STRATOVARIUS: Pictures From Santiago Show Online, Band Celebrates 50th Show With New Guitarist Matias Kupianen

Powermetal.cl has posted 42 pictures from STRATOVARIUS' October 16th show in Santiago, Chile. Go to this location to check them out.

In other news, bassist Lauri Porra issued the following update on October 14th:

"Today we celebrate the 50th show of Matias Kupianen.

Matias has truly gone a long way since the time we took him to Lappajärvi to try the new Polaris material one and a half year ago. He has shown not only to be a great guitarist, composer and a performer but also a great guy and a true member of the band. I (Lauri) cannot remember when was the last time I had such great time on tour. I really hope all of you enjoy his presence and music as much as we do."

We had a fantastic time playing at the packed The End club in Buenos Aires, Argentina. We thank you all from the depths of our hearts."

BW&BK recently caught up with Stratovarius frontman Timo Kotipelto to discuss the band's new album, Polaris, their first without guitarist / songwriter Timo Tolkki. A new excerpt from the interview is available below:

Polaris is new territory for Kotipelto, Johansson and Michael. They had free reign to compose and arrange material as they saw fit, responsible only to themselves rather than having to concern themselves with how “the boss” (ex-guitarist Timo Tolkki) would feel about their ideas. An odd and slightly unnerving position to be in according to Kotipelto.

“In the beginning there was a sense of freedom, of course, but because Timo composed almost everything before we weren’t sure of how the new album would sound. We didn’t plan on having these kinds of songs. We just put some ideas together and this is what happened. It worked out pretty well having four composers on this album, and even though Joerg didn’t write anything he was involved in arranging the songs. I don’t know how the fans will react, but there were some negative reactions from the beginning because Timo is no longer involved. The fans were afraid of how the album would sound without him, but hopefully they will be pleasantly surprised when they hear it.”

Go to this location for the complete story. A BraveWords.com photo gallery from the band's recent New York City show can be found here.