Stratovarius - Fright Night
CBS Records
Heavy Metal
9 songs (40:30)
Release year: 1989
Stratovarius
Reviewed by Brent
Archive review

With the recent reuniting of Stratovarius, I decided to review this album, because it is one of my favorites from them and it seemed fitting. It is definitly not one of the albums they are really known for, because it isn't really in the style that they were known for writing in. It is more like a mixture of Power Metal (very little), Heavy Metal, and maybe even (dare I say) a touch of Thrash Metal. As you might already know, Kotipelto doesn't sing on this album, Tolkki plays guitar and does vocals, and he does a pretty damn good job in my opinion, but still doesn't touch the mighty Kotipelto.

With the opening riff of the album, you think that it might be like any other Stratovarius record, but I assure you it isn't. The album starts off with "Future Shock", and pretty much sets the tone for the rest of the album. "False Messiah" is next, and I really love the opening riff of this one, nice guitar work, but I wouldn't expect any less from Timo. Yet another scorcher, "Black Night" is next. "Witch-Hunt" is next, nice chorus in this one, really catchy. Next up is the first instrumental on the album, "Fire Dance" and I might get flamed for this, but I think it sounds a little like slowed down Iced Earth at parts, or vice versa seeing that this came out earlier. "Fright Night" comes next and this is the main song that I mentioned having the thrash influence, one of my favorites on the album. Carrying on, we have "Night Screamer", another catchy chorus and also some more good guitar work. "Darkness", probably being the most Power Metal song on the album, shows a bit more of what was to come on future albums. Closing out the album, the acoustical instrumental "Goodbye", is by far the slowest and softest song on the album, but still a good one nonetheless.

From when this album came out, right on up to Elements Pt. 2, you can really tell that the band matured and also pioneered a genre along with Helloween, Gamma Ray, and even know they are more recent, Hammerfall and Sonata Arctica. Definitly a gem in my collection and I was really surprised when I bought it at Progpower 4. It has turned out to probably be my favorite Stratovarius disc, and I for one am curious as to what this album would have sounded like with Kotipelto on vocals. Now all I can hope for is for Stratovarius to make it over here on a tour or perhaps Progpower 6. When I met Timo K. at Progpower this past year, he said he would love to get over here, so maybe it is possible.

Killing Songs :
They all stand out pretty much equally
Brent quoted 80 / 100
Jay quoted 50 / 100
Mike quoted 52 / 100
Other albums by Stratovarius that we have reviewed:
Stratovarius - Dreamspace reviewed by Ben and quoted 80 / 100
Stratovarius - Nemesis reviewed by Chris and quoted 97 / 100
Stratovarius - Elysium reviewed by Kyle and quoted 86 / 100
Stratovarius - Polaris reviewed by Marty and quoted 85 / 100
Stratovarius - Stratovarius reviewed by Jeff and quoted 75 / 100
To see all 14 reviews click here
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