STRATOVARIUS - Visions In My Head By Carl Begai
During the last half of the '90s,
STRATOVARIUS ruled the roost when
it came to top-notch A-game power metal. Over the course of three albums
in three years -
Episode ('96),
Visions ('97) and
Destiny ('98) - the
band set a standard that was hard to match. Guitarist
Timo Tolkki was
elevated to the status of guitar god, new vocalist
Timo Kotipelto (as of
'95) cemented his position as the band's frontman in spite of initial
fan misgivings, and the quintet was deemed pretty much unstoppable. That
wasn't the case, and Stratovarius' fall from grace in the years that
followed was well documented, with the brakes finally being applied to
halt complete self-destruction when Tolkki departed once and for all in
2008. Three albums into what has been touted since 2009 as a fresh start
with axe-monster Matias Kupiainen in Tolkki's place and the band have
hit one out of the park with new album, Nemesis. It's a record based on
change of a tried and true formula, and nobody - not even vocalist Timo
Kotipelto - could have predicted the wave after wave of positive
feedback that's come down since the press got a hold of it.
"The reactions haven't been like this in about 12 or 15 years," says
Kotipelto. "I'm always excited about releasing a new album when it's
done, of course, but this time it feels like a fresh new start. Not just
because we have a new drummer (Rolf Pilve) but because things also
clicked together in a good way."
Which is a huge understatement to the ears of anyone that has
followed
Stratovarius since the '90s. Kotipelto is hard pressed to
identify what it was about the creative process this time out that
coughed up a record worthy of their late '90s run.
"When I had the demos there weren't any vocals, just guitar melodies
or weird keyboard melodies from Jens (Johansson). At that stage it's
hard to tell if it's going to be a good song or not. I can recognize of
there's a melody in there that makes some sense that I can work with,
but it can be difficult. Especially with Matias' songs because he
doesn't compose with vocals and lyrics in mind; a lot of the time I end
up thinking 'What the fuck is this...' when I hear his stuff (laughs).
And sometimes when we're recording Matias sometimes suggests we change
things about the vocals because he has a vision in his head of what he
wants. We give each other feedback in the studio, and it really works.
When Jens composes he has a more melodic approach from a singer's
perspective, and I guess that's because we've been in the band together
for so long. For the last couple albums we made demos and Matias mixed
them in the studio so we could hear how the songs would sound. They
weren't perfect but they gave us a better picture of where we were
going. Of course, by the time I get to do my vocals two or three months
have passed and the songs have changed a bit."
"Nemesis is well produced but it's not overproduced," he adds. "It's
very easy to add stuff to a song - 'Hey, let's put an orchestra here...
and samples there... and over there...' - but there isn't very much of
that on this album. There are a lot of keyboards, though, but not
orchestral keyboards. Maybe we're going in a heavier direction, more
basic metal instead of putting too many symphonic elements in the
songs."
The album is indeed heavier than the last couple
Stratovarius albums
in spite of the fact Johansson's keys are just as prominent as the
guitars. Not something one expects when trying to imagine a
keyboard-loaded batch of songs, but somehow it works.
"That's true,"
Kotipelto agrees. "Jens explained it to me; he said
that he'd been sending a lot of keyboard tracks for the other albums,
but they were mixed by Mikko Karmilla, and maybe he didn't want to have
very much to do with the 'keyboard experience.' Matias is a bit more
crazy and is willing to give Jens a chance to have more of his strange
sounds on the album (laughs). I think it's good because Jens is known
for his solo playing, but to me it seems that he has brought sounds to
the album I haven't heard before."
As such, Johansson will probably be blamed for the trance-influenced
'Halcyon Days', which enters unexplored territory in the Stratovarius
world. In actual fact it's a Kupiainen-penned track, and the band was so
confident in it they shot a video for it, although Kotipelto is on
board with the vast majority of fans that are perplexed the first time
they hear it.
"When I first heard the 'Halcyon Days' demo I thought 'This song is
not going to be on the album,'" Kotipelto reveals. "When I sang on the
demo I began thinking 'Hmm, this could work. I'm not into techno,
but...' And when I sang it for the album I though, 'Fuck, this is the
best song on the album...' (laughs). When we play it live, the guys have
arranged it so it won't have that heavy techno part, so it's going to
be much heavier, but I still think it's a cool song. It's an experiment,
so some of the older Stratovarius fans might be like me when they hear
it for the first time and say 'What the fuck is this?!' Hopefully
they'll have the same reaction I did after a few listens, where they end
up loving the song."
First single 'Unbreakable' is less of a curveball in comparison, but
as the first single off a Stratovarius album it doesn't follow in the
footsteps of previous singles like 'Black Diamond', 'Will The Sun
Rise?', 'Father Time' or 'Hunting High And Low', all of which are fan
favourites to this day. The pop elements of 'Unbreakable' are - to these
ears, at any rate - reminiscent of the
NIGHTWISH hit 'Amaranth' from
their
Dark Passion Play album.
"That's funny," laughs Kotipelto, "and it's nice that you mention it
because
Stratovarius influenced Tuomas (Holopainen/keyboardist,
founder) in the past, so maybe we can steal a little bit from him
(laughs). He's a very cool guy."
A completely unexpected bonus on Nemesis is the lone ballad tacked
on near the end rather than having the power metal requisite of at least
two splattered over the course of a record.
"Nobody else composed any ballads for the album, and we thought that
maybe we should only have one this time. We wanted Nemesis to be
heavier and more straighforward compared to the previous albums. I had
the main idea for 'If The Story Is Over' two or three years ago, and I
presented it to
Jani Liimatainen (ex-SONATA ARCTICA) about a year ago.
We co-wrote the song and he composed the lyrics. There was room for one
ballad, not more."
"There are plenty of good songs on Nemesis," he adds, "so maybe we finally did something right."
One of those things was choosing the right drummer to replace Joerg
Michael, who provided the
Stratovarius backbone as of 1995 until opting
to leave for health reasons in 2012. Songwriting for Nemesis was
underway long before Rolf Pilve was invited to grab a seat behind the
kit, but there's no question he had an influence on the final result.
"When we decided on Rolf, I think his playing affected Matias' songs
the most," says Kotipelto. "Those two spent three weeks in the studio
trying out different things so they had lots of time to experiment, and I
think that can be heard on the album. And, Rolf has been a huge
Stratovarius fan since he was 15 or something, which also made a
difference. When we did the audition he was supposed to play four or
five songs, and I asked him if he knew any other songs; he said 'Yeah,
just pick one.' (laughs). He played those songs better than the rest of
us. Rolf's playing style is more modern, I guess you can say, but he can
also play power metal with a groove. He's a great player and a nice
guy, so that had an effect on the recordings, definitely. Joerg is a
brilliant drummer but his style is different, so bringing Rolf in did
change things."
No matter how good the songs and the players might be, however, the
track sequence plays a huge part in how an album goes over as a whole.
Call it dumb luck or gut instinct, but the flow on Nemesis is a huge
part of why it works so well. One has to wonder how many times the song
sequence was hashed and rehashed before the band let the album go.
"This is probably a question for Matias. He called me when the album
a couple days before going to mastering and asked what I thought the
song order should be. It's a neverending game is you start asking
everybody in the band about that, so my vote and Rolf's vote was for
Matias to pick the songs (laughs). I just didn't want the album to be
too long because we had 15 songs, and my opinion was that it had to be
as good as possible and not as long as possible. The song order Matias
cam up with is almost what I have picked; maybe I would have changed one
of the songs with one of the bonus tracks. I'm very satisfied with what
he came up with."
Wrapping things up, Kotipelto is made aware of the fact that Timo
Tolkki actually praised the band in public back in mid-January when
press for Nemesis was building. Taking to his official Facebook page,
Stratovarius' former guitarist - who hasn't exactly seen eye-to-eye with
his former banmates on a number of issues since his departure - posted
an update stating "Just heard two new clips, 'Unbreakable' and 'Halcyon
Days', from my ex-bandmates. I am actually floored. These are really
cool songs. The production is fresh and modern. Way to go!"
Kotipelto is understandably pleased by the news, as life is too short for any more drama.
"That's something new from him, so I'm very happy if he likes the songs."
Mer 5 Déc - 17:16
