Some said they'd break up. Some said they were done. A lot of people thought 'what the hell? that's can't be right!'. And it isn't!

Stratovarius are here for one final word with their fans...one final word just before they take a break for a year or so (hehehe - you really thought they'd split up?). After their great success with 'Infinite' which is considered to be their Best - all time - Album and after having a great Tour for the album, Stratovarius decided that they'd release something Special for all the Strato-fans just before they took some time off for themselves. You know, people have got personal lives too, it can't always be a constant race for Albums. I mean...Hey, OK, they've done so much for the Fans already, let's let them take a rest.

So, Strato-fans, here it is. 'Intermission', a Special gift from Stratovarius to all you out there. But what's this 'Intermission' album all about? I hope you didn't expect a hard worked album with super ass-kicking tracks and stuff that will take your breath away. I mean, not after all the Touring the guys had, just to make you happier. 'Intermission' is a combination of various things like unreleased tracks, bonus tracks, cover songs and a few new ones etc. But let's start from the top and move downwards as I explain...

There are four new songs as you might have already noticed from the track-list. There's no actual 'speed' in them as you're mostly used to 'fast' Power Melodies by Stratovarius. Well, the only fast one is 'The Curtains Are Falling'. 'Will My Soul Ever Rest In Peace' is a really beautiful song and I'm sure it will be one of your favorite songs on this album. 'Will My Soul Ever Rest In Peace' and 'Falling Into Fantasy' were specially recorded for this album while 'The Curtains Are Falling' was a leftover track from the recordings of the 'Infinite' album. 'Requiem' was a live-intro which they used for their shows until the 'Destiny' Tour. The two cover songs for Judas Priest and Rainbow ('Bloodstone' and 'Kill The King') were taken from Tribute Albums to these legendary bands and well OK, I personally prefer listening to the original songs anyway (I guess it's a sort of fetish! hehe)...There's also another cover song of 'I Surrender' but I'd include that in the two live songs 'Intermission' has. The other one is none other than the great 'Hunting High & Low' which so many of us love listening to over and over again! From this point on, all the rest of the tracks are bonus tracks from Japanese versions. For example, 'Cold Winter Night' is a bonustrack from the European version of 'Destiny', 'It's A Mystery' is from the '7inch' single and 'When The Night Meets The Day' is a Japanese bonustrack. Nothing that much exciting I must say. They're nice songs but nothing you've probably NOT heard of (if you're a 'searching' kind of Strato-fan).

Therefore, the conclusion is that Stratovarius released this sort of compilation just to make it easier for the fans to gather up 'missing' stuff. See it as a small gift from Stratovarius to all of you, just before they take a one-year break. And as Stratovarius say (and want it to be said): 'So it's more like for all the fans who'd like to have all the material we have recorded but as I said it's not a full album so we don't want to promote it with a tour either...so we are not putting out a single, we are not putting out a video either' - Jorg Michael.

Till Stratovarius return, next year, go through all of your Strato-albums and of course add this one to your collection...