Finnish metallers STRATOVARIUS have announced dates for the European leg of their Polaris world tour.

The trek will take place in January/February of 2010 and so far the confirmed gigs cover Germany, Benelux, France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Serbia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Austria, and Scandinavia.

Confirmed dates are as follows:

January

7 - Zeche - Bochum, Germany (Ruhrpott)
8 - Hof ter Lo - Antwerp, Belgium
9 - Melkweg - Amsterdam, Netherlands
10 - Garage - London, UK
12 - Elysee - Paris, France
13 - Le Bikini - Toulouse, France
15 - La Riviera - Madrid, Spain
16 - Rockstar Live - Bilbao, Spain (Euskadi/Basquia)
17 - Razzmatazz 1 - Barcelona, Spain (Catalunya)
19 - Transbordeur - Lyon, France
20 - Z 7 - Pratteln, Switzerland
21 - Alcatraz - Milan, Italy
23 - SKC - Beograd, Serbia
24 - Hristo Botev Hall - Sofia, Bulgaria
26 - Petöfi Hall - Budapest, Hungary
27 - Szene - Vienna, Austria
28 - PKO - Bratislava, Slovak Republic
30 - Backstage - München, Germany (Bavaria)

February

1 - Longhorn - Stuttgart, Germany (Swabia)
2 - Garage - Saarbrücken, Germany (Saarland)
3 - Markthalle - Hamburg, Germany (Fischkopfia)
4 - The Rock - Copenhagen, Denmark
6 - Mejeriet - Lund, Sweden (Skåne)
7 - Trädgårn - Göteborg, Sweden (Bohuslän)
8 - Rockefeller - Oslo, Norway
9 - Tyrol - Stockholm, Sweden

BW&BK; recently caught up with Stratovarius frontman Timo Kotipelto to discuss the band's new album, Polaris, their first without guitarist / songwriter Timo Tolkki. An excerpt from the story is available below.

“It feels pretty good,” Kotipelto says of fibnally getting Polaris out to the fans, “especially because a year ago we didn’t have a band. We didn’t have a guitarist, we didn’t have any songs, we didn’t have a future, and I think it was only around that we time we started talking about getting a new guitarist. I was talking to Jens (Johansson / keyboards) about it a while ago and I told him it’s a miracle that we were able to make this album.”

With that in mind, was it clear from the beginning that the Stratovarius name was going to be attached to the new music once it was ready for release?

“No, definitely not,” Kotipelto admits. “We were thinking about it, but it all began for real last June (2008) when Matias, Jens, Lauri and me went to a cottage in my hometown and started composing some music and recording demos based on our ideas. We sent the demos to Joerg (Michael/drums) and he came to Finland in the middle of August. We rehearsed for three weeks and it was at that point we decided the music sounded like Stratovarius and that we should use the name. If the music would have been different, in my opinion it wouldn’t have made any sense to use the Stratovarius name, but I think this album sounds like the good old times. It sounds like all the things about Stratovarius that I like. If we had called ourselves something else there always would have been this ‘ex-Stratovarius’ label following us around, so it would have been pointless to rename the band.”

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