Elements Pt. 1

Elements Pt. 1 is an ambitious ninth album on which Stratovarius boldly incorporates fast guitar, flamboyant keyboards and soaring singing into a larger-scale, orchestral arrangement than before. It is the first half of a grand project conceived as a diptych. Within the long songs, it handles everything from quiet, solemn introductions to dramatic developments that dash all at once, greatly widening the band’s scale. In the catchy speed of the classic opener “Eagleheart,” the grand “Soul of a Vagabond” and cuts like “Fantasia,” “Learning to Fly” and “Find Your Own Voice,” a deeper shading and symphonic grandeur are richly added while keeping the former briskness. Chorus and orchestration give the work weighty depth. Its appeal is ambitious content that greatly expanded the frame of former power metal with symphonic elements. A large-scale record fitting to be the radiant starting point of an ambitious diptych. “Eagleheart” became a new signature song for the band. Uniting grandeur and speed, it is a fulfilling symphonic-power-metal work.