The Battle For Stratovarius

02/13/2012
. (Rock News Desk) Former Stratovarius leading light Timo Tolkki has slammed the current incarnation of the band as a "simple franchise" without soul, and says it will split within the next five years.

His outburst comes after the outfit responded to his request to use a variant of the band name with what he calls a "vicious" lawyer's letter.

The drama arose after the guitarist, songwriter and producer opened discussions with other former band members about working on a follow-up to 1994 album Dreamspace. Tolkki, who left the power metal band in 2008, tells Rock Overdose: "Me, Tuomo Lassila, the founding member of Stratovarius, and Antti Ikonen have talked about making an album called Return to Dreamspace. I wrote to Stratovarius and asked if we could use the name for this one album because there is the founding member of the band involved, who invented the name. We got a vicious letter from their lawyer, saying we'd be sued immediately if we used the name." And about that prediction for the band?

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