Revolution Renaissance

Revolution Renaissance was a Finnish power metal project founded in 2008 by guitarist, songwriter and producer Timo Tolkki, immediately following his departure from Stratovarius, the band he had led since the 1980s and which he dissolved before regrouping under the new name. Having written virtually all of Stratovarius's material for two decades, Tolkki wanted a vehicle in which he retained complete creative control while working with a rotating cast of performers rather than a fixed line-up. Revolution Renaissance was built around that idea from the start: Tolkki was the only constant member, the sole principal songwriter, and the creative director of every release. The debut album, New Era, appeared in 2008 and was conceived as a guest-vocalist record. Michael Kiske, formerly of Helloween and one of the defining voices of European power metal, sang on part of the album, while Finnish singer Pasi Rantanen handled other tracks. The combination drew immediate attention, both because of Kiske's rare return to melodic metal at the time and because listeners were curious how Tolkki would sound outside Stratovarius. Musically the record stayed close to the melodic, keyboard-and-guitar-driven power metal he was known for, but with a looser, more varied approach that reflected the changing vocalists. For the follow-up, Tolkki settled on a more conventional band structure with Brazilian-born singer Gus Monsanto as the regular frontman. Monsanto sang on Age of Aquarius (2009) and on Trinity (2010), giving the project a more consistent identity across its second and third albums. Both records continued in a melodic metal vein while showing Tolkki experimenting with heavier and more atmospheric textures. The project proved short-lived. In 2010, not long after Trinity, Tolkki announced that Revolution Renaissance was finished, ending the band after three studio albums in roughly three years. In retrospect it functioned mainly as a transitional vehicle: a way for Tolkki to step out of the shadow of Stratovarius, re-establish himself as a bandleader on his own terms, and move on to subsequent ventures, most immediately Symfonia, the melodic metal group he formed afterwards with other established figures from the European scene.