and I don't dislike it but it's not a good album.
I like the overall mood, tho and this is his third best effort

Trinity - Two decent songs, the remaining songs are garbage.
I'm not sure how much effort Tolkki put as a composer, I bet little since most of the ideas sounds definitely "not-Tolkki"

In Paradisum - The mix between Greek band name and Latin album title is enough to understand it was a generic Power Metal band created relying on the names involved instead of the music.
The results? A generic pompous album with average production, zero ideas and those annoying vocals (yes, I never liked Matos)

Avalon I - Decent album, nothing new but pleasant to my ears.
Definitely his best effort.

Avalon II - Garbage

Avalon III - Garbage even tho Tolkki's involvement was almost non-existent

Allen/Lande - I like the album due to the vocals but music wise it's unoriginal.
Some of the songs are not bad but clearly underdeveloped; second best effort

Chaos Magic - Garbage

Saana - Garbage

[AAAAAAAAAA]

[ZenithMC]

New Era - I don't like it, too generic and uninspired

Age of Aquarius - Sometimes I listen to it and I don't dislike it but it's not a good album.
I like the overall mood, tho and this is his third best effort

Trinity - Two decent songs, the remaining songs are garbage.
I'm not sure how much effort Tolkki put as a composer, I bet little since most of the ideas sounds definitely "not-Tolkki"

In Paradisum - The mix between Greek band name and Latin album title is enough to understand it was a generic Power Metal band created relying on the names involved instead of the music.
The results? A generic pompous album with average production, zero ideas and those annoying vocals (yes, I never liked Matos)

Avalon I - Decent album, nothing new but pleasant to my ears.
Definitely his best effort.

Avalon II - Garbage

Avalon III - Garbage even tho Tolkki's involvement was almost non-existent

Allen/Lande - I like the album due to the vocals but music wise it's unoriginal.
Some of the songs are not bad but clearly underdeveloped; second best effort

Chaos Magic - Garbage

Saana - Garbage

Damn. That's brutal, but very apt. I know that if I ever run out of ideas for my music, Pancio's going to be the first person to kick my ass.

[ZenithMC]

Potential new, and fitting, name for future Tolkki projects: Travestarius.

[SentineLEX]

Tolkki told me he is starting his new band Infinite Key to Visions of Universe (including the grammatical errors) that will perform exclusively Strato singles from 1996-2003 live and will be fronted by a 19-year-old Chilean woman

[Robocop 2.0]

Saana – Warrior of Light

It's not that terrible, just different. I never really listen to it, but I remember having some really short track from it on some playlist.


New Era

Big shame this never made it to the actual album release under Stratovarius! The songs are great with Kotipelto. But I do kinda like the RR release, and I listened to I Did It My Way a lot in 2008


Age of Aquarius

Better as a whole than previous, this is definitely one of the better albums he made after Stratovarius and maybe the one I listened to most. Sins Of My Beloved, So She Wears Black and Kyrie Eleison are all great, and the rest are at least alright.


Trinity

Never got into this too well, but I remember it being decent at least. Will give more listens at some point.


In Paradisum

Mr. Matos is great singer but I'm not that much into his voice. I listened to the ballads of the album a lot back in the day, those are really good. Otherwise I was waiting for more from this band, especially when they had Uli Kusch on drums.


The Land of New Hope

I like this, but I feel it's quite simple album and there could have been potential for more. Got to agree with Adrian9, Enshrined in my Memory is nice track, likely the catchiest one around this whole topic (and Elize Ryd is one of my favorite female singers). In the Name of the Rose and I'll Sing You Home are good, especially the guitar solo on the latter one is in all its simplicity rather nice touch.


Angels of the Apocalypse

Need to listen more. I just remember the song with David DeFeis being not so good, sadly. There's a bunch of nice songs from his band Virgin Steele - however the good ones are really old songs and some time has passed...


Return to Eden

Same as above, maybe I'll edit this post later