I used to be a huge Stratovarius fan back as a teenager when infinite album had just come out and it was (with intermission) THE 1st band and actually music, that "blew my mind"...Actually to an extent that we spent a whole night with my cousin, beating our thighs with makeshift drumsticks in a car while all our friends and relatives were celebrating the Midsummer Day by the bonfires and whatnot. They got hangover, we got green-yellow-blue-black-red hands and thighs...Not to mention inspiration to start playing music ourselves and loads of good times for years
Sadly my enthusiasm was watered down along the road, one very bad live experience (saw the band on the verge of Tolkki leaving) and discovery of sex, drugs and rock n' roll - mentality and related bands led to Stratovarius gathering dust in some distant corner of my consciousness.
Few of the more personal and favourite songs ofc remained in "playlist" and upon listening to them at 4 am when all the booze (and most of the partygoers) had gone or passed out, we'd discover with my cousin that, GODDAMN!, we can still sing the lyrics without hesitation to the word perfectly from memory after countless alcohol units, acts of infidelity with other bands and years.
Later this epiphany proved vital. And now we're getting to the point:
Lately, after 13years of playing guitar, strolling through the music in the world and seeing life in good and bad and worse it has come to this: Music doesn't seem to give me anything. The feeling had been buidling up for few years and i had recognized for what it was...APATHY, DEPRESSION, feelings of nothing being "true" and a general lack of joy in music. I would consciously then repress the feeling and thrust it aside as "a phase" and try and find music that'd awake an genuine reaction...I even stooped for a short while into tricking myself to thinking i'd like rap (WTF!?!?!?! Shoot me in the head for this one pls!), to no avail of course. Inevitably tho', I hit a dead end. There was nothing left it seemed, done, finshed, kaputt. Music then, had nothing to offer to me. Or perhaps i'd become so cynical that nothing would budge my tastes.
It was then, in the "darkest hours", that i saw "the light" (as cliché as it is), in the form of reassembled, reborn, "out of the ashes" - Stratovarius. Bought the under flaming winter skies on a whim and it and the consequences have just blown my mind all over again...Seems then, that the clichés are true, going back to the roots really was the answer, and what's more brilliant is that all the while i've been monkeying around on the musical field, Stratovarius have just plowed on regardless, facing troubles and trials by fire, shrugging it all off and emerged victoriously (more clichés abound, bear with me) from the other side, rising from the ashes of abatis like a phoenix. So has my love for music, thanks to Kotipeltos, Johanssons and Jörgs undeterred resolution.
Today i bought the Elysium LP and i couldn't be happier, Listening to this i feel like that teenager banging away at his thighs in the finnish midsummerday, not having a trouble in the world, just enjoying life and wondering "HOW THE HELL DO THESE GUYS DO THIS, I WANNA PLAY SOMETHING LIKE THIS TOO" :DD
Listening to good stuff makes your skin crawl, listening to Stratovarius, quote: Jeremy Clarkson: "Is like being dipped to liquid nitrogen and then being hit by a hammer...One just kind of, shatters".
This goes both for a album review and a HUGE Thank you for the gyus of Stratovarius!!!
P.S Sorry for being overly syrupy, perhaps i could've just quoted the whole song Fantasia or Elysium as they pretty much sum up my sentiments, but that doesn't quite cut the mustard does it? More on the point, i think Stratovarius is one of the most valuable music there is. I think it has some very potent healing or therapeutic qualities, investing to a Stratovarius album is like investing in ones mental health! Allright, that's it, sorry and thank you, Keep on rocking!
Welcome back Kiiwi! You are like a lost son to us! Do you want us to slaughter something for you? 
