Stratovarius - Fourth Dimension (1995)

After something of a blah streak (helped by The Human League's OCTOPUS - ****), I needed something to ignite me, and Stratovarius came to the rescue!
With Timo Tolkki passing vocal duties onto namesake and new member Timo Kotipelto (although the former still does back up), this fourth album from my favourite Finnish band (so far) starts with the flying "Against The Wind", which suggets it's going to be a freewheeling piece of speedy and melodious power metal throughout. This is not so, but that doesn't mean there isn't plenty of good stuff here.
"Galaxies" is also worthwhile, as is the ballad "Nightfall", while the six minute instrumental "Stratovarious" demonstrates Tolkki's desire to incorporate more classical stylings. Mind you, that isn't the only track to demonstrate that; "Twilight Symphony" does it pretty well too, including having a short string quartet passage (I'm assuming there were four of them). The lyrics are also well meaning, with "We Hold The Key" speaking about looking after the Earth or we'll have no future, etc, although the sombre "Winter" laments depression.
Overall, Fourth Dimension (the first of several of the band's records to have artwork I really like) still has the band finding its identity but, like the previous DREAMSPACE, there's much to enjoy.
Keyboardist Antti Ikonen and drummer Tuomo Lassila left afterwards.

***1/2