Album Review

Stratovarius - ElysiumStratovarius – Elysium

The first power metal band that I really got into when I was barely a teenager thanks to skater friend Arran White, Can’t thank him enough for the bands he’s gotten me into. Stratovarius, I always thought would pull a huge crowd, yet when I saw them last year at Wulfrun Hall the hall was barely half full and people were sat on chairs at the back which was severely disappointing.

The new album “Elysium” is the 13th release from the Gods of power metal and is the second album not to feature their long term guitarist Timo Tolkki. There is a tint of straight up metal to this album in places that comes as an unexpected addition as it’s just so different from their previous songs but it works extremely well.

Track number 1 “Darkest Hours” is a perfect example of the metal twist as the 5 second intro is very heavy palm muting and standard metallic drum line; the body of the song is still their standard power metal sound with technical guitar work and high pitched vocals. “Under Flaming Skies” is another song with metal twists, the main riff is quite heavy and when it breaks down at the end it’s an extremely beasty ending for a power metal song.

Not all of the songs are heavy and ridiculously fast, as in usual Stratovarius style there are some songs that are on the much softer side such as “Fairness Justified” which is much slower and more on the ballad side of the album whilst retaining very nice guitar fills and solos.

“Lifetime in a Moment” combines the ballad element within some songs with the heavy technical on song writing with the metal elements being integrated with this album all to create middle ground and balance on the record.

The song that takes the cake for my favourite track of the album has to be "Event Horizon" it’s possibly the fastest and most skilfully written song on the entire album and it draws me in every time.

The final track of the album and title track “Elysium” is 18 minutes long and tries to encompass every element in the album into one track and succeeds; so many different style changes and twist and turns within it covering the fast, the slow, the heavy, the soft and everything in between making for a perfect ending track.

The band has now fully recovered from losing their guitarist and has now settled back into producing phenomenal music. I expect them to come back on a tour of the UK with this new found confidence and pack out many venues and impress me.

4/5

Review by James Webb

 Band Members

Jens Johansson
Timo Kotipelto
Jörg Michael
Lauri Porra
Matias Kupiainen
 Track Listing
1. Darkest hours
2. Under Flaming Skies
3. Infernal Maze
4. Fairness Justified
5. The Game Never Ends
6. Lifetime in a Moment
7. Move the Mountain
8. Event Horizon
9. Elysium
 Band Related Links
Stratovarius Myspace
 Review Score Code
- Top Cheese
- Brilliant
- Pretty damn good
- Ok I guess
- What Was That?