Search - Stratovarius :: Visions

The best Stratovarius album!

Stargazer | New York | 02/13/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is my favorite Stratovarius album. The band never sounded better. The writing is amazing and the vocals and guitar are mindblowing. This album sounds like a mix of Helloween, Dio, Iron Maiden, Yngwie Malmsteen, Rainbow, Queensryche and classic Stratovarius. This was the first Stratovarius album I bought and it blew my mind. This album made Stratovarius one of my all time favorite bands and made me go out and buy other Stratovarius albums.





1.The Kiss of Judas- 10/10 Amazing melodic opener. The opening keyboards and the intro riff are great. Kotipelto's vocals are excellent and the lyrics are great. The chorus is excellent too. This song has a strong 80's feel to it. The riff right before the solo is excellent too and the neo classical guitar and keyboard solos are excellent. Melodic metal at it's best.



2.Black Diamond- 10/10 The keyboards sound great on this fast song. Kotipelto's vocals are great and he does an excellent job of singing on such a fast song. The lyrics are excellent and Tolkii and Jens Johannsen's keyboard and guitar trade offs are excellent. Another classic.



3.Forever Free- 10/10 An excellent fast paced song with an excellent guitar riff. Kotipelto's vocals are excellent too. The lyrics are excellent too. Tolkii's melodic shredding solo is excellent too.



4.Before the Winter- 10/10 The soft intro is amazing. Kotipelto's vocals are great. This song shows off Kotipelto's range too. This song has a real mideval feel to it. Kotipelto's solo is amazing and it has a ton of feel and some excellent neo classical shredding. Another classic song and one of the best power ballads ever.



5.Legions- 10/10 Another classic song. the main riff sounds like Lightning Strikes by Ozzy and the neo classical guitar fill is awesome. Kotipelto's vocals are amazing and the the drums are great. Great solo by Tolkii again.



6.The Abyss of Your Eyes- 10/10 An excellent progressive song with a lot of changes. There is a heavy part, a really heavy part and a soft part. Kotipelto's vocals are amazing on this song. The keyboards work great and Timo Tolkii's solo is incredible. Another classic song!



7.Holy Light- 10/10 A great instrumental with exceptional playing from Timo Tolkii. This is up there with yngwie's instrumentals as far as neo classical instrumentals go. Very progressive and plenty of changes including a beautiful soft part.



8.Paradise- 8.5/10 Another good song. Timo Kotipelto's quiet vocals sound like Bruce Dickinson. Probably the worst song on this album. I don't why but the feel of the song just isnt't that good. Kotipelto's vocals are good but really not one of the better songs.



9.Coming Home- 10/10 Another amazing power ballad. The arrangement is incredible and Kotipelto's soft vocals are amazing and when the song goes into the heavy part Kotipelto's vocals soar! The lyrics are great and the solo is amazing and rivals any Yngwie Malmsteen solo. The solo has a ton of emotion and shredding.



10.Visions (Southern Cross)- Stratovarius' best song ever! An epic over 10 minutes long! Rainbow has Stargazer, Iron Maiden has Hallowed Be Thy Name, Deep Purple has Child In Time and Stratovarius has Visions(Southern Cross). This is there big masterpeice. The lyrics are excellent and the riff is great. The drums and bass are amazing. The use of keyboards is great on this song too. Kotipelto's first high high note is excellent but he belts out even higher notes later on! The demonic voice sounds great and the soft part of the song is incredible. Timo Tolkii's solo has a lot of feel and fits the song perfect.The high note right before the solo is incredible and shows that Timo Kotipelto's vocal range is over 4 octaves! An amazing epic that is one of the best songs of all time. Kotipelto's ending note hold leads into a great voice telling a short story.



This album is a metal milestone and is up there with Rainbow Rising, Dio Magica, Iron Maiden Number Of The Beast ect. This album has everything mind blowing vocals and guitar, great songwriting, an awesome instrumental, slower rockers, fast songs, epics, ballads everything. Visions (Southern Cross) is one of the best songs ever. This is an album that any metal fan will love.



Timo Kotipelto- Vocals

Timo Tolkki- Guitar

Jorg Michael- Drums

Jari Kainulainen- Bass

Jens Johansson- Keyboards"

Don't listen to these people who say that this is the best

Gustavo D. | Rio de Janeiro , Brazil | 01/24/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The true bands best recordings are Fright Night,Dreamspace and Fourth Dimension. They have more creativity and originality.



When I bought this album and listened first I thought it was masterpiece, but I don't think it anymore. It's because of that god damn Jorg Michael's addiction to double bass drums that spoils these tracks: Legions ( despite the good melody ), Holy light ( this instrumental song isn't bad at all; Jens Johansson the keyboardist , playing harphischord, incredibly manages to follow Timo Tolkki in his turbo soloing, putting the musical notes at the same speed as him, Wow!) , Visions and Forever free

( I hate these 2 songs , they suck! )

Another reason to hate Forever free is the chorus. Magnification.

Equal to Episode's (album) Father time.

Happily ,Jorg Michael, stopped with these annoying repetitions in the 2005 release. Now I forgive him.



These 3 songs are killer:



The Kiss of Judas:

The song that introduced me to Stratovarius.

It has the best drumming peformance by Jorg in the band's history to me besides his multiple flaws.

The solos ( keyboard and guitar) are really fabulous.

Surely it's one of most techically difficult guitar solos that Tolkki even invented. Watch him doing it at the clip and you'll see what I mean. He's a guitar monster, and one of my idols of this genre.

Another wonder in this track is the ending: the chorus in a different tone that gives a gorgeous feel. One of the best endings Strato ever done.



The abyss of your eyes: It starts with a muffled guitar.

No comments:very well played.The bridge and the ending are

amazing.



Coming home: The best ballad of Timo Kotipelto's times. Beautiful.



Black Diamond was one of the singles. The riffing is cool and enjoyable and fits perfectly with the harphischord. It's the

only one where the double bass drum doesn't disturb.

The chorus is another goodie.

" Paradise" is catchy.



Visions (1997 release) has more hits than mistakes and still worths your money.



Now I?ve listened to all studio albums and that?s my sincere opinion from best to worse:



1. Fright Night

2. Dreamspace / Fourth Dimension

3. Visions

4. Infinite / Elements part II / Stratovarius 2005

5. Intermission

6. Episode / Destiny

7. Twilight time

8. Elements part I



Buy in this order if you want to be a completist.It?s really difficult for these finnish to do a perfect record and Fright night came closer. You can see that 2 of the releases on the

top of the list are with Timo Tolkki on lead. The consistency of the songs overall was my standard.

The recipe to be perfect: the repetitive double bass drum loss was the first step , Timo Kotipelto is an extraordinary singer, but Tolkki could get more courage to sing together with him or do backing vocals at least,

put some more skilful guitar/ keyboard solos per album ,forget the ballads without electric guitar ( "drop in the ocean and celestial dream " - like ) and get back with that instrumental songs , with the same quality as Fire Dance or Stratovarius where Tolkki shows why he is number 84 in a list of the best guitarists of all time.

The worse mistake in the double bass drumming was the IDENTICAL rhythm in the songs:

Find your own voice and Father time ( arrgh ), anthem of the world, learning to fly , freedom ( not 100%,but close enough), glory of the world, legions, visions, tomorrow , speed of light , no turning back and stratosphere.

"

Best Stratovarius Album

Mike Smith | 09/08/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"There are many albums by Stratovarius, but this one is likely the best, based on what I have heard and read. The album art is spectacular, which hints at what you are about to hear when you play the album. Sometimes the music sounds like it could help you soar above the clouds in a blissful Metal fantasy. If you like Stratovarius' style but don't already have this album, do yourself a favor and get it. You will not be disappointed."