It was pretty obvious that something was up when Stratovarius webmaster Fred Derf left the following message on the band's website:
"Today I received a phone call from [Stratovarius mainman] Timo Tolkki.
He sounded like being in a very confused state of mind and was talking about red Kabbalah ribbons and how when he was reading Madonna's biography he felt warm waves all over his body and that the spirit of Jesus entered him and that now he really has found something he has been searching for all his life.
I am very worried about him, he sounded like completely crazy.
From this day onwards I will not take the responsibility of whatever is being released on this Website.
As long as my paycheck arrives, I will continue putting on the site whatever Tolkki asks me to put there.
But there is nothing I can do about it.
I just work here."
But that was a mere hint of what was to come! Timo followed up, as predicted, with this amazing message (as reprinted at Blabbermouth) in which he goes off about a recent panic attack, Jesus and Kabbalah. Totally out of control! Without even going into the details concerning his misconceptions of Jewish mysticism, it can probably simply be said that you don't get your spirituality from a Madonna book. And as a friend of mine pointed out, is it possible to study Kabbalah and still "eat metal and shit chains"? Is that kosher? And there's even more genius postings today!