Stratovarius-Infinite

Armoury
2000/2010

This was the eighth album from Stratovarius and was originally released in 2000. Before this album they had possibly hit their creative peak in the mid to late 1990's. While Infinite is a good album it saw the band slowing down and re-hashing previous material at times. So at the time it was perhaps the first time in the band's career where they were moving backwards rather than forwards. The re-issue includes a second disc which includes rarities, demo tracks and live songs. The second disc certainly compliments Infinite. The style of the rarities is similar with heavy emphasis on melodies and it is close to the approach of the tracks on Infinite. The demos are of Hunting High and Low and Millennium while the live tracks are Phoenix and Infinity. So all versions of tracks from Infinite. A decent bonus disc although your view of Infinite will probably dictate what you think of it. Overall a decent package that's likely to deal to die hard fans more than anyone else.