Metal Mania Community

After being dropped by CBS, the band went through several member changes, but they managed to release the album Stratovarius II on Bluelight Records, which was re-released as Twilight Time through Noise Records. In 1994 they released their third album, Dreamspace, featuring new bass player Jari Kainulainen, who joined the band when 70% of the new material was already recorded. Tolkki decided to stop singing for the band, and they hired a full-time singer, Timo Kotipelto. The release of Fourth Dimension in 1995 was a huge success for the band, but internal differences, particularly of the style the band was going for, prompted the departure of long-time drummer Tuomo Lassila and keyboardist Antti Ikonen. Two new non-Finnish members were recruited: Swedish keyboardist Jens Johansson, of Yngwie Malmsteen fame; and German drummer Jörg Michael. With the fifth release Episode, Stratovarius had finally found its sound and had a strong, diverse line-up. Episode was a grand project, featuring a large choir and a string orchestra. It was another huge success and is considered by most power metal fans as Stratovarius's best album.

This line-up released three rather successful albums over the years: Visions in 1997, Destiny in 1998, and Infinite in 2000. With every album, their fame and fan-base expanded, and they started gaining a stronger following outside Scandinavia, particularly in Japan.

In 2003, the band released its most epic project yet, the two album suite named Elements. With these albums, they reached a peak in their progressive and symphonic style of power-metal. The first album, Elements, Pt. 1, was released in early 2003, followed by a world tour. Elements, Pt. 1 was followed by Elements, Pt. 2, also released on Nuclear Blast records in the same year.

In late 2003, the band broke up, with Timo Kotipelto and Jörg Michael leaving after a very vaguely explained conflict. Tolkki hired a new singer, Katriina "Miss K" Wiiala, and Anders Johansson of Hammerfall (Jens' brother) temporarily on drums. The rest of 2004 saw virtually complete silence from the band.

Timo Tolkki, who had been publishing several weird notes on Stratovarius' website, was hospitalized and recovered from a mental illness he was going through. In January 2005 it was announced that Stratovarius had reunited with the former line-up. In June 2005, Tolkki announced that the band's bassist, Jari Kainulainen, had left the band due to personal reasons. He was since replaced by Lauri Porra.

Stratovarius then released the self-titled album Stratovarius in September 2005. During this time, Stratovarius began a world tour, starting in Argentina, which included a North American leg, where they toured the United States and Canada for the first time in the band's history. They played at such events as Atlanta's "Prog Power", and in well known venues such as "B.B. King's House Of Blues" in New York and Philadelphia's "Trocadero Theatre". The tour also included European and Japanese cities. The band is set to release a new studio album (Currently codenamed R.... R.....) in early 2008, which eleven tracks have been written for it. Timo Tolkki has stated that the album will be released before a "massive world tour."