The history of this great band goes back to 1984 when it all started in Helsinki. The three men who founded Stratovarius was: drummer and vocalist Tuomo Lassila, bass player John Vihervä and guitarist Staffan Stråhlman. In the early days their music was very much nuder influence from Black Sabbath and Ozzie. By 1985  both  John and Staffan had decided that they no longer wanted to be a part of the band. They were replaced by Jyrki Lentonen on a bass and Timo Tolkki. These two had previously played together in a band called Road Block.

The vocal was after a while passed on to Timo because of Tuomo's vocal range. After they had sent demo tapes  (containing "Fright Night", "Future Shock" and "Night Screamer") to a few comanpanies in Finland, CBS Finland wanted to sign them after having seen them on a show at Tavastia Club in Helsinki. Antti Ikonen had also joined the band now on his keybord.

The first ever released by Stratovarius was the single "Future Shock/Witch Hunt" which came in 1988. This was followed by another single: "Black Night/Night Screamer" in the beginning of 1989. Then finally in 1989 their debut album came. "Fright Night" was a fact. After releasing it they went on playing lots of gigs. After all this Jyrki Lentonen decided to leave the band. For a short time Jari Behm was a part of Stratovarius, but was asked to leave because he didn't fit into the Stratovarius style of music.

Early in 1992 "Stratovarius II" was released in Finland. Stratovarius now realized that their market was outside Finland. They sent a lot of tapes around the world and endend up signing with Shar Records. In October 1992 "Stratovarius II" was released all over Europe under the new name "Twilight Time". After a short while the album was shipped to Japan and it was a huge success. It spent five months in top 10. It became the best selling imported album of 1993. Jari Kainulainen joined the band as their new Bass player.

Under the making of their third album Tuomo Lassila had a severe stress injury and was not capable of playing drums. As a result of this the drummer from Kingston Wall, Sami Kuoppamäki, played on four of the tracks.

I'll write more another time.....