This page contains Stratovarius songs, albums and video links. Music profile for Stratovarius with events, tracks, videos, pictures, lyrics and band information.
Stratovarius is a Finland|Finnish power metal band that formed in 1984. Although the Germany|German band Helloween is considered the earliest pioneer of the genre, Stratovarius is often regarded as crossing from classic power metal to keyboard-heavy modern power metal, influencing numerous bands to emerge during the 1990s.{{Fact|date=March 2008 Some of Stratovarius's material, particularly their mid-career albums such as ''Fourth Dimension (Stratovarius album)|Fourth Dimension'' can be heard to have some progressive metal elements. While their first two albums (''Fright Night (album)|Fright Night'' and ''Twilight Time (album)|Twilight Time'') have some NWOBHM elements.
History
Formation / ''Fright Night'' (1982 - 1989)
Stratovarius was founded in 1982 in Finland under the name Black Water. The band experienced a number of personnel and stylistic changes before finding its own voice. The founding members were Tuomo Lassila, Staffan Stråhlman, and John Vihervä. In 1983, the name was changed to Stratovarius (a portmanteau of Stratocaster and Stradivarius), an idea of Stråhlman's. In 1984, Timo Tolkki joined the band replacing Stråhlman on guitar and taking up vocal duties as well. Tolkki became the driving force and mastermind of the band, assuming relatively complete control of the songwriting. He brought along not only strong rock influences, but also a neo-classical metal|neo-... read all
Sphinx Kotipelto
