Visions of Power [Import]

Visions of Power [Import]

Track Listings

1. Die In My Dreams

2. I Married A Witch

3. Visions Of Power

4. Seize Control

5. Tyrant Shadows

6. Veils Of Solemn Black

7. Bleeding Crystal Tears

8. Ritual Damnation

9. Nightmare Reality

10. Tragedy Divine

Tracks:

The Kiss Of Judas
Black Diamond
Forever Free
Before The Winter
Legions
The Abyss Of Your Eyes
Holy Light
Paradise
Coming Home
Visions (Southern Cross)

Album Description

U.S. debut for the progressive metal act's 1997 album. Contains 10 tracks, including the single 'Black Diamond'. A Noise Records release.

Album Details

Latest Release from These Heavy Metal Greats. Tracks Include Legions, Coming Home, Holy Light, Visions and More.

Customer Reviews:

Best Stratovarius Album.......2006-09-08

There are many albums by Stratovarius, but this one is likely the best, based on what I have heard and read. The album art is spectacular, which hints at what you are about to hear when you play the album. Sometimes the music sounds like it could help you soar above the clouds in a blissful Metal fantasy. If you like Stratovarius' style but don't already have this album, do yourself a favor and get it. You will not be disappointed.

The best Stratovarius album!.......2006-02-13

This is my favorite Stratovarius album. The band never sounded better. The writing is amazing and the vocals and guitar are mindblowing. This album sounds like a mix of Helloween, Dio, Iron Maiden, Yngwie Malmsteen, Rainbow, Queensryche and classic Stratovarius. This was the first Stratovarius album I bought and it blew my mind. This album made Stratovarius one of my all time favorite bands and made me go out and buy other Stratovarius albums.

1.The Kiss of Judas- 10/10 Amazing melodic opener. The opening keyboards and the intro riff are great. Kotipelto's vocals are excellent and the lyrics are great. The chorus is excellent too. This song has a strong 80's feel to it. The riff right before the solo is excellent too and the neo classical guitar and keyboard solos are excellent. Melodic metal at it's best.

2.Black Diamond- 10/10 The keyboards sound great on this fast song. Kotipelto's vocals are great and he does an excellent job of singing on such a fast song. The lyrics are excellent and Tolkii and Jens Johannsen's keyboard and guitar trade offs are excellent. Another classic.

3.Forever Free- 10/10 An excellent fast paced song with an excellent guitar riff. Kotipelto's vocals are excellent too. The lyrics are excellent too. Tolkii's melodic shredding solo is excellent too.

4.Before the Winter- 10/10 The soft intro is amazing. Kotipelto's vocals are great. This song shows off Kotipelto's range too. This song has a real mideval feel to it. Kotipelto's solo is amazing and it has a ton of feel and some excellent neo classical shredding. Another classic song and one of the best power ballads ever.

5.Legions- 10/10 Another classic song. the main riff sounds like Lightning Strikes by Ozzy and the neo classical guitar fill is awesome. Kotipelto's vocals are amazing and the the drums are great. Great solo by Tolkii again.

6.The Abyss of Your Eyes- 10/10 An excellent progressive song with a lot of changes. There is a heavy part, a really heavy part and a soft part. Kotipelto's vocals are amazing on this song. The keyboards work great and Timo Tolkii's solo is incredible. Another classic song!

7.Holy Light- 10/10 A great instrumental with exceptional playing from Timo Tolkii. This is up there with yngwie's instrumentals as far as neo classical instrumentals go. Very progressive and plenty of changes including a beautiful soft part.

8.Paradise- 8.5/10 Another good song. Timo Kotipelto's quiet vocals sound like Bruce Dickinson. Probably the worst song on this album. I don't why but the feel of the song just isnt't that good. Kotipelto's vocals are good but really not one of the better songs.

9.Coming Home- 10/10 Another amazing power ballad. The arrangement is incredible and Kotipelto's soft vocals are amazing and when the song goes into the heavy part Kotipelto's vocals soar! The lyrics are great and the solo is amazing and rivals any Yngwie Malmsteen solo. The solo has a ton of emotion and shredding.

10.Visions (Southern Cross)- Stratovarius' best song ever! An epic over 10 minutes long! Rainbow has Stargazer, Iron Maiden has Hallowed Be Thy Name, Deep Purple has Child In Time and Stratovarius has Visions(Southern Cross). This is there big masterpeice. The lyrics are excellent and the riff is great. The drums and bass are amazing. The use of keyboards is great on this song too. Kotipelto's first high high note is excellent but he belts out even higher notes later on! The demonic voice sounds great and the soft part of the song is incredible. Timo Tolkii's solo has a lot of feel and fits the song perfect.The high note right before the solo is incredible and shows that Timo Kotipelto's vocal range is over 4 octaves! An amazing epic that is one of the best songs of all time. Kotipelto's ending note hold leads into a great voice telling a short story.

This album is a metal milestone and is up there with Rainbow Rising, Dio Magica, Iron Maiden Number Of The Beast ect. This album has everything mind blowing vocals and guitar, great songwriting, an awesome instrumental, slower rockers, fast songs, epics, ballads everything. Visions (Southern Cross) is one of the best songs ever. This is an album that any metal fan will love.

Timo Kotipelto- Vocals
Timo Tolkki- Guitar
Jorg Michael- Drums
Jari Kainulainen- Bass
Jens Johansson- Keyboards

Don't listen to these people who say that this is the best.......2006-01-24

The true bands best recordings are Fright Night,Dreamspace and Fourth Dimension. They have more creativity and originality.

When I bought this album and listened first I thought it was masterpiece, but I don't think it anymore. It's because of that god damn Jorg Michael's addiction to double bass drums that spoils these tracks: Legions ( despite the good melody ), Holy light ( this instrumental song isn't bad at all; Jens Johansson the keyboardist , playing harphischord, incredibly manages to follow Timo Tolkki in his turbo soloing, putting the musical notes at the same speed as him, Wow!) , Visions and Forever free
( I hate these 2 songs , they suck! )
Another reason to hate Forever free is the chorus. Magnification.
Equal to Episode's (album) Father time.
Happily ,Jorg Michael, stopped with these annoying repetitions in the 2005 release. Now I forgive him.

These 3 songs are killer:

The Kiss of Judas:
The song that introduced me to Stratovarius.
It has the best drumming peformance by Jorg in the band's history to me besides his multiple flaws.
The solos ( keyboard and guitar) are really fabulous.
Surely it's one of most techically difficult guitar solos that Tolkki even invented. Watch him doing it at the clip and you'll see what I mean. He's a guitar monster, and one of my idols of this genre.
Another wonder in this track is the ending: the chorus in a different tone that gives a gorgeous feel. One of the best endings Strato ever done.

The abyss of your eyes: It starts with a muffled guitar.
No comments:very well played.The bridge and the ending are
amazing.

Coming home: The best ballad of Timo Kotipelto's times. Beautiful.

Black Diamond was one of the singles. The riffing is cool and enjoyable and fits perfectly with the harphischord. It's the
only one where the double bass drum doesn't disturb.
The chorus is another goodie.
" Paradise" is catchy.

Visions (1997 release) has more hits than mistakes and still worths your money.

Now I?ve listened to all studio albums and that?s my sincere opinion from best to worse:

1. Fright Night
2. Dreamspace / Fourth Dimension
3. Visions
4. Infinite / Elements part II / Stratovarius 2005
5. Intermission
6. Episode / Destiny
7. Twilight time
8. Elements part I

Buy in this order if you want to be a completist.It?s really difficult for these finnish to do a perfect record and Fright night came closer. You can see that 2 of the releases on the
top of the list are with Timo Tolkki on lead. The consistency of the songs overall was my standard.
The recipe to be perfect: the repetitive double bass drum loss was the first step , Timo Kotipelto is an extraordinary singer, but Tolkki could get more courage to sing together with him or do backing vocals at least,
put some more skilful guitar/ keyboard solos per album ,forget the ballads without electric guitar ( "drop in the ocean and celestial dream " - like ) and get back with that instrumental songs , with the same quality as Fire Dance or Stratovarius where Tolkki shows why he is number 84 in a list of the best guitarists of all time.
The worse mistake in the double bass drumming was the IDENTICAL rhythm in the songs:
Find your own voice and Father time ( arrgh ), anthem of the world, learning to fly , freedom ( not 100%,but close enough), glory of the world, legions, visions, tomorrow , speed of light , no turning back and stratosphere.

Now this rocks.......2006-01-11

Yep indeed, a concerted head bang from all around. This album won so many converts to the Stratovarius cause it's just not funny. Polished lyrically and production wise with more grunt under the bonnet than most of this bands product. Stuff like Kiss of Judas and Black Diamond - this stuff is just quality with even Classic Rock mag calling the latter track 'Teeth Rattling'. And that's not a mag that is a fan of Stratovarius style music.
This is the album to get in order to be acquainted with this fine band from finland.

Instant Classic.......2005-07-01

Visions re-defined the sound of 90's Power Metal. One of the greatest albums in this genre and the one that inspired many forthcoming bands, and sadly yes, copied by so many bands nowadays. Visions totally blew my mind when I first heard it and "Kiss of Judas" is still one of my very favourites with unbelievably haunting melody and superb guitar solo and drumming. Other great songs are "Black Diamond" (or is it "Live Diamond", heh), atmospheric "The Abyss of Your Eyes", catchy "Paradise" and beautiful "Coming Home". I've always liked more of mid-tempo and emotional Stratovarius songs over those speedy ones.

I still rank Episode a little higher than Visions, because it was more emotional and humble effort with better lyrics. Visions is somewhat easier and slightly more commercial than previous albums. Still, all Strato albums following this one feel more or less insignificant and I think Stratovarius will never achieve the same sheer power of Visions. It's almost perfect album when it comes into this kind of music. Recommended!

Sacred Drum Visions: 20th Anniversary Collection

Average customer rating:

Great listening music
20 Years of Sacred Musical Vision

Sacred Drum Visions: 20th Anniversary Collection
David and Steve Gordon
Manufacturer: Sequoia Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Similar Items:

Drum Medicine
Sacred Earth Drums
Drum Prayer
Sacred Spirit Drums
Shaman's Vision Journey

ASIN: B000062Y9N
Release Date: 2002-03-05

Tracks:

Faithkeeper (Part 1 - New)
Sunrise Ritual (Deep Earth Mix)
Empowered
Path With A Heart
Light Of The Canyon (New)
Flowering Tree
Guardian Spirit
Spiritwalk
Return Journey
Faithkeeper (Part 2 - New)

Album Description

Feel the peaceful power of Tribal Drums and the serene beauty of Native Flutes, as they join with Incan Pan Pipes, acoustic guitars, Lakota and Sanskrit chants, world-trance grooves, and sounds of nature. This 20th anniversary collection from award-winning artists David and Steve Gordon includes tracks from their #1 selling releases including tracks from Sacred Earth Drums, Sacred Spirit Drums and Drum Medicine, plus three completely new and inspiring songs. Healing Shaman rhythms and ancient sounds center your body and mind, connecting you with the Earth's wisdom.

Customer Reviews:

Great listening music.......2006-07-11

The Gordons know how to relax you. Great listening pleasure with a light Native American touch. This particular CD spans their music career from there previous CD's plus 3 new ones.

20 Years of Sacred Musical Vision.......2002-12-27

What a gift ! I feel incredibly fortunate to have been given the gift of the Gordon's 20th anniversary compilation album Sacred Drum Visions from my wife for the holidays. It is trully an exceptional collection and likely my favorite of the all the Gordon's releases thus far, as it contains many of the best tracks from their incredible highly-acclaimed native music series including Sacred Earth Drums, Sacred Spirit Drums and Drum Medicine as well as 3 magnificent new tracks. The Gordon brothers music has really evolved in a number of unique ways over the years. And though their music stems from a native American influence it artfully combines sounds and instumentation from many indigenous cultures from around the world, making their sound trully universal; and this clearly shines through in this compilation. Perhaps the best thing about this particular release is the perfectly sequenced flow of each track into the next creating a sonic journey that reaches back in time and trancends the mundane world taking the listener on a journey of the Spirit and the Imagination. The 3 new tracks are really exceptional gems. I particularly like Faithkeeper Part I, which opens the CD and Light of the Canyon, the jewel within the center of these tracks. This CD is far more than a retrospective of the Gordon's amazing body of work, it is a powerful, transformative and healing musical journey of the heart. I highly recommend it.

Average customer rating:

Best concert I have ever heard!
Great live recording, high energy + clear sound quality
BACKING VOCAL TAPES, STOP!!!!!!!!
This just makes me wonder....
Good cd for Novice and Experienced listeners of Stratovaius

Live Visions of Europe
Stratovarius
Manufacturer: Noise
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Similar Items:

Dreamspace
Visions
Twilight Time
Intermission
Episode

ASIN: B000009E88
Release Date: 1998-08-04

Tracks:

INTRO
FOREVER FREE
KISS OF JUDAS
FATHER TIME
DISTANT SKIES
SEASON OF CHANGE
SPEED OF LIGHT
TWILIGHT SYMPHONY
HOLY SOLOS
VISIONS - Tolkki
WILL THE SUN RISE -
FOREVER FREE - Tolkki
BLACK DIAMOND -
AGAINS THE WIND -
PARADISE -
LEGIONS - Tolkki

Tracks:

Visions
Will The Sun Rise?
Forever
Black Diamond
Against The Wind
Paradise
Legions

Customer Reviews:

Best concert I have ever heard!.......2006-03-11

This live album kicks ass. My favorites were Father Time, Forever Free and the best one in here was Holy Solos: The duel between the guitarist, Timo Tolki and the keyboardist, Jens Johansson was incredible!! What I like about Stratovarius is the vocals from Timo Kotipelto. The entire concert was great.

Great live recording, high energy + clear sound quality.......2005-03-09

Pay no attention to that other reviewer... What backing-vocal tapes? That reviewer was smoking crack. OK, this CD features some of Stratovarius's best material, recorded on their Visions of Europe tour (in Italy and Greece). It has a surprisingly clear sound for a live recording, the drums in particular sound amazing! They are such a high energy live act, they prove on this recording they can keep up with Slayer, Destruction, or any of the more aggressive acts, without losing their trademark melodic sound. Normally I'm not a big fan of ballads, but when they play "Forever", the WHOLE crowd sings along, which is incredible. And don't listen to anybody who says they are "dull" in concert, on this CD you get a little of everything: fast songs, slow songs, solos, Timo Kotipelto working the crowd with his: "oh, oh-oh oh oh" bit (yeah, it's a little reminiscent of Queen, but so what!) - Stratovarius is an arena-level act, that's part of the gig.

BACKING VOCAL TAPES, STOP!!!!!!!!.......2004-10-25

Any band that uses backing vocal tapes and instrument tapes might as well be shot off the face of the earth, it's weak and pathetic, and Stratovarius is the ultimate crime.

Timo Tolkki proved he could sing on the earlier albums, WHY THE HELL doesn't he sing? How about the bass and keyboard player? Are they only musically inclined in their instrument with the inability to do harmonies with Timo?

This performace is pathetic because of the backing tapes alone. It's the ultimate showing of weakness in a band where they need the CD studio song to back them up live rather than making their music themselves on stage raw.

Strato, regardless of your great energy and incredible studio and songwriting skill, YOU SUCK LIVE.

This just makes me wonder...........2001-02-03

Ok,I must admit it.When I first listened to this CD,what I thought was that the guys were a real top quality live act.They sounded clear,and neat,no mistakes,and Kotipelto sounded good.But after attending a Strato live show,I wonder how the guys did it on this CD.I was upset when I had the chance of seeing them live.This CD was what made me run to buy the tickets for the show!!!I thought that they would sound as good as they did in this!!!But no.Kotipelto is a horrid live singer(I guess that some rabid Strato fans just don't notice that),and the set was plain and without grace.To me,now it's better to listen to this CD than remembering the absolutely forgettable and non repeatable experience of going to a live gig of this guys.

Good cd for Novice and Experienced listeners of Stratovaius.......2000-09-25

WHAT IS PLAYED: Of the 15 songs performed, 2/3rds are from the "Visions" (5 songs) and "Episode" (5 songs) cds with another 3 songs coming from the "Fourth Dimension" cd.

SOUND and PERFORMANCE: The production is superb and the performance is tight where band is playing together as a unit without getting in each others way, yet not rigid that the live songs are not just copies of the studio versions.

There is plenty of guitar and keyboard soloing not found in the studio versions of certain songs that add a dimension to them and avoid being a vehicle to showcase the 'chops' of the musicians.

RECOMMENDATION If you have both "Visions" and "Episode" cds, this cd will showcase many of such studio recordings being played live with the added dimension mentioned above

If you are unfamilar with Stratovarius's sound this is a good cd to investigate them.

If you like what you hear, I recommend you get the studio versions of "Visions" and "Destiny" where the other songs not played on this cd are just as well done.

This cd is a good representation of Stratovarius's overall sound, which does not change all that much throughout their recordings, BUT, why should they when they do something so well.

In other words, Stratovarius is Blues equivilant of Power/Progressive metal

To quote Frank Zappa: "While (Bluesman) Elmore James basically played the same slide guitar style in all his recordings, they were still great because when he did it you know he ment it"

For the value it offers plus the production and performance makes this cd a 9/10

The Power and the Glory Vol. 1
Average customer rating:
The Power and the Glory Vol. 1

Manufacturer: CELESTIAL VISIONS
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD
ASIN: B00064ZB8G

Product Description

VOLUME 1

Average customer rating:

Visions of Power
Tragedy Divine
Manufacturer: Colos
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B00000AZ9V
Release Date: 1997-04-01

Tracks:

Die In My Dreams
I Married A Witch
Visions Of Power
Seize Control
Tyrant Shadows
Veils Of Solemn Black
Bleeding Crystal Tears
Ritual Damnation
Nightmare Reality
Tragedy Divine

Average customer rating:

Out of Place
Sonic Pulsar
Manufacturer: Mello
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B000CAGMGE
Release Date: 2006-05-08

Tracks:

Out of Place
Burning Inside Me
Schizophrenic Playground
Always Knew
Chain of Actions
I Heard of a Place Called Earth
Ghosts of the Lost Planes
Solitary Star
Instrumetal
Moving Engines
Time Has Been Broken

Average customer rating:

Cryptic Visions
Cryptic Visions
Manufacturer: Rapidfire Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Tracks:

Phoenix Rising
Cemetery Man
Street Anger
Eternal Dreams
The Devil Showed Me
Rushed
The Band Plays On
Blood In The Sand
Can't Stop The Pain
Die For Me
Battles End

Album Description

Cryptic Visions is a Melodic Power Metal band. Together for just over a year, their 11 song debut CD showcases the bands diverse talents, playing bone crushing metal to ambient progressive melodies. Having positive reviews from many corners of the globe, the bands debut CD should be listened to by fans of: Fates Warning,Dream Theater,Dio,Rush,Pantera and early Queensryche. Two of the members were formerly in the popular speed metal band "Tyrant's Reign". Don't miss this debut CD - powerful, melodic with progressive elements and time changes. Sure to be a classic.

Average customer rating:

One of the Best Stratovarius' albums

Visions
Stratovarius
Manufacturer: Vic
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B000006ZJK
Release Date: 1997-04-30

Tracks:

Black Diamond
Kiss of Judas
Forever Free
Before the Winter
Legions
Abyss of Your Eyes
Holy Light
Paradise
Coming Home
Visions
Black Diamond [*][Demo Version]
Uncertainty [Live][*]
4th Reich [Live][*]

Album Description

Japanese edition of the heavy metal veteran's 1997 album with two bonus tracks, 'Black Diamond' (Live) and 'Uncertainly' (Demo). 12 tracks total. A Victor release.

Customer Reviews:

One of the Best Stratovarius' albums.......2000-12-09

what can i say? this album is really great, all the songs are awesome. but when i heard the two bonus tracks i got really shocked....how can you make a Demo version that is as good as the final version??? i really don't know.....this album is one of my favorites, all the songs are really really good and it includes my favorite song "Paradise", wow, if you have the money, dont hesitate, buy the extra tracks Visions, it's much better than the normal one.

Average customer rating:

Visions
Stratovarius
Manufacturer: Noise
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B000PFU6RW
Release Date: 2007-07-17

Tracks:

Kiss of Judas
Black Diamond
Forever Free
Before the Winter
Legions
Abyss of Your Eyes
Holy Light
Paradise
Coming Home
Visions (Southern Cross)

Album Description

2007 digitally remastered reissue of this Finnish Metal band's 1997 album. 10 tracks. Noise.

Average customer rating:

Visions
Stratovarius
Manufacturer: Jvc Japan
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B00005V2UH
Release Date: 2002-02-21

Tracks:

Black Diamond
Kiss of Judas
Forever Free
Before the Winter
Legions
Abyss of Your Eyes
Holy Light
Paradise
Coming Home
Visions
Black Diamond [*][Demo Version]
Uncertainty [Live][*]
4th Reich [Live][*]

Album Description

Japanese limited edition of the progressive metal act's 1997 album includes three bonus tracks, 'Black Diamond' (Demo Version), 'Uncertainty' (Live Version) & '4th Reich' (Live Version). 2002.

Album Details

Japanese Version features a Bonus Track: '4th Reich (Live Version)'

Music Info: