STRATOVARIUS Trivia — 31 Entries
31 sourced facts about STRATOVARIUS.
Trivia
STRATOVARIUS formed in Helsinki in 1984. The guitarist Staffan Stråhlman left the following year, and Timo Tolkki came in to replace him — bringing a classical influence with him that changed the band's sound substantially.
The band went looking for a dedicated singer to match the direction Tolkki had brought in. They could not find one. The upshot was that Tolkki himself took the vocals as well as the guitar, and it stayed that way for some years before a dedicated singer arrived.
The route to a debut, and the stumble straight after it, are both on record. The band signed to CBS Finland and released Fright Night in May 1989. It found a following among enthusiasts in Europe and Japan — and then they lost the CBS Finland deal.
Without a label, they made the second album at their own expense. It was finished and released in 1992 as Stratovarius II, and that led to a deal with Germany's Shark Records — whereupon the title was changed to Twilight Time, the sleeve was replaced, and it went out across Europe again that October. The second album as it is known now is a record that was released twice.
What moved that European edition of Twilight Time was Japan. By Victor's account it was a substantial hit in the Japanese import market, and a domestic Japanese edition followed in June 1993. The band's name reached Japan through those imports first.
They first played Japan in June 1994. That February, with Jari Kainulainen on bass, they had released the third album, Dreamspace — by then on T&T Records — and the Japanese shows followed in June. It was at that point that the debut, Fright Night, which had never had a Japanese release, finally got one.
A dedicated singer, Timo Kotipelto, came in for the fourth album, Fourth Dimension, in February 1995 — reinforcement to make the band's sound more solid. The German drummer Jörg Michael and the Swedish keyboard player Jens Johansson followed, and it was that line-up that made the fifth album, Episode, released in April 1996.
Jens Johansson was already a known player before he joined. By the band's own site he is the son of the well-known Swedish jazz pianist Jan Johansson and the brother of the metal drummer Anders Johansson. Classically trained, he left the jazz-fusion band Slem in 1982 for the Swedish metal band Silver Mountain, which also had Anders in it; in 1983 he left Sweden for California and joined Yngwie Malmsteen's Rising Force.
The bassist Lauri Porra comes from a musical family. As his own band's site puts it, professional musicians run four generations back in it, the most famous of them the composer Jean Sibelius. Porra works as a composer himself, and his music has been performed by the Finnish Radio Orchestra, the Trondheim Symphony, the Lahti Symphony and the New Bedford Symphony among others.
Their first number one at home came with the seventh album, Destiny, in September 1998 — straight in at the top. The eighth, Infinite, in February 2000, entered at number one in Finland again and later went gold. Infinite was also their first for Nuclear Blast.
They have come back to Japan repeatedly. The first visit was June 1994; a second followed in August 1995; for the third, in 1996, they broke off recording their sixth album to make it; a fourth came around Destiny in 1998, and a sixth behind the two Elements albums in 2003. Their audience meanwhile spread beyond Finland and Japan across Europe and into South America.
After the two Elements albums the band hit a crisis. In Victor's account Timo Tolkki fell ill and the band split into factions. Activity resumed even so, a deal with Sanctuary came together, and the eleventh album — the self-titled Stratovarius — was completed.
In 2008 Timo Tolkki left — the man who had been at the centre of the band since joining in 1985, more than twenty years. Matias Kupiainen came in on guitar; his page on the band's site gives his tenure as beginning in 2008. The bass chair had already passed to Lauri Porra before that.
Jörg Michael announced he was leaving in 2011. The replacement announcement Victor published on 20 June 2012 says he gave notice "last year," and sums up his time in the band as sixteen years across nine studio albums. The drummer introduced as his successor was Rolf Pilve, then a twenty-four-year-old Finn.
Jörg Michael's last tour produced the band's first full-length live DVD, Under Flaming Winter Skies – Live in Tampere. The two-disc set, released on 25 July 2012, holds around two hours of the concert plus a thirty-minute documentary with interviews of every member. Victor's copy points out that it is the band's first live DVD and, for Jörg, his first and last with Stratovarius. The Japanese edition alone carried self-written liner notes from all five members, Jörg included.
Since Polaris in 2009 their album titles have followed a rule: seven letters. POLARIS, ELYSIUM, NEMESIS, ETERNAL, and then SURVIVE, the sixteenth, in 2022. Victor's copy calls it a seven-letter-title habit running from Polaris onward, and notes it is still intact on the latest one.
Timo Kotipelto was asked to join in the summer of 1994. By the band's site they were looking for a singer at the time, and he had been studying voice at the Pop/Jazz Conservatory in Helsinki. The same page notes that his high, carrying voice is a defining feature of the band, and that he is the member who has been in it longest.
On 24 October 2026 STRATOVARIUS play FULL METAL JAPAN 2026 at Pia Arena MM in Kanagawa — the first Asian edition of a festival backed in full by Germany's Wacken Open Air. Also on that day: the Michael Schenker Group, RAGE, and Gus G. with Ronnie Romero. ANGRA and POWERWOLF play the following day.
The band was started by a drummer, not a guitarist. Tuomo Lassila formed STRATOVARIUS in Helsinki in 1984, and by Blabbermouth's account he is responsible for the band's name along with the original guitarist, Staffan Stråhlman. Timo Tolkki joined a year later.
There is a record of the moment Timo Tolkki stopped singing. The last album on which he took lead vocals was Dreamspace, in 1994. For the album that followed, Fourth Dimension, he recorded his vocals for the demos — and then decided to concentrate on guitar alone, and brought in Timo Kotipelto.
Timo Tolkki wrote more than a hundred songs for the band before leaving in 2008. Blabbermouth names among them "Black Diamond," "Hunting High and Low," "Speed of Light," "Paradise," "Forever" and "Destiny." By the same piece, STRATOVARIUS albums from the Tolkki years have sold over four million copies.
In 2023 the people who made Dreamspace came back under another name. Timo Tolkki on vocals and guitar, Tuomo Lassila on drums and Antti Ikonen on keyboards regrouped as TIMO TOLKKI'S STRATO. The three had met in the summer of 2022 to talk it over and had been rehearsing quietly in Lassila's garage since January 2023. They signed with Warner Music Japan and announced a debut album, Return to Dreamspace, for 27 October, saying that live they would play material from Fright Night, Twilight Time and Dreamspace alongside the new songs.
Elements, in 2003, would not fit on one record. After the Infinite tour in 2000 the band took an extended break and worked on solo projects, reconvening in 2002 to record it. What came out of that was issued in 2003 as two albums: Pt. 1 in January and Pt. 2 in October.
Matias Kupiainen, the guitarist who replaced Tolkki, is also a producer. By the band's site he started playing guitar at four; he has produced and mixed a number of albums, and works out of his own studio, MinorMusic.
In 2011, just before the thirteenth album Elysium came out, a malignant thyroid tumour was found in the drummer Jörg Michael and he stepped away from touring for a time. He came back quickly, and was there without trouble for the Japanese tour that February, a co-headline run with HELLOWEEN.
Jörg Michael later announced he was leaving for personal reasons. The band played a farewell tour for him in Finland, and the Tampere night of it became a live DVD, Under Flaming Winter Skies – Live in Tampere, released in 2012. His replacement was Rolf Pilve, then twenty-four.
Rolf Pilve had worked widely before joining. The band's site notes him for playing with Miseration, Solution.45 and The Magnificent, and records that he has played in sixteen countries and over five hundred shows, appearing on more than thirty albums, demos and singles.
Timo Kotipelto works outside the band as well. Per the official site he formed CAIN'S OFFERING with Jani Liimatainen in 2009 and recorded Gather the Faithful (2009) and Stormcrow (2015), both well received, playing a good many shows in Japan and Europe. The two of them also made an acoustic duo record, Blackoustic.
Timo Kotipelto has a credit from outside metal. By the band's site he won the first season of Kuorosota — the Finnish version of Battle of the Choirs — in 2009.
There is more to Jens Johansson's pre-Stratovarius career. By the band's site he stayed with Yngwie Malmsteen's Rising Force from 1983 until 1989, through a string of records and world tours — and then played with DIO between 1989 and 1990.
The announcement carried Japanese plans with it. Timo Tolkki was to come to Japan in November 2023 to promote the album — his first visit there since 2007, by Blabbermouth's account. A Japanese tour was planned for spring 2024, with Latin American and European runs also in the works.