Saturday, January 1, 2011

Stratovarius- Elysium (2011)



A bit of history:

Stratovarius is a melodic power metal band originally from Helsinki Finland, but with members also from Germany and Sweden. The band was originally formed in 1984 by drummer and vocalist Tuomo Lasilla, Guitarist Staffan Strahlman, and Bassist John Viherva. During the early days of the band’s career, Lasilla and Strahlman had a serious disagreement, leading to the dismissal of Strahlman. Guitarist Timo Tolkki took over and was also chosen as the band’s lead singer. Shortly after joining the band, Tolkki had to serve the year of Finnish Military service and so the band went on hiatus. From 1986 through 1995 the band would go through a number of bassists and released three albums, Fright Night, Twilight Time, and Dreamspace, 1995 saw the addition of vocalist Timo Kotipelto (Formerly of Filthy Asses) and the release of Fourth Dimension, and in 1996, Lassila was forced out of the band to be replaced by German veteran speed metal drummer Jorg Michael (Formerly of way more bands than I have room to list). The band also added keyboard hero Jens Johansson and the 1996 album “Episode” proved to be their breakthrough.

From 1996 to 2003 7 albums, (The only years without new material being released were 1999 and 2002), and from 2005 to 2008 the band saw major lineup changes. The first in 2005, with the replacement of long time (1993-2005) bassist Jari Kainluainen with up and coming Lauri Porra, and in 2008, stressed with financial and artistic difficulties, as well as strained relations with the rest of the band, Guitarist and songwriter Timo Tolkki left to form a new band. He was replaced with 25 year old Matias Kupiainen. The band released its comeback record “Polaris” in 2009, and has finished recording Elysium, planned for a release in mid January 2011.

I however, had secured a leaked version of the album, and plan to make it the first review of my music blog. 2009’s Polaris saw a new songwriting approach to the band whereas all members (Except drummer Jorg Michael) would contribute material to be considered and the band would democratically decide which songs were best for the album. Polaris was dominated by songs from bassist Lauri Porra (A direct descendent of famed Finnish composer Jean Sibelius) but Elysium was mostly written by guitarist Matias Kupiainen, with minimal contributions from Porra and vocalist Timo Kotipelto, and a few songs from Keyboardist Jens Johansson as well.

----Song by Song Review Starts Here---
Elysium begins with a fairly standard issue 4 minute lead single, “Darkest Hours” in the same vein as Deep Unknown from Polaris, Maniac Dance from self titled, Eagleheart from Elements I, and Hunting High and Low from Infinite. It’s not as cheesy or simplistic as Eagleheart, but not as catchy as Hunting High and Low. The guitar solo is impressive, and the song has some great hooks. By no means an album highlight, but it’ll catch people’s attention.

“Under Flaming Skies” is the shortest song on the album (3:51) and written primarily by vocalist Timo Kotipelto, with contributions from Kupiainen. On Polaris, Kotipelto’s two songs were the weaker ones, and his solo albums tend to be nothing special, however this would have made a much better choice for a lead single than Darkest Hours. It’s exciting, a tad heroic, well balanced between the band’s many talents, and does an excellent job of showcasing Kotipelto’s awesome voice without stretching out of his range like he did in the past.

Thanks to a Finnish radio station, and a smart choice of a b-side for the single, “Infernal Maze” was the first taste that Stratovarius faithful received of the new album. The song begins with a chilling verse from Timo Kotipelto, which fades to a dramatic silence, followed by an absolutely bombastic vocal explosion, and an absolutely pure riff, and I’ve only covered the first minute and a half. The song screams dramatic, Koti’s vocals soar over crushing drums and shredding guitars, the chorus plows along with well layered guitars and wonderous drum work from Jorg Michael. The solos are back to the old form of keyboard guitar duels, but with far more intricate soloing on the part of the guitars, and an overall better chemistry between the two. Three songs in and I can’t shut up about how much I love this album

And here we have it, the Power Ballad of the album. Built in the vein of many of Stratovarius’ most overblown tracks (4000 Rainy Nights, Mother Gaia), the band (And seemingly all of its clones) always wedge this one right in, a few tracks away from the obligatory acoustic ballad and I almost always despise it. But despite the band transitioning from veteran and legend Timo Tolkki to a stable of young musicians (And Jens Johansson) for songwriting purposes, the music has been much more mature through the last two albums. The vocal layering is well done, and the squeaky heroic guitar solo is better than usual. In fact, this is probably one of Stratovarius’ better “Ballads” if we want to call it that.

The first contribution to the album from Jens is the speedy “The Game Never Ends”, it features some maddeningly cool guitar and keyboard riffs, and doesn’t overstay its welcome. Jens had a pretty significant phase where he played Avant Garde music, and is a Jazz musician at heart. While he’s not doing anything off the wall with Stratovarius, he certainly likes to mix up the formula. Also, given that it’s HIS song, he wrote himself by far the coolest keyboard solo he’s played in years. I most appreciate that the songs are positive without being too cheesy. Jens has a real pulse for what the fans want and how to deliver it, and this song certainly delivers.

Lifetime in a Moment opens with a very strange intro, of synthesized voices saying what seems like nonsense over the sound of a windy day. All of the 30 second samples contained different portions of the intro, which lasts a surprising minute seventeen seconds before we’re treated to the sweet sounds of a guitar riff, leading into a second intro section taking us almost two minutes into the song. What remains is bass heavy, slow, with guitar riffs added as fills. I can’t say enough for how good TK sounds on this record, and how much the songwriting ALLOWS him to sound good. It’s not the heaviest song they’ve done, but it stands out from the rest of the album, and even from Porra’s songwriting on Polaris.

Apparently in New-Strato World, mountains are the perfect topic for ballads. When Mountains Fall from Polaris was a very typical ballad, taken almost directly from the book of Forever clones. “Move the Mountain” is a more "mature" effort, instead of just some sorrowful lyrics sung over a contemplative classical acoustic guitar track, "Move the Mountain" utilizes the whole band, ala "The Land of Ice and Snow", but with the progressive twinge that Jens brings to the band. I'm not the biggest fan of ballads, but I imagine this will get more listens than the other Mountain Ballad.

With the creative freedom to now write pretty much whatever he wants, Matias decided he was tired of being seen as equals to some of power metals premier guitarists, and that it was time to establish himself as the new king of the shred. It squeals, shreds, riffs, and crushes for 4:23, and also allows Lauri, Jorg, and Jens to fly. This is the shredfest to end shred fests, I’ve always known the band was capable of it, but now they’ve finally gone and done it. Kudos.

Elysium is the longest track of Stratovarius’ career by around six minutes, surpassing 2003’s Elements. Unlike Tolkki’s epics (With the possible exception of Visions) this separates into three distinct sections, which from an eighteen minute track is fairly necessary. I’m fairly well trained for longer tracks, but 18 minutes is still pretty significant, so its surprising that Elysium never gets boring. It has variety to stay fresh, but cohesiveness to avoid sounding like a bunch of songs mashed together. Bass is mixed high enough to be mistaken for Angra, and I’m repeating myself here, but Kotipelto is really in top form here. He’s not hitting 5th octave notes like he was in his youth, but his voice is much more expressive  I feel like for 18 minutes of brilliant music, I should say more, but Matias spent eight months writing this track, and it shows. Did I mention Bass solo? Yeah, it’s gone one of those, go Lauri.


---Overall thoughts---
This in a way parallels Sonata Arctica’s “Silence”, if Polaris was it’s “Ecliptica”. It tries a lot of new things without drawing blatant elements from progressive metal, the sound is progressing, but the metal half of prog is so disappointing I try to disassociate the good prog bands from it. Songs like Infernal Maze, Elysium, and Lifetime in a Moment show the band moving in directions they haven’t explored before, while The Game Never Ends, Event Horizon, and Under Flaming Skies are proof that they’ve taken the “Old style” and mastered it further. It’s a step up from Polaris, and certainly better than the self titled album or either of the Elements saga. While it’s not the musical brilliance of BG’s latest efforts, its more enjoyable in some ways, and it certainly beats Sonata Arctica’s latest offering (Not that that’s much of a feat).

1 comment:

  1. Excellent review, very thorough! Definitely going to follow your blog here!

    -Dan from Black Wind Metal

    ReplyDelete