Elysium is the thirteenth studio album by power metal band Stratovarius, released on 12 January 2011 through Victor Entertainment (Japan) and on 14 January through Edel AG (worldwide).[1] It is the last Stratovarius album to feature longtime drummer Jörg Michael, who left the band in 2012. Elysium reached No. 1 on the Finnish albums chart, as well as reaching the top 80 in five other countries.[7][8] "Darkest Hours" was released as a single, reaching No. 4 on the Finnish singles chart.[3]
The official track listing for Elysium was first announced by keyboardist Jens Johansson on the forum of the band's website on 8 November 2010.[9] The album was released on four different formats: a regular CD; a deluxe Digipak edition CD with a bonus disc containing demos of the entire album; a double-disc collector's edition CD with two bonus tracks on a 7" single; and on vinyl.[1] At a length of 18:07, Elysium's title track is by far the longest Stratovarius song to date. The album cover art was created by Gyula Havancsák and features the same star-shaped spacecraft from Polaris (2009).