Stratovarius

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Stratovarius
Stratovarius-logo.svg
General information
Genre (s) Symphonic metal , power metal
founding 1984 (as Black Water)
1986 (renamed Stratovarius)
Website http://www.stratovarius.com/
Founding members
Vocals , later drums
Tuomo Lassila (vocals: until 1985, drums: 1985–1995)
Staffan Stråhlman (until 1985)
John Vihervä (until 1984)
Current occupation
singing
 Timo Kotipelto (1994-2004, since 2005)
Matias Kupiainen (since 2008)
bass
 Lauri Porra (since 2005)
Jens Johansson (since 1995)
Drums
 Rolf Pilve (since 2012)
former members
Vocals, guitar, background vocals
Timo Tolkki (vocals: 1985–1994, studio bass: 1992, guitar & studio backing vocals: 1985–2008)
singing
 Katriina Wiiala (2004)
bass
 Jyrki Lentonen (1984-1989)
bass
 Jari Behm (1989-1993)
bass
 Jari Kainulainen (1993-2005)
Keyboard
 Antti Ikonen (1988–1995)
Drums
 Jörg Michael (1995–2004, 2005–2012)
Live support and session musicians
Drums
 Sami Kuoppamäki (studio drums: 1993–1994)
Drums
 Anders Johansson (live drums: 2004)
Drums
 Alex Landenburg (live drums: 2010)
Guitarist Matias Kupiainen and bassist Lauri Porra at the Metal Frenzy Festival 2017 in Gardelegen
Keyboardist Jens Johansson at the Metal Frenzy Festival 2017
Singer Timo Kotipelto at the Metal Frenzy Festival 2017
Drummer Rolf Pilve at the Metal Frenzy Festival 2017

Stratovarius is a symphonic metal - band from Finland . The band name is a case word from the name of the violin maker Antonio Stradivari and the electric guitar model Stratocaster . It symbolizes the mixture of classical and metal , as found in many Stratovarius songs.

history

The band was founded in 1984 by Tuomo Lassila, John Vihervä and Staffan Stråhlman. John Vihervä was replaced by Jyrki Lentonen at the end of the year, and Staffan Stråhlman left the band in 1985. Timo Tolkki took his place , who a little later also took over the vocals. The first demo was recorded in this line-up in 1987. Their music, originally heavily inspired by Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne , became more melodic and more classically influenced at this point, as is typical of the band's style to this day. The debut album Fright Night was released in 1989, following the debut single Future Shock the previous year.

Singer Timo Kotipelto came with the album Fourth Dimension .

The fourth album also marks the beginning of a stylistic development. The songs were now less progressive and gloomy, but atmospheric and hopeful, with a distinct trace of melodic elements and more classical elements such as harpsichord or strings .

After two world tours in two years, the band took a creative break in 2000. During this time the compilation Intermission was released , which contains B-sides, bonus songs , covers and compositions by keyboardist Johansson.

Published in 2003 Stratovarius Elements Part I . They surprised and divided the fan base with a much more progressive style. For the first time, a real symphony orchestra and choirs were used. Elements Part II was again significantly more guitar-heavy , although some critics described the album as uninspired and boring.

In 2004 there was a dispute between Tolkki and Kotipelto with the consequence that Kotipelto and drummer Jörg Michael had to leave the band. Instead, Tolkki brought the Finnish singer Katriina Wiiala into the band, who had previously taken over the vocals in the band AuroraK . Jens Johansson's brother, Anders Johansson , was to take over the drums. During this time, Tolkki suffered from severe psychological problems, and an inglorious period of rumors, accusations, verbal and physical attacks against Tolkki and finally his complete collapse followed. During a stay in Spain, Timo Tolkki was attacked by a Spaniard and received two knife wounds in the left arm. Tolkki had to be hospitalized immediately. He made mental recovery during his hospital stay.

After undergoing therapy, Tolkki's condition improved, and after intensive discussions with all band members, Stratovarius reunited without Katriina Wiiala in January 2005. The next album called Stratovarius was released on September 5th, 2005.

In June 2005, bassist Jari Kainulainen withdrew from the band because he supposedly no longer wanted to go on tour. He now plays for Sweden Evergrey . The replacement is Lauri Porra, who has already played for Sinergy and Warmen . A world tour followed from August 2005 to January 2006.

On April 2, 2008, Tolkki announced the final breakup of the band. The reason for this is u. a. the general mood among the band members. Tolkki also announced that apart from his nervous breakdown, all events in 2004, including the exit of Kotipelto and Michael, had been discussed and fabricated. The remaining band members want to continue without Tolkki under the name Stratovarius, to which he has no objections. He gave the remaining band members all naming and trademark rights, while he himself founded a new band called Revolution Renaissance .

On August 22, 2008, the band's new guitarist, Matias Kupiainen, was announced. The first album with this line-up, entitled Polaris , was released on May 15, 2009.

At the end of 2011 the band made the farewell to drummer Jörg Michael at the beginning of 2012 public. In June 2012 Rolf Pilve was introduced as the new drummer.

On June 29th, 2012 the live album Under Flaming Winter Skies - Live in Tampere was released , which contains recordings of a concert in Tampere , a large city in southern Finland.

The studio album Nemesis was released on February 22, 2013 . The band's next album, Eternal, followed on September 11, 2015 . It reached number 27 in the German charts.

On August 10, 2018, Stratovarius released the new song " Oblivion " from the compilation album Enigma: Intermission 2 , which was released on September 28, 2018. It is the "sequel" to Intermission from 2001 and contains bonus tracks from the last albums, three new songs and four orchestral versions of already published pieces. The band presented the new album on a European tour with Tarja Turunen under the name A Nordic Symphony .

style

Stratovarius' songs are very diverse and different, so that it is difficult to speak of a certain style. Nevertheless, the following characteristics can be identified:

  • High vocals: The singer Timo Kotipelto sings in the high voice that is typical for some types of metal. In contrast to heavy metal , for example , his voice is not rough, nor does he scream. Due to his experience and a completed vocal degree, he is very flexible, both in low and high voices. On the album Stratovarius you can find deep and rough vocals, extreme highs on Elements with Papillon (where, however, at least on the album version, a boy takes over the highest parts) or already on the episode with Father Time . (up to F sharp ")
  • Baroque and classical elements: Stratovarius adopt instruments and styles from the baroque and classical periods. Even if classical instruments or keyboard sounds are not used directly, the songs have characteristics from the classical period, especially in terms of the overall structure and harmony.

Discography

Albums

year title Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
DE DE AT AT CH CH FI FI
1996 episode DE-DE AT-AT CH-CH FI21 (6 weeks)
FI
1997 Visions DE-DE AT-AT CH-CH FI4 (23 weeks)
FI
1998 Live! - Visions of Europe DE-DE AT-AT CH-CH FI6 (9 weeks)
FI
Live album
1998 Destiny DE89 (1 week)
DE 		AT-AT CH-CH FI1 (17 weeks)
FI
1999 The chosen ones DE-DE AT-AT CH-CH FI7 (6 weeks)
FI
Best of album
2000 Infinite DE28 (3 weeks)
DE 		AT-AT CH-CH FI1 (9 weeks)
FI
2001 Intermission DE73 (1 week)
DE 		AT-AT CH85 (1 week)
CH 		FI7 (13 weeks)
FI
Collection of B-sides and bonus tracks
2003 Elements Part 1 DE27 (2 weeks)
DE 		AT-AT CH91 (1 week)
CH 		FI2 (8 weeks)
FI
2003 Elements Part 2 DE75 (1 week)
DE 		AT-AT CH-CH FI4 (3 weeks)
FI
2005 Stratovarius DE58 (1 week)
DE 		AT-AT CH92 (2 weeks)
CH 		FI4 (4 weeks)
FI
2009 Polaris DE55 (1 week)
DE 		AT-AT CH57 (2 weeks)
CH 		FI2 (10 weeks)
FI
2011 Elysium DE38 (2 weeks)
DE 		AT-AT CH45 (3 weeks)
CH 		FI1 (9 weeks)
FI
2012 Under Flaming Winter Skies - Live in Tampere DE81 (1 week)
DE 		AT-AT CH10 1 (1 week)
CH 		FI38 (1 week)
FI
Live album
2013 Nemesis DE41 (2 weeks)
DE 		AT62 (1 week)
AT 		CH30 (2 weeks)
CH 		FI3 (10 weeks)
FI
2015 Eternal DE27 (1 week)
DE 		AT69 (1 week)
AT 		CH22 (2 weeks)
CH 		FI5 (5 weeks)
FI
1 in the Swiss DVD charts

more albums

  • 1989: Fright Night
  • 1991: II
  • 1992: Twilight Time (re-release of II )
  • 1994: Dreamspace
  • 1995: Fourth Dimension
  • 1997: The Past and Now (compilation)
  • 2000: 14 Diamonds (compilation)
  • 2006: Black Diamond: Anthology
  • 2010: Polaris Live (as the second CD of the new Polaris edition)
  • 2016: Best of (compilation)
  • 2018: Enigma: Intermission 2

DVDs and videos

  • 2000: Infinite Visions

Singles

year Title
album 		Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
DE DE AT AT CH CH FI FI
1998 SOS
Destiny 		DE-DE AT-AT CH-CH FI2 (11 weeks)
FI
2000 Hunting High and Low
Infinite 		DE-DE AT-AT CH-CH FI4 (5 weeks)
FI
2000 A Million Light Years Away
Infinite 		DE-DE AT-AT CH-CH FI14 (3 weeks)
FI
2002 Eagleheart
Elements Part 1 		DE-DE AT-AT CH-CH FI2 (12 weeks)
FI
2003 I Walk to My Own Song
Elements Part 2 		DE-DE AT-AT CH-CH FI9 (3 weeks)
FI
2005 Maniac Dance
Stratovarius 		DE93 (1 week)
DE 		AT-AT CH82 (1 week)
CH 		FI4 (4 weeks)
FI
2009 Deep Unknown
Polaris 		DE-DE AT-AT CH-CH FI20 (1 week)
FI
2010 Darkest Hours
Elysium 		DE-DE AT-AT CH-CH FI4 (2 weeks)
FI

more singles

  • 1988: Future Shock
  • 1989: Black Night
  • 1992: Break the Ice
  • 1995: Wings of Tomorrow
  • 1996: Father Time
  • 1996: Will the Sun Rise?
  • 1997: Black Diamond
  • 1997: Kiss of Judas
  • 2000: It's a Mistery
  • 2013: Unbreakable

swell

  1. ↑ News: STRATOVARIUS - Timo Tolkki attacked with knife - on DarkScene.at. Retrieved July 29, 2018 .
  2. ↑ Timo Tolkki dissolves Stratovarius . In: Metal Hammer . April 1, 2011 ( metal-hammer.de [accessed July 29, 2018]).
  3. ↑ [1]
  4. ↑ Stratovarius - Under Flaming Winter Skies - Live in Tampere - Encyclopaedia Metallum: The Metal Archives. Retrieved July 29, 2018 .
  5. ^ Stratovarius - Encyclopaedia Metallum: The Metal Archives. Retrieved July 29, 2018 .
  6. ↑ a b Chart sources: Finland - DE - AT - CH

Web links

Commons : Stratovarius  - collection of images, videos and audio files