ClassicPro SkinningMusic News

Stratovarius – Polaris (New Album)

martin.deimos — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 19:18:02 +0000

For a long time the future of Stratovarius was unclear. But after ex-guitarist Timo Tolkki agreed that the remaining members can continue under the old name, the songwriting begun.

As consequence Timo Tolkki was replaced by Matias Kupiainen. But with Tolkki as long term member and guitarist/songwriter a person left who gave the band a face. So will the new album be different – maybe like Kotipelto’s solo project?
Well, indeed they have changed the band logo a bit and Lauri Porra took over most of the songwriting.

So when I plugged in the the new CD and listened to the first track ‘Deep Unknown’ I felt like “hm, this isn’t really what I’d like to expect for the new Stratovarius album”. Before you ask, yes, I’ve bought the CD without listening to samples first.
But the following track ‘Falling Star’, has won me already over – Stratovarius are back!
So let’s walk through the album track by track.
The next song ‘King Of Nothing’ is actually my favorite song. I like the choirs repeating the refrain – catchy and animating to sing along. ‘Blind’ sounds like a Stratovarius song from the old days and will rock when performed live.
The fifth track ‘Winter Skies’ is a true metal-ballad like you know them from their older albums. While listening to this song I thought, the next song should have some high speed keyboards from Jens. And I was right! ‘Forever Is Today’ and ‘Higher We Go’ as next tracks are really speedy.
Then the sound becomes slower with another great ballad ‘Somehow Precious’ and followed by two more ballads ‘Emancipation Suite: I Dusk’ and ‘Emancipation Suite: II Dawn’ that remember a bit of the sound of the Elements double album.
With ‘When Mountains Fall’ as acoustic song the tempo goes down even more and the album fades to an end.

All in all, Stratovarius have a slightly new sound, but as long term fan like me it is good to hear something different and not waiting for and Infinity II or something similar.

Feel free to let us know your opinion about the new album.

-Martin

Jorn Lande – New Album: Spirit Black

martin.deimos — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 10:15:02 +0000

Just one year after his last studio album “Lonely are the Brave” Jorn releases another rocking studio album. So if you think this will just be a mainstream album because of the short time it took to be produced, you are wrong!
“Spirit Black” is a mixture between “The Duke” and “Lonely are the Brave”. So the sound tends a bit more to Hard Rock this time and guitars are taking a bigger role this time.
Moreover, the album features a cover version of Tarja’s (ex-Nightwish) song “I walk Alone” – It’s a bit different from the original but yet another great cover song Jorn performed.
My favorite songs of the album are Down (2), City Inbetween (5) and … oh well, I really cannot decide, I like most of the songs. So if you are a Heavy Metal or Hard Rock fan, this is an album you need to check out before you go and buy another CD.

Check out some samples at Jorn’s Myspace site:

http://www.myspace.com/realjorn

-Martin

Creed reunites for a new Album

martin.deimos — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 09:51:14 +0000

Yea you have heard right – The original Creed band mambers reunite for a new studio album calles “Full Circle”!
As a long term fan of Creed I was gald to hear this breaking news. And you can count on me having the album in my collection as soon it is out.
But the best for you ClassicPro and Creed fans is that Skin Consortium will celebrate this album with a new ClassicPro skin. So stay tuned for some updates.

-Martin