A culmination of my opinions on best/worst album/song
Posted: Sun Aug 30, 2009 6:59 am
this was going to go in one of the threads, but it got to be way too long. Enjoy my rant.
My complete analyses of the best and worst songs on every album, and the best and worst songs and albums overall.
Let's start at the beginning, Fright Night, a complete mood album, some days I really want to hear it, but there were other days when I would skip it in my 5 hour stratovarius listening sessions (I'd start listening to Dreamspace, then Elements, Episode, Fourth Dimension, ect... usually stop somewhere around Infinite).
There are some killer tracks on there, and it never gets the love it deserves.
Best song: Black Night (I'd shit a brick if I ever wrote something like this)
Worst song: Fire Dance This might be the hardest album to find a worst song, since I don't really judge it by the quality of the music, it's very atmospheric, there is a taste to the music, a flavor, and it's well represented, but Fire Dance stands apart as too different
Next up, Twilight Time, this album features the same lineup as Timo Tolkki's Hymn to Life solo album, think that one through.
I feel exactly the same about this as I do Fright Night, I love the composition on it, it's edgy, it's different, it's good. I also believe Twilight Time to have the best artwork of any Stratovarius album, both because it started the planet craze, but also, it feels to me to be the perfect representation of what the music is inside. It's like there's this planet somewhere off in the galaxy of musical landscapes, again though, The best song is extremely difficult for me to pick here. Break the Ice seems to be the easy choice, it's the best sounding song on the album, the song I'm most likely to listen to, but I feel like in the context of the album, the band wanted something else. Twilight Time has some of the most interesting compositions of any Stratovarius album. The intro of Madness Strikes at Midnight is something else entirely. As I listen to Twilight Time, I feel like I'm in some sort of abandoned factory on this planet of Twilight Time, a rusted metropolis. I feel like if the band were to rewrite this album, it could be an absolute masterpiece, but maybe the rust is why it's so appealing.
Best song: Madness Strikes at Midnight
Worst song: Metal Frenzy
And now we get to the Sad Rush album. Here, I believe, lies what might be one of the greatest unnappreciated masterpieces in the history of music, a tad bit of hyperbole, but there is SO much on this album that simply is not recognized.
I am a music writer, I compose music, and Dreamspace is quite possibly the album I have salivated more than any to understand. It sounds so simple, these dark power chords in drop Eb tuning, it's almost taunting. If a magician approached me and said "You can change history so that the musical style Stratovarius had on Dreamspace would be the style of their next 10 albums" and I would be very hard pressed not to take that offer. Stratovarius changed metal, they have legions of clones and followers, but I just can't help but wonder what could have been had this brand of Sad Rush metal been expanded on, maybe it's why I want "Return to Dreamspace" so badly. This, more than anything Stratovarius has ever made, is art. But beyond the Compositional values, the production is better than it has ever been on any Stratovarius album, the sounds are clear and beautiful, having this on Vinyl would be a dream come true.
Like Twilight Time, I see the songs as events happening within the album cover, The album cover isn't nearly as... expressive as TT, but songs feel like musical interpretations of the art.
Best song: Dreamspace (Tolkki Shriek is GODLY)
Worst song: No. I refuse. I love Thin Ice. I love the B-Side Fullmoon. Screw the haters.
Fourth Dimension, the beginning of the Modern Era.
Well here we are folks, Nu Stratovarius' birth, TK's first album.
Memorable moments are the terrifying falsetto in Winter, The vocal clarity of Against the Wind, the near head banging action in the intro to Twilight Symphony, I realize that there are no trees on the album cover, but I used to think the thunderclouds were a forest, because it feels like it from the music. The songs sound like they were coming out of some dark forest of the previous two albums, of graveyards, distant worlds, and nightmares, still not in "reality", but with a newfound energy. Yes, I see the music as a continual story. In my mind, We Hold the Key is Night Time Eclipses' older brother, why do I think this, I don't know, but I do. I won't ramble on because I don't have as much to say about this album.
Best song: Against the Wind
Worst song: Again, screw the haters, I love 030366, I'm choosing Nightfall for being mostly unmemorable.
And now it really begins, the modern masterpiece, the album that changed power metal forever. I won't bother with big fonts, the name Episode commands respect enough. Again, STRONG album art, the sounds of Episode remind of a desert, maybe I just associate things that way, but they work, aside from Tomorrow, the album art for Infinite wouldn't work here, so there has to be something real going on. I won't say much on this, we're all well aware of how good this album is.
Best song: Again, a refusal.
Worst song: Episode (Screw the Babylon haters, the title track was such a letdown, could have been so good, but chopped up)
Visions?
Visions!
VISIONS!!!
To whoever put down Legions as the worst track NO
NO NO NO NO NO NO NO.
Visions has some of the best tracks from the band ever on it, yet, as an album, it doesn't stand up to Episode. The continuity of the theme just isn't there. I'll keep it short here because aside from that, my opinions on this album are pretty standard. Black Diamond, Forever Free, Legions, and Holy Light are beyond awesome
Best song: Can it be argued anything but Black Diamond? Legions is a close second, but BLACK DIAMOND
Worst song: Kiss of Judas, never was impressed.
Destiny used to strike me as the crown jewel of Stratovarius, I have since cooled on it, 4000 rainy nights drives me up the wall. SOS is a tad overhyped. 4000 rainy nights drives me up the fucking wall. Anthem of the world is the first strato song I listened to more than 100 times, 4000 rainy nights should be epic, but it drives me up the fucking wall, Venus in the Morning sounds cool, but it's lacking, STRATO IF YOU EVER PLAY 4000 RAINY NIGHTS WHILE I AM PRESENT IT WILL BE UGLY. I am named after a track on Destiny. 4000 rainy nights really isn't that good of a song.
Best song: Anthem of the World
Worst song: 4000 drunken nights trying to write a ballad
Infinite used to get me happy too, it was released the same year as Helloween's Dark Ride, and from a tone perspective, complete opposites, yet they always went together as two of my favorite power metal albums ever.
Hunting High and Low is decent
Millenium is filler.
Mother Gaia is epic, if a touch too long
PHOENIX PHOENIX PHOENIX PHOENIX PHOENIX
*JAWDROP GLORY OF THE WORLD*
A million Lightyears away (Breather), Good track
Freedom, I get this mixed up with Millenium all the time
INFINITY INFINITY INFINITY INFINITY INFINITY INFINITY INFINITY INFINITY INFINITY INFINITY INFINITY INFINITY INFINITY INFINITY INFINITY INFINITY
*Epic guitar/vocal/orchestra breather that I love that is Celestial Dream*
Two more woohoo tracks.
This is Stratovarius' strongest album ever, it's the one thing I can listen to straight through and really get what's going on. It's thematic, fast, powerful, EPIC.
The three Big ass in your face over the top awesome tracks (Phoenix, Glory of the World, and Infinity) are the anchors, the climaxes, the whatevers, but they're placed perfectly withing the album, complete with filler and solid songs to fill in the gaps, I can appreciate everything going on here, and it was the first album I listened to every song on 40+ times.
Best Song: Glory of the World
Worst Song: Freedom
Elements Pt. I
The first stratovarius song I heard was "Find your own Voice" (Closely followed by Abyss of Your Eyes). I'm a fan of Elements Pt. I, not much else to say. I wish Fantasia was more frantic. Not a fan of Eagleheart, meh.
Best song: Soul of a Vagabond
Worst song: Papillion
Elements Pt. II, I love listening to Elements Pt. I Roll into Elements Pt. II with the waves, Alpha and Omega is a bit misleading, that's a mean fucking intro that maybe misleads listeners a bit, but it's solid. I walk to My Own song is corny, yeah, but PSHAW It's good. The album doesn't really take a break from being solid until it hits Luminous, but I'm a Dreamweaver fan, so it's all good.
Best song: I'm Still Alive
Worst song: Liberty (Not saying it's bad, just never appealed to me)
Self titled
is that a hater I hear? I think my opinions on The Dark Ride and Dreamspace are all that you need to know about how I feel about the dark, brooding, work of insanity that Timo Tolkki put out as the self titled album. Maniac Dance is a great track. Fight!!! is even better, Just Carry on is solid. But that's not important. What's important is that to this day "Back to Madness" has a profound effect on me thanks to a cruel shuffle coincidence regarding that creepy ass ending vocal passage and the loss of a friend. (actually, Shuffle fucked me over like that on more than one occasion, where that vocal passage came on RIGHT when something bad happened, in particular something mentioned in that vocal passage, like being hurt and betrayed). This is a masterpiece, a bloody masterpiece. Gypsy in me in filler, ala Falling Star. Zenith of Power is another masterpiece, as is the Land of Ice and Snow (But fucking waaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, it tries to be forever, shut up bitches). Leave the Tribe, could do with or without it, and United, meh, neither are bad, but they're not good.
Best song: Back to Madness
Worst Song: United
POLARIS!
We've beaten this into the ground, point blank, I love Polaris, I could do a discovery channel "I love" song about Polaris.
Best song: Emancipation Pt. II
Worst Song: Ragehead's "I hate Polaris" song.
Best song: Glory of the World
Worst Song: 4000 Rainy nights
Best Album: Tie between Dreamspace and Infinite
Album I enjoy the least: I can't really say.
My complete analyses of the best and worst songs on every album, and the best and worst songs and albums overall.
Let's start at the beginning, Fright Night, a complete mood album, some days I really want to hear it, but there were other days when I would skip it in my 5 hour stratovarius listening sessions (I'd start listening to Dreamspace, then Elements, Episode, Fourth Dimension, ect... usually stop somewhere around Infinite).
There are some killer tracks on there, and it never gets the love it deserves.
Best song: Black Night (I'd shit a brick if I ever wrote something like this)
Worst song: Fire Dance This might be the hardest album to find a worst song, since I don't really judge it by the quality of the music, it's very atmospheric, there is a taste to the music, a flavor, and it's well represented, but Fire Dance stands apart as too different
Next up, Twilight Time, this album features the same lineup as Timo Tolkki's Hymn to Life solo album, think that one through.
I feel exactly the same about this as I do Fright Night, I love the composition on it, it's edgy, it's different, it's good. I also believe Twilight Time to have the best artwork of any Stratovarius album, both because it started the planet craze, but also, it feels to me to be the perfect representation of what the music is inside. It's like there's this planet somewhere off in the galaxy of musical landscapes, again though, The best song is extremely difficult for me to pick here. Break the Ice seems to be the easy choice, it's the best sounding song on the album, the song I'm most likely to listen to, but I feel like in the context of the album, the band wanted something else. Twilight Time has some of the most interesting compositions of any Stratovarius album. The intro of Madness Strikes at Midnight is something else entirely. As I listen to Twilight Time, I feel like I'm in some sort of abandoned factory on this planet of Twilight Time, a rusted metropolis. I feel like if the band were to rewrite this album, it could be an absolute masterpiece, but maybe the rust is why it's so appealing.
Best song: Madness Strikes at Midnight
Worst song: Metal Frenzy
And now we get to the Sad Rush album. Here, I believe, lies what might be one of the greatest unnappreciated masterpieces in the history of music, a tad bit of hyperbole, but there is SO much on this album that simply is not recognized.
I am a music writer, I compose music, and Dreamspace is quite possibly the album I have salivated more than any to understand. It sounds so simple, these dark power chords in drop Eb tuning, it's almost taunting. If a magician approached me and said "You can change history so that the musical style Stratovarius had on Dreamspace would be the style of their next 10 albums" and I would be very hard pressed not to take that offer. Stratovarius changed metal, they have legions of clones and followers, but I just can't help but wonder what could have been had this brand of Sad Rush metal been expanded on, maybe it's why I want "Return to Dreamspace" so badly. This, more than anything Stratovarius has ever made, is art. But beyond the Compositional values, the production is better than it has ever been on any Stratovarius album, the sounds are clear and beautiful, having this on Vinyl would be a dream come true.
Like Twilight Time, I see the songs as events happening within the album cover, The album cover isn't nearly as... expressive as TT, but songs feel like musical interpretations of the art.
Best song: Dreamspace (Tolkki Shriek is GODLY)
Worst song: No. I refuse. I love Thin Ice. I love the B-Side Fullmoon. Screw the haters.
Fourth Dimension, the beginning of the Modern Era.
Well here we are folks, Nu Stratovarius' birth, TK's first album.
Memorable moments are the terrifying falsetto in Winter, The vocal clarity of Against the Wind, the near head banging action in the intro to Twilight Symphony, I realize that there are no trees on the album cover, but I used to think the thunderclouds were a forest, because it feels like it from the music. The songs sound like they were coming out of some dark forest of the previous two albums, of graveyards, distant worlds, and nightmares, still not in "reality", but with a newfound energy. Yes, I see the music as a continual story. In my mind, We Hold the Key is Night Time Eclipses' older brother, why do I think this, I don't know, but I do. I won't ramble on because I don't have as much to say about this album.
Best song: Against the Wind
Worst song: Again, screw the haters, I love 030366, I'm choosing Nightfall for being mostly unmemorable.
And now it really begins, the modern masterpiece, the album that changed power metal forever. I won't bother with big fonts, the name Episode commands respect enough. Again, STRONG album art, the sounds of Episode remind of a desert, maybe I just associate things that way, but they work, aside from Tomorrow, the album art for Infinite wouldn't work here, so there has to be something real going on. I won't say much on this, we're all well aware of how good this album is.
Best song: Again, a refusal.
Worst song: Episode (Screw the Babylon haters, the title track was such a letdown, could have been so good, but chopped up)
Visions?
Visions!
VISIONS!!!
To whoever put down Legions as the worst track NO
NO NO NO NO NO NO NO.
Visions has some of the best tracks from the band ever on it, yet, as an album, it doesn't stand up to Episode. The continuity of the theme just isn't there. I'll keep it short here because aside from that, my opinions on this album are pretty standard. Black Diamond, Forever Free, Legions, and Holy Light are beyond awesome
Best song: Can it be argued anything but Black Diamond? Legions is a close second, but BLACK DIAMOND
Worst song: Kiss of Judas, never was impressed.
Destiny used to strike me as the crown jewel of Stratovarius, I have since cooled on it, 4000 rainy nights drives me up the wall. SOS is a tad overhyped. 4000 rainy nights drives me up the fucking wall. Anthem of the world is the first strato song I listened to more than 100 times, 4000 rainy nights should be epic, but it drives me up the fucking wall, Venus in the Morning sounds cool, but it's lacking, STRATO IF YOU EVER PLAY 4000 RAINY NIGHTS WHILE I AM PRESENT IT WILL BE UGLY. I am named after a track on Destiny. 4000 rainy nights really isn't that good of a song.
Best song: Anthem of the World
Worst song: 4000 drunken nights trying to write a ballad
Infinite used to get me happy too, it was released the same year as Helloween's Dark Ride, and from a tone perspective, complete opposites, yet they always went together as two of my favorite power metal albums ever.
Hunting High and Low is decent
Millenium is filler.
Mother Gaia is epic, if a touch too long
PHOENIX PHOENIX PHOENIX PHOENIX PHOENIX
*JAWDROP GLORY OF THE WORLD*
A million Lightyears away (Breather), Good track
Freedom, I get this mixed up with Millenium all the time
INFINITY INFINITY INFINITY INFINITY INFINITY INFINITY INFINITY INFINITY INFINITY INFINITY INFINITY INFINITY INFINITY INFINITY INFINITY INFINITY
*Epic guitar/vocal/orchestra breather that I love that is Celestial Dream*
Two more woohoo tracks.
This is Stratovarius' strongest album ever, it's the one thing I can listen to straight through and really get what's going on. It's thematic, fast, powerful, EPIC.
The three Big ass in your face over the top awesome tracks (Phoenix, Glory of the World, and Infinity) are the anchors, the climaxes, the whatevers, but they're placed perfectly withing the album, complete with filler and solid songs to fill in the gaps, I can appreciate everything going on here, and it was the first album I listened to every song on 40+ times.
Best Song: Glory of the World
Worst Song: Freedom
Elements Pt. I
The first stratovarius song I heard was "Find your own Voice" (Closely followed by Abyss of Your Eyes). I'm a fan of Elements Pt. I, not much else to say. I wish Fantasia was more frantic. Not a fan of Eagleheart, meh.
Best song: Soul of a Vagabond
Worst song: Papillion
Elements Pt. II, I love listening to Elements Pt. I Roll into Elements Pt. II with the waves, Alpha and Omega is a bit misleading, that's a mean fucking intro that maybe misleads listeners a bit, but it's solid. I walk to My Own song is corny, yeah, but PSHAW It's good. The album doesn't really take a break from being solid until it hits Luminous, but I'm a Dreamweaver fan, so it's all good.
Best song: I'm Still Alive
Worst song: Liberty (Not saying it's bad, just never appealed to me)
Self titled
is that a hater I hear? I think my opinions on The Dark Ride and Dreamspace are all that you need to know about how I feel about the dark, brooding, work of insanity that Timo Tolkki put out as the self titled album. Maniac Dance is a great track. Fight!!! is even better, Just Carry on is solid. But that's not important. What's important is that to this day "Back to Madness" has a profound effect on me thanks to a cruel shuffle coincidence regarding that creepy ass ending vocal passage and the loss of a friend. (actually, Shuffle fucked me over like that on more than one occasion, where that vocal passage came on RIGHT when something bad happened, in particular something mentioned in that vocal passage, like being hurt and betrayed). This is a masterpiece, a bloody masterpiece. Gypsy in me in filler, ala Falling Star. Zenith of Power is another masterpiece, as is the Land of Ice and Snow (But fucking waaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, it tries to be forever, shut up bitches). Leave the Tribe, could do with or without it, and United, meh, neither are bad, but they're not good.
Best song: Back to Madness
Worst Song: United
POLARIS!
We've beaten this into the ground, point blank, I love Polaris, I could do a discovery channel "I love" song about Polaris.
Best song: Emancipation Pt. II
Worst Song: Ragehead's "I hate Polaris" song.
Best song: Glory of the World
Worst Song: 4000 Rainy nights
Best Album: Tie between Dreamspace and Infinite
Album I enjoy the least: I can't really say.
Hey, I had to pick SOME song from this nearly perfect album, for God's sake! Before the Winter, Holy Light, The Abyss of Your Eyes are too only "great", not "perfect" as the rest of them. 
) right now though as I'm too lazy and tired and listening to some extremely good music... Maybe I never will. I've been wrestling with these things in my head for years now so maybe it's better to leave the thoughts there. No words could fully describe my opinions.
And I'm not in denial-mode, for example Keep the Flame Alive (RR Demo) it's A Tale that Wasn't Right rip-off, but I still love that song 
I'll just say that if you can get passed the frustratingly long beginning, I think it turns into one of the best songs on the album. You can't get much more epic than what happens once the chorus begins.