Finland's STRATOVARIUS, who are currently on the road in Europe supporting HELLOWEEN, were forced to cancel their January 11th show in Paris, France due to frontman Timo Kotipelto falling ill. Footage of Kotipelto addressing the crowd is available below.

Kotipelto: "We were touring with Helloween and we played, I think, in Poland and the Czech Republic, so I got some food poisoning, some bacteria. And my Christmas was not so nice and I still have some problems — my vocals cords are completely dry. I [saw] a doctor in Paris yesterday and today as well, so it's like... unfortunately, I can't sing a fucking note, and this never happened to me before. I'm very sorry about this and we wanna make it up to you, guys. We're gonna be back in Paris, back in France — I don't know when; hopefully this year. So I hope you understand the situation. Thank you so much. Merci beaucoup."

Keyboardist Jens Johansson issued the following update yesterday (January 12th):

"Well, the good news is that we're back on the road with Helloween. And Jörg Michael is back in his drum chair after his brush with death. The bad news is that Timo Kotipelto caught some sort of bacterial infection. We suspect it was something from the backstage food in December, but we don't know. Two of the other people on the tour had the same thing: a very bad dysentery-like stomach infection with vomiting and diarrhea, dehydration, also eventually had to go to hospital, etc.

Timo's infection is stubborn and in addition to ruining his Christmas break, it has dried out his vocal cords. In his own words, he can't sing a note at the moment. We are currently in France and so far we had to cancel playing in Paris and Lyon.

We are of course very sorry about this, and nobody is more heartbroken or frustrated than Timo himself. Apart from heeding the advice from doctors we are in touch with, the only thing we can do at the moment is to hope Timo gets better. We will ride the 1000 km to Bilbao tonight and hopefully we will all get some sleep on the nice smooth French motorways."

Go to this location for the band's complete tour schedule.

Stratovarius issued their new album, Elysium yesterday (January 12th) via JVC in Asia. It will be released worldwide on January 14th via Edel/EarMusic, and in North America on January 18th. Audio samples from the entire album are available at this location.

The band has just released 'Under Flaming Skies', a track from their forthcoming new album. 'Under Flaming Skies' finds the Finnish metal masters firing on all cylinders with a particularly impassioned performance from vocalist Timo Kotipelto, who wrote the track along with Kupiainen.

Check it out below:

Elysium will be available as a regular CD, two-CD Deluxe Version, Collector's Edition with 7" (pictured below) and LP.

Details of the deluxe digipak edition are as follows:

CD 1:

'Darkest Hours'

'Under Flaming Skies'

'Infernal Maze'

'Fairness Justified'

'The Game Never Ends'

'Lifetime In A Moment'

'Move The Mountain'

'Event Horizon'

'Elysium'

CD 2:

'Darkest Hours' (demo)

'Under Flaming Skies' (demo)

'Infernal Maze' (demo)

'Fairness Justified' (demo)

'The Game Never Ends' (demo)

'Lifetime In A Moment' (demo)

'Move The Mountain' (demo)

'Event Horizon' (demo)

'Elysium' (demo)

7" Single:

'Last Shore'

'Hallowed'

The first single, 'Darkest Hours', was released on November 26th.

The following tracks are part of the single:

'Darkest Hours' (from the upcoming album "Elysium")

'Infernal Maze' (from the upcoming album "Elysium")

'Darkest Hours' (demo version)

'Against The Wind' (live recording, Sofia, Bulgaria)

'Black Diamond' (live recording, Göteborg, Sweden)

Check out BW&BK;'s new interview with Stratovarius frontman Timo Kotipelto here.