Stratovarius Biography

Give me a sign, and shoe me the way
To the sacred place....


Yeah, that was the part from Elysium. The song which this STRATOVARIUS band sang.

Waw, I love this band so much!!! that was i said at the first time i heard their song, elysium. Yeah i have been late to know about this band and i regret it. Because this band was so awesome and i like their music and their vocals.


So please enjoy about their Biography which i found from some source :-)


Stratovarius is a Power Metal band from Finland that formed in 1984. Since their formation they have released 13 studio albums and one live album. The band was considered to be the one if the leading groups of power metal and symphonic metal genre along with the other great band such as Blind Guardian, Gamma Ray, Helloween,  and Rhapsody of Fire.

The band was named Black Water at the first before had changed to Stratovarius which is a combination of Stratocaster and stradivarius. And it take a number of personnel, style and name changes before the band who we know today.

The band was founded by Tuomo Lassila, Staffan Stråhlman, and John Vihervä and released their first two singles “future shock” and “black night” in 1988 and their first album in 1989 titled Fright Night

Their current member is Timo Kotipelto on vocals, Matias Kupianen on Guitars, Jens Johansson on Keyboards and Lauri Porra on Bass.

From 1989 untill 2011 they have 13 studio and one live album. It was Fright Night in 1989, Twilight Time in 1992, Dreamspace in 1994, Fourth Dimension in 1995, Episode in 1996, Visions in 1997, Destiny in 1998, Infinite in 2000, Intermission in 2001, Element, Pt.1 in 2003, Element, Pt.2 in 2003, Stratovarius in 2005, Polaris in 2009 and the last one was in 2011 titled Elysium.

From their albums, Stratovarius make work with some Label such as Ear Music, Nuclear Blast, Sanctuary, and Noise.

In 2004 Stratovarius temporarily disbanded after Timo Tolkki suffered a nervous breakdown. A couple of months after the breakdown Tolkki was diagnosed with bi-polar disorder and went into rehabilitation for a period.

During this time Timo Kotipelto released his second album with his side project Kotipelto titled Coldness. It was also during this time that Stratovarius orchestrated a series of publicity stunts, including Kotipelto being fired and replaced by a female singer named "Katrina K", as well as Tolkki being stabbed at a concert. Eventually the stunts were revealed to be a hoax, and Tolkki reunited the band to begin work on their next album. In 2005, the self-titled album Stratovarius was released to hostile reception by fans.

Stratovarius featured a very different change in style compared to previous efforts, containing almost no symphonic or neo-classical elements in the music or soloing of Tolkki and Johansson that fans were used to, and did not feature any lengthy epics. Tolkki was highly critical of the album, and Stratovarius showed evidence of the band relationship at an all-time low. Seemingly against Tolkki's wishes, Jari Kainulainen was fired in 2005 following the release of the album for reasons Tolkki said were "so absurd that I am not even [going to] try and explain them here".

Kainulainen was quickly replaced with Lauri Porra, and in 2006 the band began work on a new album that was tentatively titled R...R..., however as internal issues increased the project stalled. Eventually the band reached a divide, with Johansson and Porra supporting Tolkki on one side, and Kotipelto and Michael on the other. Finally, on March 4, 2008, Tolkki officially declared that he was disbanding Stratovarius:

"It is time to stop the silence and announce what some of you have already been speculating. Stratovarius is no more..."

As Tolkki held the rights to the name Stratovarius and all its royalties, it was his initial intention to completely disband Stratovarius. However, in May he agreed to sign over the rights to the name Stratovarius and all its royalties to Timo Kotipelto, Jens Johansson and Jörg Michael, allowing Stratovarius to continue on without him. Tolkki later took the songs he wrote for the R..R.. sessions and formed the band Revolution Rennaisance, using the R...R... to form the name for the band, instead of the album. Stratovarius eventually found a replacement guitarist with Matias Kupiainen, and soon after began work on their next album.