Stratovarius

Introduction

Stratovarius is a Power metal band from Finland and was founded in year 1984.

Today they have sold more than 2.5 million records worlwide.

The Bands history

As said before Stratovarius (Or Black water as the called themselves) was founded 1984 in Finland. The bandmembers was Tuomo Lassila, (Drums and Vocals) Staffan Stråhlman (Guitar) and John Vihervä (Bass gutar). Only a Year after they was founded the changed their name to Stratovarius. The name is a mix from the fender guitar "Stratocaster" and "Stradivarius".

In year 1985 the first switch of members took place. Staffan Stråhlman quit the band and Timo Tolkki took his place on guitar and vocals. He also changed the style of the music to more neo-classical.

The fist demo was produced 1987 and was picked up by CBS Finland and one year later they relesed their first two singles, "Future Shock" and "Black Night". The first album "Friday night" was relesed 1989.

1990 Stratovarius was dropped by CBS and the band gone through a couple of band changes.

On the third album "Dreamspace", 1994 the new bass player Jari Kainulainen was introduced. On this album they had a session drummer, Sami Kuoppamäki because Lassila had an arm injury.

After a huge success from the fourth album "Fourth Dimension" the drummer Tuomo Lassila and the new keyboardist Antti Ikonen quit and was replaced by the swedish keybordist Jens Johansson and the german drummer Jörg Michael.

In year 1996 they had finally found their own sound and had a very strong line up.

When the album "infinite" was released 2000 their fame spread all over the world. So they was getting on a tour with Sonata Arcrica and Rhapsody of fire.

In late 2003 the band broke up and Timo Kotipelto (Vocals)and Jörg Michael was leaving after a conflict. So they hired a now singer Katriina Wiiala and an new drummer Anders Johansson (from Hammerfall). After these changes it was a compleatly silence from the band for around a year.

But in 2005 they broke the silence with the album "Stratovarius" and it was a start of an worldwide tour with start in Argentina.

Now in 2009 the have released the album Polaris.

Band members 2009

Timo Antero Kotipelto (Vocals)

Timo Was born in March 15, 1969 and is the vocalist of Stratovarius. He studied vocals at the jazz/pop conservatory in Helsinki. He was also singer for the coverband Filthy Asses

The summer 1994 Stratovarius was looking for a singer, Timo did a audition and was accepted. The first album Timo was singing on was "Fourth Dimension". With this album Stratovarius became one of the top metal bands in Europe.

At the end of 2003 Timo leaved Stratovarius after a conflict with the guitarist Timo Tolkki but he rejoined the band in 2005.

Aside Stratovarius Timo has a solo career. He has released three solo albums: "Waiting for the dawn" "Coldness" "Serenity"

He has also provided additional vocals for Sonata Arctica and the lead vocals for Ayreon´s song "Out of the white hole".

Matias Kupiainen (Guitarist)

Matias Kupiainen was born at May 11, 1983 and is the guitarist of Stratovarius. He has studdied Sibelius acadamy in helsinki and at the Pop/jazz conservatory. He arrived in Stratovarius after Timo Tolkki´s departure 2008. He has alredy composed three songs.

Beside stratovarius, Matias have another band project, Fist in Fetus. Before this projects he has been a session guitarist and he has also worked as a producer, recording eneggier and mixer.

He plays on a PRS artist series I guitar and uses ENGL, Hughes and Kettner, Mesa/boogie and TC electronic gear.

LAURI PORRA (Bass)

Lauri is born in December 13, 1977. At the age of six years he begun to study music and begun to play cello. Later he changed to Bass. He has also taken lessons on piano, male vocals dubble bass and trumpet. Lauri is well-known for his work in a wide range of genres. His most known work is with the bands Stratovarius, Emma Salokoski Ensemble, Kotipelto and Crazy World. Ha has also a solo career where he has relesed two albums: "Lauri Porra" and "All children have superpowers".

Jörg Michael (Drums)

Jörg is born in March 27, 1963 and is the drummer of Stratovarius but have did many gigs as a session drummer with other bands like Rage and Laos. Most of the time Jorg have played the ganre power metal.

Jens Johansson (Keybord)

Jens is born November 2, 1963. He is on ef the first "shred" keybordists and flays very fast neo-classical and fusion styles. Jens is born in Sweden and is the son of the jazz pianist Jan Johansson.

1983 Jens left Sweden for USA, California to join Yngwie Malmsteens band. He stayd with Yngwie untill 1989

1994 he did a audition for Dream Theatre but due to a problem with the dicision he choosed Stratovarius insted.

His solo career beside Stratovarius has ended in sevral instrumental albums like "Fjäderlösa tvåfotingar".

He have have used many types of keyboards in his career but his favourites is the Korg Polysix and Yamaha DX7.

Former members

John Vihervä Bass Guitar (1982-1984) Staffan Stråhlman Guitar (1982-1985) Tuomo Lassila Drums (1982-1995) Vocals (1982-1985) Jyrki Lentonen Bass guitar (1984-1989) Timo Tolkki Guitar (1985-2008) Vocal (1985-1994) Antti Ikonen Keyboard (1988-1995) Jari Kainulainen Bass Guitar (1993-2005) Sami Kuoppamäki Drums (1994) Anders Johansson Drum (2004) Katriina Wiiala Vocals (2004)

Albums

1989: Fright night 1992: Twilight time 1994: Dreamspace 1995: Fourth Dimension 1996: Episode 1997: Visions 1998: Destiny 2000: Infinite 2003: Elements part 1 2003: Elements part 2 2005: Stratovarius 2009: Polaris

Singles

1988: Future Shock 1989: Black night 1992: Dreak the ice 1995: Wings of tomorrow 1996: Father time 1996: Will the sun rise? 1997: Black diamond 1997: The kiss of Judas 1998: S.O.S. 2000: Hunting high and low 2000: It´s a mystery 2000: A million light years away 2002: Eagleheart 2003: I walk to my own song 2005: Maniac dance 2009: Deep unknown