Stratovarius Community

Posted: **Sun Apr 17, 2005 5:07 pm**

Stratovarius julkaisee uuden studioalbuminsa elokuun lopulla tai syyskuun alussa. Levy kantaa simppeliä nimeä Stratovarius (toisin sanoen Popkiller-otsikon voi jo unohtaa) ja se sisältää seuraavat kappaleet:

- Maniac Dance
- Fight
- Just Carry On
- Back To Madness
- Gypsy In Me
- Götterdämmerung (Zenith Of Power)
- The Land Of Ice And Snow
- Leave The Tribe
- United

Levyn tarjonta tulee varmasti yllätyksenä Stratovarius-faneille. Albumilla ei kuulla esimerkiksi tuplabassarien tahdittamia biisejä lainkaan, sillä pääosa kiekosta keskittyy 4/4-kompissa kulkeviin ja viimeisen päälle tuotettuihin keskitempoisiin raskasrock-biiseihin. Varsinkin pitkäsoiton alkupuoli näyttäytyy hyvinkin "epä-Stratomaisena" (siis suhteessa aikaisempaan) ja monen fanin ilme saattaakin olla näkemisen arvoinen, kun he kuulevat lätyltä lohkotun Maniac Dance -singlen "Atari-aloituksen".

Tulevasta sinkusta on jo kuvattu videokin, jonka ohjaa Stratovarius-kitaristi Timo Tolkin vanha koulukaveri ja esimerkiksi Celine Dionin, Eminemin sekä Nightwishin kanssa aikaisemmin työskennellyt Antti Jokinen. Maniac Dancen sanoitukset eivät jätä juuri arvailujen varaa; ne kertovat Tolkin ympärillä viime vuosina pyörineestä pyörremyrskystä.

Stratovarius-levyn loppupuolella yhtye siirtyy tutumpiin tunnelmiin ja esimerkiksi The Land Of Ice And Snow -kappale on selkeä kakkososa Forever-hymnille. Kuten laulun otsikkokin vihjaa niin The Land Of Ice And Snow kumartaa teksteissään Suomelle ja suomalaisuudelle. Ja mainitaanpa biisissä myös eräs tunnettu viinamerkkikin!

- Kokonaisuus on rakennettu juuri niin, että albumin alkupuoli on odottamattomampaa materiaalia ja loppupuolella siirrytään hiljalleen tutumpiin tunnelmiin, Tolkki kertoo.

Levyn loppupuolella todellakin kuullaan aikaisemmilta levyiltä tuttuja eeppisiä tunnelmia. Välillä mieleen vilahtelee Iron Maiden mahtipontisimmillaan, toisinaan taas mielikuviin nousee sinfoninen elokuvamusiikki. Kokonaisuuteen on myös upotettu lukuisia yllättäviä yksittäisiä elementtejä, joista mainittakoon Jörgin jälkikasvun jokeltelu, ruotsalaisen oopperalaulajan näytös ja painija Starbuckin puhe.

Parin edellisellä Strato-julkaisulla vahvasti kuvioissa olleet proge-elementit ovat myöskin enemmän tai vähemmän historiaa, sillä orkesterin uudet biisit ovat kautta linjan suhteellisen simppelejä tarttuvilla kertosäkeillä kruunattuja kokonaisuuksia. Tolkki on myös onnistunut kaivamaan kitarastaan lukuisia äärimmäisen maukkaita ja toimivia riffejä. Miehen kitarasooloja voisi puolestaan kuvailla sanalla tyylitajuinen. Timo antaa nopeiden sormiensa hyväillä kitaran kaulaa muutamankin kerran, mutta turhaa ja tyhjänpäiväistä tiluttelua kokonaisuudelta ei löydy.

- Albumin biisit ovat jo pari vuotta vanhoja. Enkä minä suunnitellut kokonaisuutta tällaiseksi; biisit tavallaan kirjoittivat itsensä. Minä vain sävellän ja katson sitten vasta myöhemmin, mitä onkaan syntynyt... Tulevan levyn musiikki on käsialaani alusta loppuun, mutta Jens (Johansson, koskettimet) sekä Timo (Kotipelto, laulu) ovat kirjoittaneet sanoituksia, Tolkki sanoo ja jatkaa.

- Ja artistithan kehuvat aina uutta levyä, mutta kyllä minä pidän tästä albumista. Ja olen tietenkin äärimmäisen iloinen, että me saimme tämän ylipäätään edes tehtyä!

Stratovariuksen jäsenet kiertävät kesäkuussa ahkerasti ympäri Eurooppaa (ja muita maaosia) haastattelujen merkeissä. Pitkä maailmankiertue starttaa syyskuussa... Niinpä tosiaan, kohuttu "Hitler-biisi" kantaa lopullisella kiekolla otsikkoa Götterdämmerung (Zenith Of Power). Ja kylläpä sieltä taitaa herra Adolfin puhetta sittenkin löytyä, ainakin jos kuuntelee tarkkaan...

http://www.soneraplaza.fi/vapaaaika/art ... 35,00.html

Quick translation:

Stratovarius will release their new studioalbum in late August or early September. The Album is called simply Stratovarius (in other words you can forget about Popkiller) and it has the following tracks:

- Maniac Dance
- Fight
- Just Carry On
- Back To Madness
- Gypsy In Me
- Götterdämmerung (Zenith Of Power)
- The Land Of Ice And Snow
- Leave The Tribe
- United

The album will surely be a surprise for Stratovarius fans. For example, you won't hear any double bass songs, for the Album is mainly in 4/4 and hte song are thoroughly produced mid-paced heavy rock songs. Especially the first part of the album is very "un-Stratovarius" (in proportion to previous albums) and some fans' faces may be worth seeing, when they hear the Atari-intro to the album single Maniac Dance.

A video has already been filmed of the forthcoming single, which was directed by Stratovarius guitarist Timo Tolkki's old schoolmate and the director of Celine Dion's, Eminem's and Nightwish's music videos, Antti Jokinen. Maniac Dance's lyrics leave little to be guessed, they tell about the twister gone around Timo Tolkki during the last few years

In the second part of the Stratovarius-disc the band moves to more familiar sounds and for example the song The Land Of Ice And Snow is a clear sequel to Forever. As the title suggests, The Land Of Ice And Snow is a salute to Finland and Finns. And a known alcohol drink is also mentioned in the song!

-The way the album is constructed is that the first part is more unexpected material and the second part is more familiar Stratovarius, Tolkki tells.

At the end of the record you will hear some epic atmosphere and feelings similar to previous albums. At times they resemble Iron Maiden at its bombastic times, at times they resemble a sinfonic movie score. The album has also many surprising occasional elements, for example the babbling of Jörg's children, swedish opera singer and the speech of the wrestler Starbuck.

The progressive elements from the last two Strato-albums, are more or less history, for band's new songs are relatively simple flavoured with catchy choruses. Tolkki has also managed to write some extremely good and tight riffs. His guitar solos are stylized. He lets his fast fingers caress the guitar neck a few times, but you won't find any filling shredding on this album.

-The songs are a few years old. And I didn't plan the album to be like this. The songs wrote themselves. I just compose and later see what I have come up with...
All music on the album is done by me. but Jens (Johansson, Keys) and Timo (Kotipelto, singer) have written some lyrics, Tolkki says and continues.

-Every artist praise their new album, but I just really like this album. And of course I'm very happy that we managed to make this in the first place!

Stratovarius members will tour Europe and other continents in July doing interviews. A long World tour will start in September....And yes, the
stir created Hitler-song is now called Götterdämmerung (Zenith Of Power). And you can hear Mr. Adolf speaking after all, if you listen very closely....

Posted: **Sun Apr 17, 2005 5:13 pm**

Thank you very much Lapazeus

mmhm no double bass ?

Posted: **Sun Apr 17, 2005 5:20 pm**

(1684+15)

Thanks for the translations. I'm very curious about the new album and the new single.

Posted: **Sun Apr 17, 2005 6:02 pm**

thanks for translate!!

Posted: **Sun Apr 17, 2005 7:19 pm**

Very cool, I hope there is more shredding than it says.

Posted: **Sun Apr 17, 2005 7:29 pm**

Yes, thank you very very much for your translation. No double bass sounds really disappointing, but hey, I'm gonna wait until it comes out to make a value judgement. Hopefully Jens will shred like usual

BTW, who wrote that anyway?

Posted: **Sun Apr 17, 2005 7:37 pm**

Am I the only one who is happy about the non-double-bass ? Damn, that made me just sooo excitd about the album... Still no official relaese date ?

Posted: **Sun Apr 17, 2005 7:55 pm**

Thanks Lapazeus, you did a really great translation job there !

But still, I think speechs are useless. Let's just wait and hear the material and judge by ourselves

one last thing :

Posted: **Sun Apr 17, 2005 8:02 pm**

wow.....im very curious now.....no doube bass?? huummm.....it will be different....the best songs are double bass for me.....but lets wait and see.....i guess it wil be something like crimson thunder from hammerfall....except that there are 2 double bass songs in he crimson thunder

Posted: **Sun Apr 17, 2005 8:03 pm**

Burning Reflection wrote:Yes, thank you very very much for your translation. No double bass sounds really disappointing, but hey, I'm gonna wait until it comes out to make a value judgement. Hopefully Jens will shred like usual BTW, who wrote that anyway?

Did you check the link from the first post? There are some pictures. You can even see Tolkki's new haircut, too. I believe those pictures are from the press confenrence Tolkki told about here http://www.stratovarius.com/forum/viewt ... ht=#272949

A more word for word translation about the shredding issue goes:

Timo antaa nopeiden sormiensa hyväillä kitaran kaulaa muutamankin kerran, mutta turhaa ja tyhjänpäiväistä tiluttelua kokonaisuudelta ei löydy.

Timo lets his fast fingers caress the guitar neck a few times, but there's no unnecessary or superfluous shredding in the Album.

So, the article doesn't actually tell how much shredding there will be

The writer just doesn't think there's shredding just for the sake of it.

Posted: **Sun Apr 17, 2005 8:18 pm**

Ok, the titles aren't very strato. :-/
The album title is also rather disappointing.

But I like the idea of some harder work because I also like Fright Night a lot.

I can't wait 'till the single and ofcourse the album itslelf.

Posted: **Sun Apr 17, 2005 8:26 pm**

Nice Rock 'n' Roll Haircut Mr.Tolkki

Posted: **Sun Apr 17, 2005 8:27 pm**

Thanks for the translation. No double-bass, interesting

Posted: **Sun Apr 17, 2005 8:32 pm**

Hail Stratovarius! KINGS OF POWER METAL!!!

Posted: **Sun Apr 17, 2005 8:53 pm**

Holy Light wrote:Hail Stratovarius! KINGS OF POWER METAL!!!

HEAR HEAR

Posted: **Sun Apr 17, 2005 8:58 pm**

sounds interesting, my appetite for this album has significantly grown

Posted: **Sun Apr 17, 2005 9:16 pm**

Electric Eye wrote:my appetite for this album has signifinantly grown

That, my friend, makes 2 of us.

Posted: **Sun Apr 17, 2005 9:25 pm**

Equinox wrote:
Electric Eye wrote:my appetite for this album has signifinantly grown
That, my friend, makes 2 of us.

Actually, it's more like three of us now.

Posted: **Sun Apr 17, 2005 9:38 pm**

I KNEW IT. They really chose Stratovarius as the album name. And I think it's completely justified

I'm very curious. I've always loved Jörg's doublebass drumming, but I really look forward to hear these new styles.

Actually, it's more like three of us now.

Ahr, makes four of us, too.

Posted: **Sun Apr 17, 2005 9:48 pm**

(1687+15)

shaz wrote:
Equinox wrote:
Electric Eye wrote:my appetite for this album has signifinantly grown
That, my friend, makes 2 of us.
Actually, it's more like three of us now.

4+1... But it's useless to count it.

Imho it is good, that they will have a heavy metal album as well, not just power one. Of course, I'm more into power metal, but it would be very boring, if they didn't try out other genres as well, and played the same all the time, like Iron Maiden, Sonata Arctica, Hammerfall, Metallica etc bands do.

Posted: **Sun Apr 17, 2005 10:18 pm**

6!!

Posted: **Sun Apr 17, 2005 10:21 pm**

right, I think that some kind of refreshement of style is always very welcome, specially among bands who proved with few previous albums their position and style.
Notice, that they say about two parts of album, first one is 'light' and more hit-oriented, the second one is like typical Stratovarius. Maybe they want to address it to wider group of people, not only metal fans, get new audience and become more popular. This tendency is noticable now, eg. huge succes of Nightwish with their hit-single, or new Rhapsody single with new version of 'The Magic Of The Wizard Dreams' containing this song in few language versions. I think, that this phenomenon (I mean opening metal bands to wider audience) is a very positive one, because their wonderful music deserves to be known not only among metal fans, but should be also available via media to the rest of people. So I think that soon Stratovarius will be more popular than ever before, and new fans will draw attention to their music and albums.

Posted: **Sun Apr 17, 2005 10:52 pm**

cliff wrote:Thanks Lapazeus, you did a really great translation job there !

But still, I think speechs are useless. Let's just wait and hear the material and judge by ourselves

one last thing :

is that Timo,s new girlfriend on the photo?

Posted: **Sun Apr 17, 2005 10:55 pm**

(1691+15)

stratowerner wrote:is that Timo,s new girlfriend on the photo?

Nope, it's the new album...

Posted: **Sun Apr 17, 2005 11:02 pm**

Thanks Lapazeus for your great job translation!
Nice to hear some news again about the album.

Posted: **Sun Apr 17, 2005 11:19 pm**

wow more and more great news, i just wanna have that album right now i can't wait to have it

good job with the translationnn

no double basss???? i really liked them

Posted: **Sun Apr 17, 2005 11:30 pm**

Well, I should've put a bet on the fact that there was only going to be 9 songs...

(Not counting bonus songs)

Elements Pt 1 - 9 tracks
Elements Pt 2 - 9 tracks
Infinite - 9 tracks
Destiny - 9 tracks

Oh well, can't wait for this! Personally, I like their midtempo stuff better. So this could be very cool!!

Posted: **Mon Apr 18, 2005 1:18 am**

Electric Eye wrote:right, I think that some kind of refreshement of style is always very welcome, specially among bands who proved with few previous albums their position and style.
Notice, that they say about two parts of album, first one is 'light' and more hit-oriented, the second one is like typical Stratovarius. Maybe they want to address it to wider group of people, not only metal fans, get new audience and become more popular.

I don't agree with u 100% 'cuz........they sing the "best" power metal out there, and they know how to do their things, plus, all of us got to know them in that genre, what about now, if u don't like the new sound will that be great? do u think that after being ur fav band for years and after a album they're not good is cool?

In the other hand, I personally have no problem at all with their soo called new style, because they have always been changing and improving from Fright Night to Elements Part II, so the only feeling in me right now is longing.

So, u want them to be pop-ular? u know how many ppl dislike Infinite and Intermission because there are to many hit-songs? again, I don't mind these things, 'cuz I like Stratovarius as they were before and I know I will like the new things as well. In fact I don't really know why am I saying these stuff, 'cuz u have a different point of veiw and it is not my business to try to change it...but anyway....

Posted: **Mon Apr 18, 2005 1:39 am**

Like I said before, I have a feeling that this break between the band is only going to make the music better. I think they needed that separation to all find themselves musically; no doubt if they were still making music now it would all sound like the previous albums and people would start to get bored. I'm looking forward to hearing those new sounds from Stratovarius. I doubt they are totally departing from their core sound, but a little bit of diversity never hurt anyone either.

Posted: **Mon Apr 18, 2005 11:04 am**

10x Lapazeus , congrats for this translation. I remember TT said he will anounce some new later this week but now we have some news about the songs and the release date. 10x one more time .

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