UMUR
"Fright Night" is the debut full-length studio album by Finnish power metal act Stratovarius. The album was released through CBS Finland in May 1989. Stratovarius formed under the Black Water monicer in August 1984 but changed their name to the current one in 1985. The band released a demo in 1987, featuring three of the tracks, which appear on "Fright Night" in re-recorded versions ("Future Shock", "Fright Night", and "Night Screamer").
Stylistically the material on "Fright Night" is neo-classical influenced Euro power metal, and the influence from artists like Helloween, Yngwie Malmsteen, and Rainbow, are there in abundance. Often to a point where the tracks on the album aren´t really that original sounding. Fortunately Stratovarius were already this early on a well playing unit (altough not spectacular), and there are many great instrumental performances throughout the album. Shredding neo-classical guitar runs, melodic heavy/power metal riffing, and a solid playing rhythm section. Guitarist Timo Tolkki also sings on "Fright Night", and while the instrumental part of the music is pretty strong, the vocals aren´t. Tolkki has a relatively unremarkable heavy/power metal type voice and vocal style, and although his overall performance is bearable, he sounds awfully strained and sometimes even sounds a little out of key. I´m not sure the latter is correct, but his vocals does little positive for the music.
"Fright Night" features a decent sounding production. It´s not great, but not awful either, and if you can look past the rather weak vocals and the fact that the material aren´t exactly the most unique sounding, "Fright Night" is still a relatively enjoyable debut release by Stratovarius. A 3 star (60%) rating isn´t all wrong.