So Long, and Thanks for all the Finnish (Infinite - Stratovarius)

Member Name: Frankingsteins

Product:	Infinite - Stratovarius
Date:	24/09/06 (125 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lovely glossy production sound, and a few great melodic metal anthems.

Disadvantages: The best stuff rips off the old stuff, and the worst stuff is really bad.

Having defined themselves as Finland’s premier heavy metal band over the course of eight increasingly exciting albums, Stratovarius stumbled into the new millennium with ‘Infinite,’ an enjoyable but disappointing backwards step for a band soon to fall into steep decline and literal insanity. Pertaining to be something of the definitive symphonic metal CD with its grandiose cover art (produced by Iron Maiden artist Derek Riggs), ‘Infinite’ continues the trend of each Stratovarius album sounding pretty much like the last one, but this time looking backwards instead of forwards.

Stratovarius’ symphonic approach to the classic European power metal sound paved the way for operatic bands like Nightwish and Therion, but the band’s own steam has truly run out by this point. This album looks back to its three excellent predecessors ‘Episode,’ ‘Visions’ and ‘Destiny’ and takes something from each, without offering anything new aside from the afore-mentioned gold dolphins artwork, which is very nice. Nevertheless, I liked this album a lot more before I explored their past discography.

The fast songs sound like re-makes of older, better songs with different nouns in the choruses, and the ballads are more blandly commercial sounding than ever. The album’s primary saving grace is its excellent title track, dominated by slow, thunderous riffs, time changes and a fantastically over-ambitious choral bit. Nevertheless, this still feels overlong at nine minutes; Timo Tolkki’s guitar solos only remain interesting for so long, but thankfully this isn’t Helloween territory, ha ha. (A nice joke to help alienate you further).

The album opens with ‘Hunting High and Low’ and ‘Millennium,’ and both are highly enjoyable speedy metal anthems. Timo Kotipelto’s high vocals blend perfectly with the melodic lead guitars, and Stratovarius doesn’t sound much better than this – except perhaps on ‘Father Time’ and other such songs from the past which sound almost exactly the same. Sadly the album’s next fast offering ‘Phoenix’ is definitively mediocre and adds nothing of interest at all. ‘Freedom’ is pretty anthemic but is similarly forgettable, although ‘Glory of the World’ and 'A Million Light Years Away' are saved by some really cool keyboard leads from Jens Johansson. The choruses are pretty good too, but that’s always been one of the band’s main strengths.

Looking back to the ‘Destiny’ album, Stratovarius attempt a couple of slower songs, but neither works very successfully. ‘Mother Gaia’ is tediously overlong, even if it is very enjoyable for the first four minutes or so with its numerous choruses and rare slow guitar riff. By contrast, the anti-climax ‘Celestial Dream’ is less than worthless, as it led to similar atrocities on the band’s next two albums. Special edition versions of the CD include the bonus track ‘Neon Light Child’ which sounds almost exactly the same and is therefore rubbish, as well as pointlessly verbatim demos of tracks one and two.

Every Stratovarius album has its low points, but this album rates only average at best, and is a completely unnecessary addition to a fine back catalogue. The bombast epic stuff was done slightly better on ‘Destiny,’ while the power metal was perfected on 1997’s ‘Visions,’ still the band’s finest release. Purporting to immortality by cashing in on a incidental 2000 AD release date and getting the bloke who used to draw Iron Maiden’s Eddie to paint an irrelevant picture of gold dolphins might sound like the ingredients for a metal classic, but isn’t enough to make for a good album. The several good songs from this album sadly represent the only things of worth to come from Stratovarius in the twenty-first century so far, with three albums and counting having followed in its inconsequential ripples.


1. Hunting High and Low
2. Millennium
3. Mother Gaia
4. Phoenix
5. Glory of the World
6. A Million Light Years Away
7. Freedom
8. Infinity
9. Celestial Dream
10. Neon Light Child *
11. Hunting High and Low (demo) *
12. Millennium (demo) *

* Limited edition bonus tracks.

Summary: Stratovarius' eighth studio album (2000).