The Metal Files

So at the time that this album came out in 1997 I had already started my little online  record store called Acacia Music that mostly sold stuff on eBay and on my old website.  I was buying most of my stuff from metal Blade and Century Media directly as they were able to get good priced metal imports to me at wholesale prices.  I got to know these guys pretty well and went to LA in Sept/97 to visit with both companies.  It was a wonderful experience and I got turned on to a lot of newer bands via that business.

Stratovarius was one of those bands.

While all of their albums are pretty consistent, Visions is the one for me.  I really don’t need anything else by them except maybe the corresponding live album which is also pretty awesome.

There’s nothing that I can really sad negative about Visions.  It’s powerful.  It’s emotional.  It’s heavy.  It’s tasteful.  I would rank this the best euro-power metal album of the 90s easily with Helloween being the best of the 80s.