I thought "Stratovarius sounds very not modern, so they must be early '90s or late 80s." I was shocked when I actually checked the official web site (the one that hosts this forum) to see that over half their albums are mid-90s onwards.
Anyway, my point is after Metallica's somewhat weak album release of Saint Anger (in the opinion of some people) and Rammstein's debatably great/good album Reise, Reise, I thought the world of music was coming to an end, with nothing good left and pop and hip-hop about to take over the world. But then I discovered Stratovarius. And my world was saved.
I think if the RIAA keep complaining about low sales and piracy costing them money, then maybe they should try not putting so much time and effort into hip-hop and start advertising groups like Startovarius. I didn't exactly hear about Black Diamond on TV and the one thing that got me jump-started on Stratovarius was a Final Fantasy music video (the type of music video made by the public, where they take clips from some TV show or game and add music to it), featuring Stratovarius' "Destiny", which I got off the "evil" peer-to-peer network and now I want to buy all Stratovarius.
Anyway again, thank god for Stratovarius. Some great music to listen to.
As I am a new "Stratovarian" (or whateva a fan is called
), can anyone recommend anything for me to get? CDs, DVDs or other merchandise. Currently, as I own no CDs yet (as I only started to get enthusiastic a few days ago), I plan to get Episode, Visions and Destiny? Is this a good idea?
Then IMO the first CD youshould get is Visions (the album featuring Black Diamond, released in 1997). Episode is also a good choice but Destiny is far less good than those two IMO.
It is BEAUTIFUL! So very colorful&the material its made from is so soft! I will wear it if I get to go to a StratoShow! The Infinite one with the Dolphins is nice, too! 
