Anybody with knowledge of Jon Oliva will know he’s a big man with a big sound, first showcased in Savatage, the band he found fame with back in the day, and now in his latest project Jon Oliva’s Pain. This is a history that goes back well before Savatage’s massive breakout 1987 album ‘Hall of the Mountain King’, and on the evidence of this latest offering is liable to continue for a good few years yet.
Album opener ‘Lies’ starts with a massive intro of swaggering guitars and keyboards that build for a full minute, before settling into a traditional hard rock number distinguished by Oliva’s trademark harsh yet clear vocals in a story of some of his shadier dealings in the music industry. This six minute track, far from the shortest on the album, features all the elements that have made him such an influence on the prog and power metal scene; complex guitar riffs, sweeping keyboards, and a rhythm section playing with the precision of a metronome. This is followed by the darker, military beat of ‘Death Rides a Black Horse’, the sort of number newcomers like Sabaton aspire to, whilst title track ‘Festival’ opens with the merry sounds of the funfair before the music starts in with the story of a mad circus, a song that would do Alice Cooper of the Circus of Horrors proud. ‘Afterglow’ starts by lulling the listener into believing a gentler, lighter side to the band is going to show throughout, with acoustic guitars and an orchestral string arrangement so reminiscent of Zeppelin’s ‘All My Love’ before a harder chanted chorus and epic guitars.
‘Looking for Nothing’ concentrates on the band’s lighter side, Oliva delivering a gentle nuanced vocal rather then his normal pain filled scream, set off against an almost pastoral background, before again the complex electric solos fire in with ‘The Evil Within’ and the complex prog-rock epic that is ‘Winter Haven’.
Festival is an album that screams of class and skill, and in it you can hear the long heritage of this master class musician, and the ancestry of so many prog and power metal bands he has influenced. I imagine it would be a real challenge to reproduce this live with its many diverse elements and since so few bands can tour with their own string section, and sadly Jon Oliva’s Pain isn’t one, the live experience will have to rely on the said Mr Oliva’s keyboard skills. What’s more, it is an album that deserves to be played in its entirety with a matching spectacular light show. The band is announcing European festivals throughout 2010 in support of the album, and if the stage show matches the album, they will be well worth catching.
http://www.myspace.com/jonoliva
http://www.jonoliva.net
