Stratovarius

Stratovarius is a Finnish group of power/melody speed founded metal in 1984 with Helsinki by the bass player John Vihervä, the beater and singer Tuomo Lassila, and the guitarist Staffan Stråhlman. The current name is a contraction between ''' Strato ''' caster, which is a model of guitar, and Stradi ''' varius ''', which is the name of the violins manufactured by the Luthier of the same name.

Biography

The first name of the group was Black Water. At that time, the group was mainly influenced by Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne. John Vihervä left the fine group 1984 and was replaced by Jyrki Lentonen which played before with Timo Tolkki in a group named Road Block. In 1985, it was with the turn of Staffan Stråhlman to leave the group, one week before a concert envisaged with Aalborg, with the Denmark. Tuomo Lassila called upon Timo Tolkki to replace it. This last took soon charges the vocal part, brought influences such as Blackmore, Rainbow or of the Baroque music, and quickly becomes of it the principal author/type-setter of the group until today.

The first album of the Stratovarius group left in May 1989 under the name of Fright Night . Jyrki Lentonen left the group in 1990 to yield its place to Jari Behm which appears in photograph in the second album entitled Twilight Time , even if the basic partitions are not him. It left the group little time afterwards.

It is with this second album that the group started to conquer the Japan where it became very appreciated. The bass player Jari Kainulainen entered the group in 1993 to record the majority of their third album entitled Dreamspace which left universally in 1994. It was the last album with Timo Tolkki with the song. Indeed, this one was replaced with the song by Timo Kotipelto which dealt with all the vocal part of the fourth album Fourth Dimension , Timo Tolkki being devoted exclusively to the guitar and the composition. The heart of the current group had been born.

The fifth album, Episode , saw the entry of the beater Jörg Michael which replaced Tuomo Lassila and of the clavierist Jens Johansson. The group was a world success with the albums which followed, such as Visions , Destiny and Infinite where it made rounds in the whole world, of the Japan to the Latin America.

The albums Elements Leaves 1 and Elements Leaves 2 left both in 2003. The last album in date of Stratovarius left in 2005 and bears the name of Stratovarius , while the bass player Jari Kainulainen left the group after twelve years of service, replaced by Lauri Paura. Their next album is currently in the course of recording and should not leave before 2008. The group revealed the initial ones of the title right now: “R… R… ”.

Members

Ex-members

Discography

CD

Albums

Lives

  • Visions off Europe (1998)

Compilations

Individual

  • Future Shock (1988)
  • Black Night (1989)
  • Station-wagon The Ice (1992)
  • Will The Sun Small channel? (1996)
  • Father Time (1996)
  • Black Diamond (1997)
  • KIS Off Judas (1997)
  • S.O.S (1998)
  • Hunting High And Low (2000)
  • Eagleheart (2002)
  • I Walk To My Own Song (2003)
  • Maniac Dance (2005)

DVD

  • Infinity Visions (2000)

Similar groups

Groups of the same style:

  • Helloween
  • Heavenly (style a little less similar)

External bonds

  • Official Siteweb

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