Stratovarius Community

Who's better?

I like them both for different reasons

I just couldn't vote. Mattias is a "newbie" compared with TT. I don't mean about his abilities but about his guitar sound in my ears. It's too fresh to be able to compare, don't you think so?

Like trying to compare Vettel with Schumacher this year when Vettel actually begins his career to the top...

I agree with Scorp.
I love TT as a guitarist, his solos is just fantastic.
Matias is so new and probably isn't as experienced as TT.
I think it's too early for me to say. I am however excited to see what more Matias has to offer in the future

Yeah thats true, Scorp. But I just think TT is better, or rather i like his playing style more. Not to say Matias isn't good. He's great. He has a fresh playing style. But he probably not as experienced as Tolkki.

TT for now. I have yet to listen Matias in a more thorough guitar-based album.

Yeah, I missed guitar solos on Polaris. That is what I really liked with much of TTs music. His solos are just awesome.
I kinda have a thing for guitar solos
I think Matias is able to do great stuff too, he just need to show it

That's true. Most of Polaris was synthesizer.

I think that Matias is technically better than Timo. I still mostly like Timo's solos better Especially the very emotional ones!

I can't compare them. I find it meaningless and even painful for a truly Stratovarius lover.
Matias is a very talented guitar player. Timo Tolkki uses music (guitar) to express his soul. They both have skills, technique and own style. Really difficult poll for me.

I can't come up with a good conclusion. It's not fair to "prefer" just yet!

Of course Timo is better, he is "old" quitarist and have more experience. But Matias is really cool quitarist thought he is so young. I really think Matias will be really skilled as Timo Tolkki when he little gets experience

What kind of bullshit is this topic? You can't compare those 2 guys! 1 is a pro who has been playing since the 80s and the other one is a real youngster who has been active for only a few years. Give Matias a few years to build up a reputation other then "the guy who replaces Timo Tolkki" and then we can talk.

This topic is ridiculous, sorry. I'm not trying to offend guitarmaster, but...


...c'mon we are comparing a living legend called Timo Tolkki with a newbie guy trying to do his best and that maybe someday is gonna be as good as Timo.

The first impressions I have with Matias are that is a prog guy, he prefers thecnicity vs. melody. But maybe that is not true and in the next album we'll see a lot more guitars by MK and we'll see that he is as good as Timo making melodic solos or compositions.

Anyway, for me TT is the best guitarrist if we talk about compositions, melody and feeling in a song. The best with difference.


EDIT: Now that I see it, maybe the only way to compare Matias and Timo is gettig the Twilight Time and Dreamspace guitars vs Polaris guitars. Because Timo was not very experienced in that era.

I have to say that in that case I prefer TT too. But now that I see it again, this comparison is not very useful either...

they are both better at different things.

It makes no sense comparing them now. As I said, wait a few years until we have more than 1 album from Matias.

We do have live of the guys playing the same songs if people want to look at those. "Better" really seems undefined though as people are not on the same page as to what makes a good guitarist and what the guidelines are. A "who do you like more" thread seems to be for informative wording.

Well, of course you can compare them now. But if you really want to be fair, wait until Matias released a few more albums with strato,

I think both are amazing guitarists so the decision is hard to make.
Speaking of playing technique, Matias is far more better than Timo. Matias uses different techniques like sweeping, string skipping, tapping etc, but nowadays is seems that Timo only use that fast alternate picking which he has been using last 10 years. In some interview Timo has said that he isn't interested in playing guitar nowadays, he just use guitar to express his music. But I think playing guitar is much more than playing technique. It's about emotions to me. Technique is just the tool to express emotions. I can't make a decision who is better

Ragehead91 wrote:What kind of bullshit is this topic? You can't compare those 2 guys! 1 is a pro who has been playing since the 80s and the other one is a real youngster who has been active for only a few years. Give Matias a few years to build up a reputation other then "the guy who replaces Timo Tolkki" and then we can talk.

my words!
we can't compare these guys yet, it's by far too early

Its not fair to compare in terms of who is better, we can say the two have different playing techniques which some people prefer over the other.

Hmm who cares about fast playing. what i miss is the emotion. listen to this posted version of blackdiamond on masters of rock 2009 at 4:30 and you can hear what is missing.it is played absolute correctly but i think something is missing.

So in other words
"HOW DARE HE PLAY THOSE SONGS? HE AIN'T TOLKKI!"
Seriously now, someone please explain the whole "emotion" thing to me. I don't get it. He played the song perfectly. What more can he do?

empi wrote:Hmm who cares about fast playing. what i miss is the emotion. listen to this posted version of blackdiamond on masters of rock 2009 at 4:30 and you can hear what is missing.it is played absolute correctly but i think something is missing.

I miss everything in that case and some other solos. But it's normal if it's not Tolkki playing, who created the composition.

Anyway, the solos by Matias of the new songs from Polaris are awesome.

The few solos he gets. The next album needs more guitar and less keyboard with all due respect to JJ.

There are very few solos and guitar in Polaris, that's true.
I don't have a big problem with that cause I love Jensokeyboards everywhere, but I suppose it was due to the fast incoporation of Matias.
You know, he needs some time. In the next we'll see the real potential by MK, and I think is gonna be fantastic.

EDIT: For example, the solo part keyboard/guitar in Emancipation 1, is for me one of the best compositons I've never heard and one of the best in the whole Stratovarius discography. It's simply amazing, amazing, AMAZING.

I prefer TT. To me he is the best guitarist. Obviously Matias is an excellent guitarist and very talented, but TT is an outta this world guitarist. Those melodies, sweetness in his solos, energy. Honestly, I don't know how to explain it. I am just carried away by them while listening to every single song, and you know, everything matches, the lyrics, the atmospehere, the music.
As a musician he has something very very unusual, he simply has that something and in my opinion what makes him the best of both is not just playing those impossible and fast scores or whatever. It's much more than it.
But this is only my opinion.

Lurdi wrote:I prefer TT. To me he is the best guitarist. Obviously Matias is an excellent guitarist and very talented, but TT is an outta this world guitarist. Those melodies, sweetness in his solos, energy. Honestly, I don't know how to explain it. I am just carried away by them while listening to every single song, and you know, everything matches, the lyrics, the atmospehere, the music.
As a musician he has something very very unusual, he simply has that something and in my opinion what makes him the best of both is not just playing those impossible and fast scores or whatever. It's much more than it.
But this is only my opinion.

I agree with you on this. I always admired Tolkki's skill to take very basic ideas in his solos and make them sound something extraordinary. IMO that's really something that you need natural talent in.

Matias is more technically versatile, but I don't think we've heard the best of him yet. Solo of Winter Skies is some really amazing guitar playing though.

It's too early to compare these two. I'll say my opinion after Matias, too, has done it some 25 years or so as a profession. I've seen both recent Strato line-ups live once, and I have to say Matias played the solos way more accurately than Tolkki ever did (according to some YouTube clips, Visions of Europe and the gig I saw). Matias is kinda new to play these songs, though, so he, of course, still must be accurate and play everything right, he hasn't developed any skill to modify the songs or do like Tolkki did, screw the solos up real good and manage to make a comeback after that.

Nah, really, it's hard to say. It seems there are guitar virtuosos in nearly every band nowadays, so it's not that important, either. Tolkki was about the first one to come up with this kind of guitar playing, so kudos to him so far. Matias, as said, seems more technical. I'm not giving my vote to either of them.

Hail Tolkki!


Mattias got some kick ass skills but still his solos dont touch me.I cant recall a single one i liked on Polaris.I really love Tolkkis solos because they really deliver a message and an attitude!