[TheGraveDigger]

This is indeed sad news to me. Stratovarius is one of my all time favorite bands. During the year 2000 I was just getting into heavy metal. Iron Maiden was the band that got me into the genre. I was into Judas Priest, Ozzy, Pantera, King Diamond, Motley Crue, KISS, Ratt, all that kind of good stuff that the average 80's metal fan listened to. One day my friend Rich played me Stratovarius when we were in his car going to the mall and I was blown away. 'Twilight Time' was the album and I loved what I was hearing. This opened the doors to Blind Guardian, Helloween, Edguy, Brainstorm, Iced Earth and all the great power metal bands that I currently love. Stratovarius to me have created some of the greatest music in the history of metal. I am glad to say that I have seen them peform live in America 3 times (twice at BB Kings in NYC and once at the Trocadero in Philly). They were great shows to me and I am sad to hear that the band was not really getting a long especially during the last one. I will surely miss them but I respect what Timo Tolkki did here. Sure he aired some dirty laundry but I feel it is better that we know the story like this so we know what really went on rather than have maybe false hope that this is temporary and they will be back again. I will forever love this band I am definitely going to bust out Twilight Time tomorrow to bring me back to when I first heard them and listen to all their albums this week.