Stratovarius Community

So what has been Stratovarius's "best decade"? When they have made their best albums etc.

(seems like I love to copy topic ideas from Running Wild forum and this time it was my own idea...)

I'll say my own opinion later...

92-97

Next decade sounds the best. Depending on how long TT wants continue.

But my answer is 95-01 > 90´s. Excepting Destiny-times, that album I´ve never liked much.

Lets see all the albums one by one..

1989 Fright Night: Perhaps the only Strato album that I don't like.. Maybe it is because of the many Helloween influences. They were still building their own style then.

1992 Twilight Time: I would consider it a "hidden treasure" of Strato! Also their darkest album!

1994 Dreamspace: My favourite one! Chasing Shadows, 4th Reich, Eyes of the World, Dreamspace, Reign of Terror, Shattered. All the songs on this album are wonderful!

1995 Fourth Dimension: Kotipelto enters the band. Another great album. Against the wind, Galaxies, Lord of the Wasteland, We hold the key, Twilight symphony, Nightfall..

1996 Episode: Their most balanced album, containing elements from their first and also their forthcoming albums. My second favourite album of them.

1997 Visions: Nice album. Not my favourite, but Black diamond is my favourite Strato song!

1998 Destiny: Their dumber album. Nevertheless Destiny, 4000 Rainy Nights are great songs!

2000 Infinite: The first Strato album that I heard (6 years ago) I remember listening to Hunting high and low all the time. It has a sentimental meaning to me. Also Mother Gaia, Phoenix, A Million Light Years Away, Infinity are top songs!

2003 Elements pt.1: This album was a huge surprise to me! I consider it their best album after Visions era.
Soul of a vagabond, Fantasia, Papillon, Elements, A drop in the ocean top songs of the album!

2003 Elements pt.2: Good album, but not at the same level with the first part. Whatever, it has some good songs too. Alpha & Omega, I Walk To My Own Song, Awaken the Giant, Dreamweaver, Liberty.

2005 Stratovarius: Something extremely different by Strato.. but I liked it! OK, it's sure that it will never become one of my favorite but it is quite a good album. The songs that I like the Most are: Maniac Dance, Back to Madness, United, Just Carry On.

Maniac wrote:1998 Destiny: Their dumber album. Nevertheless ... 4000 Rainy Nights are great songs!

Ah, nice to hear someone other has quite similar opinion about Destiny.

Maniac wrote:2000 Infinite: The first Strato album that I heard (6 years ago) I remember listening to Hunting high and low all the time. It has a sentimental meaning to me. Also Mother Gaia, Phoenix, A Million Light Years Away, Infinity are top songs!

Same here. Infinite was the first Strato-album I heard, and I remember too listening HHaL and AMLYA all the time in those days. Also stayed wondering how great song Infinity can be. (It´s still my another fav Strato-song). :music:

The 90s&I include Infinite because I think it came out in 1999 or 2000. So, 1990's it is.

I'm trying to positive today, so next decade.

To me Stratovarius's golden years are 1992 - 1997 (expect Dreamspace -album is just ok), so my answer is "90's"

Stratofanius wrote:To me Stratovarius's golden years are 1992 - 1997 (expect Dreamspace -album is just ok), so my answer is "90's"

Oh, I love DREAMSPACE album! :luv3: TT has a terrific singing voice, and I hope he gifts us with another solo album soon! (Hint, hint)

Maniac wrote:

Stratofanius wrote:To me Stratovarius's golden years are 1992 - 1997 (expect Dreamspace -album is just ok), so my answer is "90's"

Well as I have said this 1000 times before, I'm not a big fan of Dreamspace. There are some classic tracks like example 4th Reich and Dreamspace, but overall the album isn't so great. Twilight Time is faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar much better.

OK I'm doing better after your shocking post!
Maybe I was shocked because of having never heard or read by a Strato FAN that thing. If anyone else had said that (who isn't a Strato fan) it wouldn't make such an impression.

My fav years are 1994-2005 , so my vote goes to " 90´s". I love the most Infinite

nefertari wrote:My fav years are 1994-2005 , so my vote goes to " 90´s". I love the most Infinite

Infinite was my first Stratoalbum. I heard "Against the Wind" on tv, then "Phoenix" so, I got "Infinite" from Century Media catalog, then Vic found a Record store place close to us that could order "4th Dimension"- so, I ordered that. Then came "Twilight Time"&"CVAT" because I wanted to try Tolkki's voice. The rest is history!

Maniac wrote:Lets see all the albums one by one..

1989 Fright Night: Perhaps the only Strato album that I don't like.. Maybe it is because of the many Helloween influences. They were still building their own style then.

Agreed, I never really liked this album

1992 Twilight Time: I would consider it a "hidden treasure" of Strato! Also their darkest album!

Eh, I'm not overly impressed with this album. it's better than Fright Night, but not by much IMO.

1994 Dreamspace: My favourite one! Chasing Shadows, 4th Reich, Eyes of the World, Dreamspace, Reign of Terror, Shattered. All the songs on this album are wonderful!

Tears Of Ice is my favorite song of that album. I find this album the best of the 'Tolkki-era'.

1995 Fourth Dimension: Kotipelto enters the band. Another great album. Against the wind, Galaxies, Lord of the Wasteland, We hold the key, Twilight symphony, Nightfall..

Agreed, a lot of good songs I could lsiten to for many days without getting bored of it.

1996 Episode: Their most balanced album, containing elements from their first and also their forthcoming albums. My second favourite album of them.

Has a lot of good songs, my second favorite probably as well.

1997 Visions: Nice album. Not my favourite, but Black diamond is my favourite Strato song!

This is my favorite album of all, especially the title track impresses me.

1998 Destiny: Their dumber album. Nevertheless Destiny, 4000 Rainy Nights are great songs!

Why do people find this album so stupid? It's a bit different from what they did before, but I find it a very entertaining album nonetheless.

2000 Infinite: The first Strato album that I heard (6 years ago) I remember listening to Hunting high and low all the time. It has a sentimental meaning to me. Also Mother Gaia, Phoenix, A Million Light Years Away, Infinity are top songs!

My first album as well. HHAL and AMLYA were played a lot on TV and I decided to give the album a try. A friend had some more albums and that's how it started for me.

2003 Elements pt.1: This album was a huge surprise to me! I consider it their best album after Visions era.
Soul of a vagabond, Fantasia, Papillon, Elements, A drop in the ocean top songs of the album!

I agree, best Strato-album of the 21st Century till date...

2003 Elements pt.2: Good album, but not at the same level with the first part. Whatever, it has some good songs too. Alpha & Omega, I Walk To My Own Song, Awaken the Giant, Dreamweaver, Liberty.

It's different, much like Visions and Destiny, but not that bad either. A lot of songs on this album caught me in a certain way, so I enjoy it a lot.

2005 Stratovarius: Something extremely different by Strato.. but I liked it! OK, it's sure that it will never become one of my favorite but it is quite a good album. The songs that I like the Most are: Maniac Dance, Back to Madness, United, Just Carry On.

This album surprised me in many ways, but considering what the band had been through prior to making it, I think it reflects the mood of the band at that time very well.

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Bottom line: I can't really choose, each era has its gems and failures, though the late 80's are certainly not their best (IMO at least).

The best albums are from 90's!
Though, i hope that the next will be as great as this period, and why not maybe the best? Just let's keep on dreaming!

I like tehm all alot, i think the album i like least is either Stratovarius, intermission, or visions, while favorites are infinite and episode.

Haven't heard Frightnight yet, expect witch-hunt, and its decent song.

80' decade? what is it a stupid question i think? in eighties Strato released only 1 album and it was almost "copy" of helloween and bad quality, i think the 90' is the best decade - best albums Episode, 4th Dimension, Visions.... and Infinite (2000) - i love Hunting....

D.Murray wrote:80' decade? what is it a stupid question i think? in eighties Strato released only 1 album and it was almost "copy" of helloween and bad quality, i think the 90' is the best decade - best albums Episode, 4th Dimension, Visions.... and Infinite (2000) - i love Hunting....

Hehe, I agree on that. IMO the complete poll is a bit senseless, but nevertheless I participate, and vote for the 90s!

Aah, there we go and review the albums again! Well we did that often enough, but still it's fun, I like it too, so let's see...

Fright Night - Yeah, well, I don't like it very much. Like many of you said, the qualitiy is of course not the best, and the style is too much different from nowadays.

Twilight Time - Also not a very strong album. But the sound is better, and there are a few really good songs, even classics: Twilight Time, Out Of The Shadows, Hands Of Time.

Dreamspace - Huh, that album always costs me some energy. It's very versatile. I don't like the fact that the sound of the songs differ, like being recorded in different studios or mixed in different ways. And Thin Ice always is a shock to me. But Chasing Shadows, Hold On To Your Dream, 4th Reich, Dreamspace, ... make it to a strong album!

Fourth Dimension - I like that one very much, except the sound! AGAINST THE WIND is my all-time favourite song! Kotipelto's voice is undescribable, he is KILLER on this album!! Many top songs, a cool cover (still my favourite) - this was the album I listened to in very first, and it catched my attention!

Episode - 2nd best album!!!!! More progressive style, which made me think in the beginning that the album is worse than others, but after getting used to it I really started to love it!! Finally a good sound, the powerful drumming of Jörg Michael, Jens' great Keyboard solos (I especially like his duett with Tolkki on Will The Sun Rise), tons of good songs, ... Father Time, Night Time Eclipse, Speed of Light, Forever, ... A CLASSIC!!!

Visions - not much to say - ONE OF THE BEST ALBUMS OF ALL TIMES!!!!!!!! This is really a masterpiece!!! Incredible songwriting!!! This album will never be topped!!!!!! Baroque influences give it an atmosphere between tragic and ceremonious. There is NOT A SINGLE mediocre song on Visions!! From Kiss Of Judas til Visions only jewels! Sometimes I listen to it and wonder who can be such a genious that can compose like that...

Destiny - I was a bit disappointed with it at first, after Visions, because it contains some mediocre songs. But what I like is the dark and tragic mood of it. Also Destiny is one of my absolute favourite songs, it is a single masterpiece!! All in all a good album!

Infinite - The sound is much like Destiny, but the atmosphere is completely different! It's light, it's bright, it's fun, it's made up for good moods! A very very good album, a bombastic epic (Infinity), a great hymn (HHAL), some progressive tones (Mother Gaia), a melodic drama (Million Lightyears), ... I have loved it from the first minute!

Intermission - A very good collections of rare material and some new stuff! Much better than comparable productions of other bands!!

Elements Pt1 - A weak album. The sound is IMO horrible (too sterile, absolutely powerless), it cannot carry the epic style of the album; guitars are too thin, ... The song Elements is far away from the other three epics (Visions, Destiny, Infinity), like only a copy of Infinity. The only really good song is Soul Of A Vagabound, which I like alot. Other ones like Learning To Fly are destroyed by too high singing or the weak sound. Also the instrumental Stratofortress is the weakest of all (especially compared to the great Holy Light).

Elements Pt2 - Better than the first one! Sound is better again, and a bunch of good songs!!! Nothing outstanding, but simply good and solide Metal.

Stratovarius - I like it!! The sound finally is good again, there are some different songs on it, all in all it is very good! Dark and back to earth!! A good album!!!

My favourite album is the latest acually. I think that it's more emotional and not so predictable... But still it's a pretty dumb poll since they made most their albums during the 90's...