stratovarius live

Eden’s Curse opened the night and had a mixed reaction. The power metal purists in the room didn’t seem overly impressed with their (dated) melodic hard rock and middle-aged balding head looks. If you hear the music you expect 80s longhaired rockers. Some of these guys look like Hells Angels door bouncers instead. The more metal start to Fly Away livened the set up a little despite the lightweight pleasant chorus. Finishing with the single Angels & Demons vocalist Michael Eden was complimented with soaring backing harmonies. Those in the audience more interested in a broad range of genres seemed to be more impressed with the internationally made up band and enjoyed the catchy but relatively lame AOR sounds.

Second on, and a big name in their own right in the power metal scene were Firewind from Greece, peddling their special brand of Feta-metal. Guitarist Gus G attracts most of the plaudits in reviews, and tonight was no different. He delivers a total riff fest without it being tedious. The band is as tight as anything, enthusiastic and energetic and the crowd loved it. Finishing with the traditional end song, Falling to Pieces, this was yet another good performance by the Greeks but sadly short at only forty minutes due to their position on the bill.

A whole load of horns hit the air as the blue lights throb in and out to the intro tape of Stratovarius onto the large freestanding side drops with the blue and silver Polaris ice queen design and gigantic backdrop.

The Finnish power-metallers take their places one by one, and Jens Johansson’s keyboards lean forward in a Children of Bodom style. The gangly bass Lauri Porra player looks like he’s come straight from 1977 with the long wavy hair and flares. Drummer Jörg Michael takes his place behind the obligatory large metal frame including the double bass drum. It’s new guitarist Matias Kupiainen’s first gig with the band.

Vocalist Timo Kotipelto gets the biggest cheer as he enters the stage and launches into the anthemic Hunting High and Low, regularly flipping the mic effortless between hands and oozing confidence. Using all the stage well, regularly going to the sides to work the audiences there, he also treats us to various dramatic poses and power grabs in an almost theatrical style. It suits the strong power metal vocals that almost verge on operatic when he really gets into his stride. There’s a little something held back and we find out that he’s actually pretty ill and lucky to be playing at all.

The Kiss of Judas sees bassist Porra effortlessly playing one handed along with the drums. One of the new tracks mid-set has been composed by keyboardist Johansson and is a beautiful piano-based big ballad composition and very atmospheric. It shows off Kotipelto’s voice beautifully.

Another acoustic guitar based ballad Forever, takes us up to the last song of the set, Eagleheart and the crowd are cheering for more. Kotipelto leads the encore getting the audience to raise up their arms in huge waves, and the encore is finished off with classic sing-a-longs in Black Diamond and even a bit of a drum solo.

Let’s be honest. This wasn’t the best Stratovarius show in the world. The half full venue, the first night of the tour… with a new guitar player, and a somewhat ill singer (Kotipelto joking that Johansson had given him swine flu) so a shorter set than planned all conspired to make it sadly just a little bit lacklustre and flat in places. Don’t get me wrong though, they were still great. It was still very enjoyable and the majority of people there seemed to have a great time watching the power metal masters on a UK stage, something that doesn’t happen very often. Let’s hope they come back soon to show what they can really do when firing on all cylinders.

by Lynn Wyeth