Not very fast songs except for a few but its worth it for those.

With the arrival of Timo Kotipelto, the production improved a lot and it started to sound like legendary albums "Episode" and "Visions". The drums sound identical to "Visions", the guitar is crisp yet epic. The only issue is that you can notice that the chemistry between Kotipelto and the rest of the band isn't well established yet and you could feel some tension or off key vocals (e.g. The first sentence in the chorus of "Lord Of The Wasteland", many parts of "Winter" etc...). That being said, the album does have its moments "Stratovarius" instrumental, "Against The Wind", "Galaxies", "030366" etc... and let's not forget it was 1995 so the production, speed and intensity were top notch even 10 years later. A few bands were doing this music and with a much worse production "Angra" "Gamma Ray" for example. Only Helloween had something as good during the Kiske era and Edguy achieved something good or even better with "Theater Of Salvation" and "Mandrake".

Another album that I needed some time to let it grow on myself

My favorite song indeed Against the Wind, but I also love so much We Hold the Key.

030366 is weird, but rest of the album is pretty good.
Highlight of the album to me is We Hold the Key 4:40-5:23.

I've always thought of this as a precursor to the golden era of Stratovarius, not quite there yet, but adding Kotipelto to the band made a huge difference.

Written by Metal Diogenes on 27.07.2021 at 20:20

I've always thought of this as a precursor to the golden era of Stratovarius, not quite there yet, but adding Kotipelto to the band made a huge difference.

To me its best album whit Kopitelto in this band, Anast the wind is my fav his era song. Later it goes way to flower