» Cdreviews  
« back

Stratovarius - Elysium

Published February 07 2011


*
=Staff's pick

Darkest Hours
Under Flaming Skies
Infernal Maze
Fairness Justified
The Game Never Ends
Lifetime In A Moment
Move The Mountain*
Event Horizon
Elysium


Genre Power/Neoclassical Metal
Timo Kotipelto
Vocals
Tracks 9
Matias Kupiainen
Guitar
Runningtime 57 Min.
-
Guitar
Label Eagle Rock Entertainment
Lauri Porra
Bass
Release 14 January 2011
Jörg Michael
Drums
Country Finland
Jens Johansson
Keyboard
Producer Matias Kupiainen    
Similar artists ---

The Finnish Power Metal-quintet is back with their 13th album. Their last album, Polaris, was a letdown. It was the first album without guitarist and main songwriter Timo Tolkki and the lack of good songwriting was evident.

The first thing that strikes me, when listening to the album, is the weak production and the second thing is the absence of Tolkki. It's hard to record a good album when you lose a songwriter of his skills. Even though lead vocalist, Timo Kotipelto, showed on his solo albums that he has skills as a songwriter, he does not get enough space here.

On this album we get nine songs and I must say that the only song that should have made the cut is the ballad, Move The Mountain, which thanks to Kotipelto's performance is a lovely song. An outside producer would probably have told the band that this is simply not good enough for a Stratovarius album.

See also review of: Eternal , Nemesis Days , Unbreakable , Under Flaming Winter Skies: Live In Tampere , Stratovarius , Elements Part 1 , Elements Part 2

Performance
Originality
Production
Vocals
Songwriting

6

4

3

7

3

 
Summary



3,5 chalices of 10 - Tobbe


Related links:

www.stratovarius.com
www.myspace.com/officialstratovarius