SHOW REVIEW – STRATOVARIUS

Can it get any better? In less than 3 months we´re having more metal gigs in Mexico City than we had in the first 7 months of the year: Paul Dianno, Helloween, Nightwish, Deep Purple, and the one I had the luck to attend recently: Stratovarius. Well, actually there is something that could be better: having the money to be in all of them je,je.

Mexican Prog metallers Agora did a decent job as an opening act, proving once again that there are many good bands waiting to be in the spotlight (something very difficult in our country). They played material mainly from their latest album, wich I haven´t heard yet but the songs were cool, the guitar work needs to be polished a bit and the vocals are very good, overall kind of slow sounding, how about some speedy songs guys?

As usual it took very long for the crew to change instruments and get them ready for the next act: the mighty Stratovarius, in their elements tour. They had played the night before in Monterrey, and according to the reports it was a hell of a concert, well, we were expecting to make it better.

As the lights went down and classical music was playing, the opening notes from “Heart of an Eagle”, the first single from their latest album, started to sound loud and clear and the crowd was on ecstasy, after that great opening the next song was “Kiss of Judas” a real classic from the Visions album, The members of the band looked very happy to be there and delighted us with many fast songs although there were also a good number of slower tunes, among these, one of the best was “Forever” from Episode in which the crowd sang the chorus alone, an impressive moment indeed with more than 3,000 souls united. Another excellent one was “A drop in the Ocean” the closer from Elements Pt. 1, even when it is a new song the people knew the lyrics very well.

However the majority of the songs were the faster ones and they had us jumping and banging our heads the whole gig, “Forever Free”, “Hunting High and Low”, “Against the Wind”, “Speed of light”, the specially dedicated to all the fans “Legions” and a personal favorite “Paradise” were all high points in the gig, the guys even played a Medley with songs like “Fright Night”, “Hands of Time” and “Dreamspace” among others.

The band was a real unit with all the complex song structures being played effortlessly, but what else can you expect from a band with five virtuosos joining forces? Although sometimes the musicians looked motionless Timo Kotipelto made up for that, jumping and running all around the stage and showing his impressive range in every single note with no problems at all. Mr. Tolkki proved once more that he´s one of the most talented guitar players in metal, and Jens, well, He was the Keyboard player from Dio and Yngwie Malmsteem, two unknown bands uuuh? Needless to say he rules!

Well, it had been almost two hours of one of the best concerts in the year, but Stratovarius´ best known song hadn´t showed up, the band left the stage and it seemed to be over, but the crowd was not ready to leave without listening to the masterpiece that is “Black Diamond” and they started calling for the band, they came back with a huge smile on their faces and after joking about playing some Enrique Iglesias songs the keyboard intro for one of the best metal songs ever could be heard, a superb closer for a perfect presentation of one of the most beloved power metal entities of the last 20 years.

Now we only have to wait for Elements Pt. 2 and continue listening to what these Finnish maestros have in store for us, but coming from them, expect another groundbreaker.