Tag: savatage

This was the first album released by Florida’s finest Prog metallers. Although this version of the band was more straight ahead metal, a few of the west coast thrash bands cited them as an influence. It’s quite funny to look at the sleeve notes because instead of saying what instrument they play they gave themselves titles like Shrieks Of Terror, Metalaxe, Barbaric Canons, and The Bottom End.

This was a strong a metal release, and it holds up surprisingly well. The Oliva brothers are grasping the chance they were given with both hands. The production (especially for drums) is not that great. The snap is not there but the riffs and Chris Oliva’s playing is exceptional throughout. I’m going for Rage as my favourite tune because the riffs are  huge and the beat pounding lays it down hard.

8/10 from The Grooveman.

This is Savatage’s fifth release. It came out in ’89 and sees the band expanding their sound with a more progressive edge. The whole album is a concept split into two acts, which just happen to be side 1 and 2. The concept came about after Jon Olivia went to see The Phantom Of The Opera on Broadway and was so inspired he immediately on his return wrote the music to the title track.

A superb collection of the operatic mixed with the metallic, this was (at the time) quite a groundbreaking record, from a metal band anyway. This copy is a reissue with a bonus 10-inch record containing Thorazine Shuffle and a Iive version of When The Crowds Are Gone. It’s hard to listen to this without listening to the whole thing as it doesn’t fit if you dip in to a random tune. My favourite segment (shall we say) is She’s In Love. It’s a more traditional metal part of the opera with an absolute monster riff and groove, this track just pounds along. Act 2 has more of the heavier moments, but taken as whole this an ambitious piece of work and still sounds great today.

9/10 from The Grooveman.

This is the second album, released in ’85, from one of the most influential bands in the progressive metal scene. Formed by brothers, Jon and Criss Oliva, as Avatar back in ’79, they have always tried to push themselves to produce metal that was slightly different from the norm. Originally produced by Max Norman, this reissue has been remastered specifically for this release and sounds awesome.

Power Of The Night starts things off nicely with a nice fat riff and a really cool melody. Unusual (as the title says) does have a different feel to the metal normal groove with a really cool instrumental section. Warriors is a straight up metal assault with an earworm chorus. Necrophilia is up next, and I think you’ll agree, its something we all talk about around the dinner table, and carries on from where Warriors ended. Washed out closes out Side 1 and its an all out double kick fest speed assault.

Hard For Your Love starts Side 2 with a Judas Priest style groover and a very commercial sounding chorus. Fountain Of Youth is up next and is the weakest track on the album. Skull Session on the other hand has a killer riff and groove that makes it my favourite track on the album. Jon Olivia sounds remarkably like Russel Allen on this track, plus the bonus of great guitar from Criss Oliva. Stuck On You has a wicked groove and riff to the intro with a Trampled Under Foot vibe. The album closes out proper with the anthem, In The Dream. For this edition there is a bonus demo track of No More Saturday Nights.

The band’s masterpieces would follow later with Hall Of the Mountain King and Gutter Ballet, but this is still a solid album.

8.5/10 from The Grooveman.