Frontiers
2008
1. Heroes
2. I Did It My Way
3. We Are Magic
4. Angel
5. Eden Is Burning
6. Glorious And Divine
7. Born Upon The Cross
8. Keep The Flame Alive
9. Last Night On Earth
10. Revolution Renaissance
Let's just cut straight through the bullshit on this one... this is a Stratovarius album. It was written to be the new Stratovarius, Tolkki had one of his lunatic episodes, and this shit happened. Revolution my ass. The only revolution that happened here was the rest of the band leaving this insane dictator. From here on out it may be a new band, but not for this album. The thing was already written and I've even had the opportunity to hear the album with Kotipelto's vocals on the thing. Presents a unique opportunity for comparison and you can't listen to the Kotipelto version without realizing this is a Strato album and was written for him to sing it... hell you'll probably realize that anyways. Only real difference is some different vocals presented by Michael Kiske, Tobias Sammet, and Pasi Rantanen of Edguy, Helloween, and Thunderstone fame respectively.
Like the trend Stratovarius was on anyways, this album follows predictable patterns in terms of songwriting minus the fact that this may be a bit on the lighter side. Not that it's unusual for Stratovarius or Tolkki to stray this way, but I find tracks like Angel and Keep The Flame alive a bit much in their light and airyness. Other tracks are typical Stratovarius fair and nothing is going to jump out of the box or at you. At least a couple have a nice speedy, energetic roll that presents some catchiness like the songs Heroes and Last Night On Earth. Other songs are certainly not bad, but not special either. Getting back to the original, Stratovarius version of this album... it just plain sounds better. Demo quality for sure, but I find a lot of the personality of the band is lost on this release without Kotipelto and it just isn't the same. There's no real identity to the official release with all it's guests and the music just lacks that certain something that made Stratovarius what they are. I thought a singer changeup might bring some life back to this band, whatever they want to call themselves, but it still sounds typical.
Definitely not an adventurous release here and the end result sound of the band was better before. The bottom line is that if this was released as it should have been it would have a better rating from me. Maybe I'll just keep listening to that Stratovarius demo version...
Highlights: Heroes, Last Night On Earth
Rating - 2.5/5
2. I Did It My Way
3. We Are Magic
4. Angel
5. Eden Is Burning
6. Glorious And Divine
7. Born Upon The Cross
8. Keep The Flame Alive
9. Last Night On Earth
10. Revolution Renaissance
Let's just cut straight through the bullshit on this one... this is a Stratovarius album. It was written to be the new Stratovarius, Tolkki had one of his lunatic episodes, and this shit happened. Revolution my ass. The only revolution that happened here was the rest of the band leaving this insane dictator. From here on out it may be a new band, but not for this album. The thing was already written and I've even had the opportunity to hear the album with Kotipelto's vocals on the thing. Presents a unique opportunity for comparison and you can't listen to the Kotipelto version without realizing this is a Strato album and was written for him to sing it... hell you'll probably realize that anyways. Only real difference is some different vocals presented by Michael Kiske, Tobias Sammet, and Pasi Rantanen of Edguy, Helloween, and Thunderstone fame respectively.
Like the trend Stratovarius was on anyways, this album follows predictable patterns in terms of songwriting minus the fact that this may be a bit on the lighter side. Not that it's unusual for Stratovarius or Tolkki to stray this way, but I find tracks like Angel and Keep The Flame alive a bit much in their light and airyness. Other tracks are typical Stratovarius fair and nothing is going to jump out of the box or at you. At least a couple have a nice speedy, energetic roll that presents some catchiness like the songs Heroes and Last Night On Earth. Other songs are certainly not bad, but not special either. Getting back to the original, Stratovarius version of this album... it just plain sounds better. Demo quality for sure, but I find a lot of the personality of the band is lost on this release without Kotipelto and it just isn't the same. There's no real identity to the official release with all it's guests and the music just lacks that certain something that made Stratovarius what they are. I thought a singer changeup might bring some life back to this band, whatever they want to call themselves, but it still sounds typical.
Definitely not an adventurous release here and the end result sound of the band was better before. The bottom line is that if this was released as it should have been it would have a better rating from me. Maybe I'll just keep listening to that Stratovarius demo version...
Highlights: Heroes, Last Night On Earth
Rating - 2.5/5
No comments:
Post a Comment