Stratovarius - Under Flaming Winter Skies: Live In Tampere

Published June 28 2012

*=Staff's pick	CD 1: Under Flaming Skies I Walk To My Own Song Speed Of Light The Kiss Of Judas Deep Unknown Guitar Solo Eagleheart Paradise Visions (Southern Cross) Bass Solo Coming Home*	CD 2: Legions* Darkest Hours Burn Behind Blue Eyes Winter Skies* Keyboard Solo Black Diamond* Father Time Hunting High And Low

Genre	Neoclassic/Power Metal	Timo Kotipelto	Vocals
Tracks	20	Matias Kupiainen	Guitar
Running time	102 Min.	-	Guitar
Label	Ear Music	Lauri Porra	Bass
Release	27 June 2012	Jörg Michael	Drums
Country	Finland	Jens Johansson	Keyboard
Producer	Matias Kupiainen
Similar artists	Nocturnal Rites, Thunderstone

Recorded last November in Tampere, Finland on drummer Jörg Michael's farewell tour. With sixteen years behind the drum kit in this band, he will not leave unnoticed, even if the band announced a replacement the other day in young finn Rolf Pilve. Later this year the band have plans for a new studio record and we'll see how things will turn out. This effort is also released on DVD and Blu-ray, both with bonus contents.

So what does a new Stratovarius live album has to offer? Well, songs from the new era, without former mainman and guitarist Timo Tolkki, who in fact are much better when performed live. Also their most well known songs, as well as two cover songs in Deep Purple's Burn and The Who's Behind Blue Eyes.

The sound quality is what it should be on a live album. Not too well polished, but still listenable and with a good live feeling. The keyboards are loud from time to another and lead vocalist Timo Kotipelto is starting to struggle just a tiny bit, even if his voice still is very good. You can hear that he has to fill his lungs with more air and really put his vocal cords to the test.

This is a rather good album, but nothing you must buy if you're not a fan of Stratovarius. If you're not familiar with the band, I would strongly recommend starting with the studio album Visions, even if there are a total of six tracks off that album on this recording. Even if it has nothing to do with the actual musical quality of this release, I also must say that it feels kind of low budget when a couple of songs on the backcover are misspelled and not correct.

See also review of: Eternal , Nemesis Days , Nemesis , Unbreakable , Elysium , Stratovarius , Elements Pt.2 , Elements Pt.1

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
6	4	7	7	7

Summary
6 chalices of 10 - Tobbe