Stratovarius played on the 14th of June at Rockin' Transilvania as the headliners of the festival. The concert was part of the tour promoting their twelfth album "Polaris", that features two new members, bassist Lauri Porra and guitarist Matias Kupiainen, who is replacing Timo Tolkki, a long-time member of the band and the main songwriter for many years.
In spite of performing live for the first time in Romania, by the time the concert started it was obvious that the majority of the audience had come to see Stratovarius, so that one could barely hear Timo Kotipelto's voice during the first song of the concert, "Hunting High And Low", because it was covered by the huge number of fans singing along. Many classic songs like "The Kiss Of Judas", "Speed Of Light", "Forever", "Eagleheart", or "A Million Light Years Away" were the highlights of the concert, and Kotipelto was once again joined in singing by most of the fans.
Only three songs from the "Polaris" album were included in the setlist: "Higher We Go", "Winter Skies", and "Deep Unknown", three very powerful songs that managed to create a small sample of the album and attract the fans' attention. Once again, the number of the people attending the concert was not bigger than 800, but the band seemed to have a great time on stage and they managed to combine some of their biggest hits with songs from the new album and also songs that hadn't been performed in a long time, like "Will The Sun Rise?", in a way that they proved they can still write good songs and also that they are not that different from the old Stratovarius at the same time.
Closing the concert with what is most likely their most known song, "Black Diamond", Stratovarius' show was the perfect ending for a festival where other big names like Jon Oliva's Pain, Bonfire, In Extremo and Korpiklaani had also performed.
More pictures at this location.
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