Formative Albums 6 - Elements Pt. 1 by Stratovarius

I've got the rest of these planned out now, but this sixth entry took a long time to decide on - in the end I decided to represent something for a bit of a different reason. After discovering Noise Records I suddenly had access to a treasure trove of melodic metal, and one of the other ones that caught my ear was Stratovarius. They were another old-school band that had crystallized at the end of the 80s and had a long discography - I must have found their then-new release during one of the trips I used to take into Dundee by bus to wander around the shops and arcade.

Elements Pt. 1... wasn't very good. Or rather, I liked it a lot less than the other purchases I'd made - it performed an effective bait and switch with the opener Eagleheart, which has wonderful power to its chorus even if Timo Kotipelto consistently writes lyrics that don't even remotely fit the rhythm. But then it moves on to the seven-minute dirge Soul of a Vagabond, and remains generally slow and self-indulgent throughout. A lot of this might have been because of bandrunner Timo Tolkki having the curse of enjoying what he wasn't good at - I still love a lot of Stratovarius's faster songs, but the long repetitive symphonic interludes that characterized many of the songs on this album were much less appealing to me. Elements was part of Tolkki wanting to take the band more in this direction, and caused massive unrest in the band. Later on it was found that he was having difficulties with his mental health, which can't have helped - although he doesn't really do himself any favours in this stable genius-flavoured rant about Stratovarius on his site (which is no longer online).

For that reason, it was important in shaping my tastes a bit more and defining what I didn't like, rather than what I did. Oddly, though, I still look back on some of the songs from this album quite fondly despite my poor impression at the time - I think a lot of music I discovered at this time just has a nostalgia attached.