Customer Reviews

Destiny

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Stratovarius is easily the best band to emerge in the 90's forgetting their first album in 1989 which only featured one of the current members. Their music is incredible, and ahead of time, is like a combination of Rock, Metal & Classical. They are good at fast tunes, straight rockers & ballads. Their music falls into a category best described as "Progressive & Neoclassical Rock/Metal" and they are at the head of this new style, only rivaled by "Dream Theater" another incredible band from this time. "Destiny" if not their best album, is only second to "Episode" I would call it a tide. The album opens with the 10 min but never boring title track, and once it ends, it leaves you thinking, what the heck was that!, just out of this world, but song after song you notice that the level never goes down. "SoS", "No turning back" & "Rebel" are great fast tunes, while, "4000 Rainy nights" "Years go by" & "Venus in the morning" are mind blowing ballads, the only weak track here is "Playin with fire" but is not a filler, is just doesn't match the potential of the other tracks, and the album ends with "Anthem of the world" a great song with beautiful chorus at the end. If you got the Europe release, you'll get a bonus track named, "Cold winter nights" wich is a great song also. Now If you are getting into Stratovarius, for the first time, get "Episode"(1996) & "Visions" (1997) first, and then get "Destiny" (1998) if you really like the band you would want to look up for their earlier albums, most recomendable "Forth Dimension", before that the band released three other albums featuring only 1 or 2 essential tracks on them. In conclusion: If you wanna hear the best music the 90's got to offer, You don't want to skip this, Strato is one of the few bands that are the exeption to the rule that the 90's are a wasted decade in music, thanks to Rap and cheap pop.

Startovarius is one of the most technical group ever and there is another proof of their superiority: it's call Destiny This album is one of their best In all the songs we feel the "TimoS touch" Those two guys (and the other..of course) are real prodidgy. The song "Destiny", wich open the album is one of the best ever...A slow begining with a woman voice adn there comes all the power of Startovarius with all the technique they could give us. "4000 rainy nights" is a of the beautiful heavy ballad which squeez your guts... "SOS" also is a master-piece of powermetal is a fast guitar and heavy drums... I could talk about Stratovarius and this album during the next century...So I just let you here because if you don't listen to this album you can't really undersand what I am saying... Enjoy it

I am correcting a misunderstanding that has persisted on many occasions: In the beginning of Destiny, the solo is NOT female vocals. How do I know? Because I sang it myself! I was an 11-year-old boy back then and sang in Finland's most renowned BOY's choir Cantores Minores. I was contacted on our Finnish tour, (I was considered one of the best sopranos). The choir in SOS, Venus in the morning, Anthem of the world etc. consists of 2 boys I chose to come along + myself.

Obviously I think this album is great (pity Stratovarius is retiring -- and how the depressed Tolkki was stabbed)

However my favourite band at the moment is Nightwish -- a Finnish symphonic melodic operatic metal band. Do obtain their new album Once (and also an older one called Oceanborn). Their new album features, among other things, the orchestra from the LOTR trilogy. Best work of art this millenium -- number one in Finland for 10 consecutive weeks!

My initial reaction to this album was dissappointment. After Visions I was hoping that the band would bulk up their sound a bit and maybe even drop the utter reliance on double time drumming which has ruined so many of their songs.

But on second listen there are so many things to be thankful for here. Sure, in some ways this album was the beginning of a long decline away from outright hard rock/metal, but stuff like S.O.S is hard to argue with. And in Europe the band were a real force at this point due to talent and plain hard work.

Everyone seems to hail "Visions" as the best release from Stratovarius, I don't know, it somehow didn't impress me like "Destiny" They do not miss a beat on this one, it's flawless. The guitar work is out of this world, Timo is every bit as good as Yngwie Malmsteen, and he proves it on "Destiny"
The production is also top notch, better than any of the other ones, even the newer ones (which SHOULD be better, considering technology gets better over time...)Also, the keys match up to the guitar work on EVERY song, as Jens used to play with Yngwie... Drumming is intense as usual, great drum sound as well. And even though some songs are REALLY, REALLY long, they do not seem to drag at all. IMO there are at least 2 Power Metal anthems on this one, "Anthem of the World" (how ironic) and "Destiny" HIGHLY reccomended!

Stratovarius' seventh album, Destiny (1998), is perhaps the second best record that has been released by the Finnish metal gods (once more, I have listened to "medleys" of their entire catalog from 'Fright Night' to 'Infinite' in their website.) Perhaps the best way to describe this record is: "nothing radically different from Visions, but more focus on the bass. Not that it was inaudible, it just wasn't AS audible."

Highlights are as follows: Opener "Destiny" is a monster of an opener, at over ten minutes long, it is the epic of the album (every Strat album has at least one epic it seems.) Track 2, "S.O.S.," is perhaps the second best Strat song (next to, of course, "Black Diamond.") It features a creepy harpsichord intro, and even some female backing vocals. And "4000 Rainy Nights" is another excellent ballad, almost as good as "Coming Home." Overall, highly recommended for fans of Strat's other albums, as well as bands such as Sonata Arctica, Children Of Bodom, Warmen (Timo Kotipelto makes a little appearance on their 'Beyond Abilities' album), Kotipelto (naturally, Timo K.'s solo project), Thunderstone, et. al. But once more, avoid Timo T.'s solo stuff like salmonella, it's just horribly un-metal!

P.S. Though I completely disagree with Lord Chimp's 1-star review of this album, I am glad to say he put out more of an honest review than the utterly generic "THIS BAND SUCKS!" type of review.

"We're gonna rock ya till your metal hunger's fed!"-Judas Priest

This Cd blew me away the first time I listened to it. The opening track is a ten minute epic with everything thrown in for good measure. It starts with a boys choir, has volcanic keyboard and guitar playing with Timo Kotipelto's operatic voice thrown in for good measure. The rest of the Cd keeps up the pace. Stratovarius mixes it up brilliantly with good power ballads like Venus in the Morning and 4000 Rainy Nights to rocking songs like Anthem of the World, SOS and uplifting fare like Years go By. Timo Tolkki is the master producer of these proceedings. It seems with each new album, he gets more confident in his abilities as a producer. Bringing in a choir and orchestra on some songs was master work. His guitar work on this album is impeccable as usual. Bravo to Stratovarius. Another hard rocking album that has heart and is beautiful to listen to. I feel this is their best album. Visions is also very good along with Fourth Dimension and Episode.

Stratovarius is simply the best band on this decade. Fast and melodic guitar. Fantastic drums. Clean and awesome vocals. And last but not least, terrific lyrics. Buy this CD !

If you can picture what it would sound like if Yngwie Malmsteen and Jens Johannson (who actually does play on this album) played for Helloween back in the days of Keeper Part II, you would start to get an idea of just how powerful and unique this album is in terms of melody and power. This Finnish quintet have set a new modern standard to which all neo-classical powermetal bands will eventually be held to. You simply cannot go wrong by picking up this album. Musicianship and vocals are first rate. Key cuts are "Destiny", "S.O.S.", and "Anthem of the World". Buy, listen, and enjoy.

Destiny is a faithful follower to Visions in good and bad. If you liked Visions then you will like this one too. But if you are looking for something new you are out of luck. This was my most anticipated Strato album ever and I was so happy when it went straight to #1 in Finnish official Top40 chart. At first the music was everything I hoped for but later it started to bore me even more until came a time when I didn't listen to it at all for a long time. The reason was somewhat lack of originality compared to Visions which was something quite unique.

Today when I take this cd for a spin I like it again and think 'This wasn't so bad after all'. Albums starting from Visions are getting more and more epic all the time and it shows on this one too. Now there's 2 long epic tracks "Destiny" and "Anthem of the World" compared to Visions that had only one, the title track. But the most important thing with this album is that it's quite well balanced and it still ROCKS! "SOS" and "Playing with Fire" are the best songs on Destiny and show that Stratovarius hasn't forgot how to please a hard rock fan like me. The latter delivers one of the best performances ever from Kotipelto. His voice sounds perfect when he doesn't try to reach too high notes. The lyrics are about a man eagerly craving a divine woman, very traditional as they are but work everytime. Other great songs are "4000 Rainy Nights" which is a very nice yet quite soapy ballad, and impressive slow-paced "Venus in the Morning". "Rebel" has quite annoying guitars but nice chorus, "Years Go By" is a little pretentious but ends with a beautiful fading guitar solo, "Anthem of the World" has a very atmospheric beginning but get's quite boring towards the end.

In all a very solid release from a band that reached the peak of their career with this one. If there weren't an album called Visions I would give this 5 stars but now I'll take 1 out because of a lack of originality and a little weaker songs.