1996 saw three collaborations with Anders, on
Heavy Machinery (also featuring Allan Holdsworth),
Red Shift and the second Johansson Brothers album (now shortened to just Johansson)
Sonic Winter, and he returned to lend his skills to his old friend Yngwie for the guitar maestro's ninth album, a tribute to his influences and heroes.
Inspiration only featured him on two tracks, though even at that I don't know how the guy got the time to play in all these bands and on all these albums, unless he was cloning himself! Oh yeah, and at this point he joined Stratovarius to play on their fifth album,
Episode, and he is still with them today.
1997 saw the release of his third solo album,
Fission, and the sixth Stratovarius album,
Visions, then 1998 was another busy year. He returned to work with Snake Charmer on their
Boogaloo, played on Itä-Saksa's second album
Let's Kompromise and worked with prog metal band Mastermind on their fifth album,
Excelsior. Stratovarius's
Destiny also saw the light of day this year. 1999 saw him play on Snake Charmer's Benny Jansson's second album
Flume Ride as well as turn out the final Johansson album,
The Last Viking.
The new millennium then began for him with the release of Stratovarius's eighth album,
Infinite and he also lent his talents again to Mastermind on the album
Angels of the Apocalypse
then in 2001 it was Einstein's
Einstein Too, a tribute album to Argentinian hard rockers Rata Blanca with
La Leyenda Continua and the reunion album from Silver Mountain,
Breakin' Chains. No new Stratovarius album till 2003, so he kept himself busy by recording with Rhode Island guitarist Andy West's
Rama 1 and helping his good friend Arjen Lucassen on his
Star One: Space Metal project, as well as returning with Benny Jansson to
Save the World.
[img]hhttps://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2e/SpaceMetalStarOne.jpg[/img]
But as 2003 dawned, Stratovarius released not one, but two albums, with
Elements Pt 1 hitting the shops in January, followed by
Elements Pt 2 in November. You'd think that was enough to keep him busy, but no: he also worked on Sonata Arctica's
Winterheart's Guild, took part in the
Barilari project, an offshoot of Rata Blanca, and was involved in one of the (in my opinion) worst ever metal opera albums ever, Aina's
Days of Rising Doom.
2004 then saw him back with Mastermind for their
To the World Beyond album, and also helping out Watchtower guitarist Ron Jarzombek's solo project Spastic Ink on their second album,
Ink Compatible. In 2005 Stratovarius released their eleventh album, which they saw fit to self-title for some reason, and Jens also worked on the Kamelot album
The Black Halo, and somehow also got time to perform live with Russell Allen's Atomic Soul.
Now, after all that work it seems Jens may have taken something of a break, or maybe not, but I can't dig up any activity for the years 2006 – 2008. Hey, maybe he was sleeping! Probably needed it! 2009 brought Stratovarius's twelfth album
Polaris and he was also reunited with his brother Anders in Hammerfall's
No Sacrifice, No Victory.
2010 saw him called up for action to play keys on Avantasia's fifth album
Angel of Babylon, and he also lent his talents to Amberian Dawn's
End of Eden. 2011 and 2012 seem to have been relatively quiet for him, with only Stratovarius's
Elysium in the former and Amberian Dawn's
Circus Black in the latter year. 2013 brought yet another Stratovarius album, their fourteenth, as
Nemesis hit the shelves, and he also helped Timmo Tolkki again (Avantasia is his project, in case you weren't aware) with his Avalon project's first album
Land of New Hope.
Finally, coming right up to date, this year Stratovarius released their fifteenth album,
Eternal, but not happy with just contributing to that, Jens has also played on Finnish power metal supergroup Cain's Offering's second album
Stormcrow.
Jens is now the same age as I am (fifty-two) and I make that a total of sixty albums he has played on in his career since 1983. That doesn't take account of any number of live performances he may have taken part on that either were not made into albums or are not recorded in the various discographies I have studied for this article, or that he simply has not been credited for. It also leaves to one side any videos/DVDs he may have contributed to, earlier records he may have played on or bands he may have played in before 1983, or anything else I may have missed in what I hope was a reasonably exhaustive exploration of this man's career in music, most of it metal-related.
I'm sure he has decades more in him and who knows? He may play on another sixty albums before he hangs his keyboard up for good. All I can say is that if there's one musician who doesn't know the meaning of rest, and who has contributed more to the overall prog and power metal scene, then please show me him because I am completely staggered by the workrate of this man. I know one thing for certain: we have not in any way heard the last of Jens Johansson!