Stratovarius, who have worked for more than ten years with their melodic heavy metal is a typical example of a band who have turned the odds for their favour and have never given in to the trends. Today Strato's album sales are counted in hundreds of thousands and in Finalnd they received a Gold Disk for the surpassing of the 20 000 copies plateau with the sales of the "Visions" album from last year. What will the future hold for the new "Destiny" album?

As the figurehead of Stratovarius we've learnt to know the songwriter and guitar virtuoso Timo Tolkki. Tolkki arrives to the MIX interview alone because Timo Kotipelto and Jari Kainulainen are somewhere in Europe giving interviews and German drummer Jörg Michael is at home, as well as band's Swedish-born keyboardist Jens Johansson.

- It remains to be seen what will happen now. The band is ready. I talked with the guys before we went to studio because I had this feeling that this album will be something big. I asked them if they're ready to take what's coming our way, because all the signs are now visible. This isn't about what I believe anymore, this time I know what is happening. This isn't about my faith anymore.

- This is a sort of land slide which started when Jens and J|rg joined the band a couple of years ago, and now it can't be halted anymore. Formerly we were merely fiddling with little things, but now the thing are really happening. The following two or three years will be the best time this band has ever had.

"Destiny" is a fine and craftily executed domestic metal album, on which a number of evenly good songs form a great union with brilliant sounds. All this makes Stratovarius 7th studio effort a destined classic. Tolkki, however, isn't pleased with the treatment the band keeps getting in Finland.

- Well, it's a fact that we're the most successful Finnish band abroad. The amount we get press coverage in Finland is ridiculously little in comparison to what we sell. It only proves how condescending Finland is towards heavy metal. If a techno band sold as well as we do, or had as much audience on their shows, they'd be covered in the nine o'clock news. I fail to understand what are the reasons for disparaging heavy metal. You could say that heavy metal displays all the particles and elements of music, whereas techno is always the same. I see music as art, so that it should be about individuals who make the music and not just some techno hit-works spewing disposable music as if song-writing process was a factory line. On the other hand, "Destiny" is a very commercial album, maybe we can get some people off the bad influence with it. Because we have to listen to techno and alternative on the radio it would be only fair that the fans of the aforementioned genres would be forced to listen to heavy metal on radio and TV.

According to Tolkki's math, "Visions" has sold over a quarter of a million copies world-wide this far and the album is still selling well. Japan, Finland and Middle Europe have become the most important sales areas as of late, but there are more surprising places to balance the sales scales.

- In Korea "Visions" has sold some 130 000 copies. When I was there to do promotion with Jens, we were told that "Forever", one of the songs on "Episode" is the theme song of some local soap opera and this has caused the hordes to raid the record stores. No one knows how much "Destiny" will sell, but we have high expectations for it.

Stratovarius' popularity begins to be a threat for some more successful metal acts

- When we played at Gods of Metal festival in Italy, there were only Black Sabbath and Pantera playing after us. When we still had 10 to 15 minutes of playing time left, Pantera's managers told us to cut our set short. All this because we're more popular than Pantera in Italy, at least according to the sales figures. Someone had heard that Pantera's stage manager had told the organisers to "cut these sons of bitches off!!". I was just about to start to play the intro of a song, when suddenly the PA started to play Metallica. I got enormously upset and shouted at the stage manager for a couple of minutes but nothing was of any help, the decision was already been done. The had the power to do this because Black Sabbath and Pantera have the same management. If the organisers would have declined to cut us short, Black Sabbath wouldn't have come on stage either. To make my views known, I went back onstage and smashed my guitar while 25 000 people held their hands high. In the end it was our victory, sure everyone noticed what was going on and of course we remembered to repeat the happenings in all the interviews later on. Eventually it all turned back at Pantera. After the gig, when we signed stuff beside the stage, the same stage manager told us to stop it immediately, because the crowd was leaving the Pantera show in order to come for us to get their stuff signed. This is all so ridiculous, but it shows what the magnitude of things we're dealing with is now.

In Finland we will see Stratovarius onstage right after the release of "Destiny". They will play 14 shows and visit some places they haven't played in yet. After this it's time for the rest of the world to take their bows.