Elysium is the thirteenth studio album by power metal band Stratovarius, released on 12 January 2011 through Victor Entertainment (Japan) and on 14 January through Edel AG (worldwide). It is the last Stratovarius album to feature longtime drummer Jörg Michael, who left the band in 2012. Elysium reached No. 1 on the Finnish albums chart, as well as reaching the top 80 in five other countries."Stratovarius - Elysium (album)". finnishcharts.com. Hung Medien. Retrieved 2014-01-10. "Darkest Hours" was released as a single, reaching No. 4 on the Finnish singles chart.
Overview The official track listing for Elysium was first announced by keyboardist Jens Johansson on the forum of the band's website on 8 November 2010.Johansson, Jens (2010-11-08). ""Darkest Hours" single teaser!". Stratovarius Community Forum. Retrieved 2014-01-10. The album was released on four different formats: a regular CD; a deluxe Digipak edition CD with a bonus disc containing demos of the entire album; a double-disc collector's edition CD with two bonus tracks on a 7" single; and on vinyl. At a length of 18:07, Elysium'''s title track is by far the longest Stratovarius song to date. The album cover art was created by Gyula Havancsák and features the same star-shaped spacecraft from Polaris'' (2009).
Critical reception The album was met with positive reviews Paul Elliot writing for Louder Sound wrote “for connoisseurs of histrionic heavy metal, it doesn’t get much better than this.”
Track listing
Personnel Stratovarius Timo Kotipelto – lead vocals Matias Kupiainen – guitar, keyboard programming, engineering, mixing (tracks 3, 4, 8, 9), production Jens Johansson – keyboard Jörg Michael – drums Lauri Porra – bass, keyboard programming
Additional credits Risto Kupiainen – keyboard programming, orchestral arrangement (track 3, 10), orchestral programming (tracks 1, 3, 10), choir programming (tracks 4, 9) Perttu Vänskä – orchestral arrangement (tracks 1, 2, 4, 9), orchestral programming (tracks 2, 4, 9), engineering, editing Arzka Sievälä – choir Jani Liimatainen – choir Aleksi Parviainen – choir Tipe Johnson – choir Anssi Stenberg – choir Marko "Hepa" Waara – choir Kalle Keski-Orvola – engineering, editing Santtu Lehtiniemi – engineering (guitar) Mikko Karmila – mixing (tracks 1, 2, 5–7) Svante Försback – mastering
Charts Chart (2011) Peakposition
References
External links Elysium at stratovarius.com
See also List of number-one albums of 2011 (Finland)