For anyone not familiar with this great American band since 1983 albums have come and gone and musicians have done the same. The bands underlying driving force being the multi-talented Jon Oliva, whom has been a member and main songwriter from their inception when they were known as Avatar (Florida) to the present day. His brother Chris was sadly taken from us in 1993, killed by an idiot drunk driver; I remember the news well on the “raw power” TV show. Future plans are a-foot to re-release the entire album back catalogue, but for now, this 2CD greatest hits album displays some of the classic tunes and some oddities of the vast Savatage world of music.
This greatest hits package starts way back in 1985, surprisingly missing two great releases (Namely ‘Sirens’ and the EP ‘The Dungeons Are Calling’) and one average release (‘Fight for the Rock’). ‘Power of the Night’ is merely the start of things to come. When 1987 hits, the classic tunes loved by fans the world over come to the forefront. No Savatage retrospective release would be complete without ‘Hall of the Mountain King’, a track that is hard to beat in classic metal terms. If you buy the 2CD/DVD version of this release, you will see the music videos for this said track and lots of others, look out for the little trolls and the mountain king himself, its so funny, but when this was on MTV back in the day it seemed normal, a killer classic video (although the official website states the DVD will feature a live show in Japan)! Favourites are plenty and whilst the first disc concentrates on the more “metal” aspect of the bands sound, it perfectly ends with tracks from Edge of Thorns. In 1991, the album ‘Streets’ started to show the band moving in the massive production, rock orchestra vein, then strangely shelved for ‘Edge of Thorns’. The introduction of Zachary Stevens on vocals in 1993 brought a different sense of “depth” and feeling, right up to ‘The Wake of Magellan’ album, then in subsequent releases, Jon Oliva took over again on vocal duties (on ‘Poets and Madmen’). The ‘Dead Winter Dead’ album is the album that got Chris Caffery influencing the already talented band and is thus displayed on ‘I Am’. ‘Handful of Rain’ and ‘Chance’ features the guitar talents of Alex Skolnick (Testament) who came in to replace the much missed Chris Oliva after he passed away, with the latter of the tracks mentioned being a total classic piece of music. Admittedly, I personally preferred the music on the 1st disc, up to Edge of Thorns, but sit down in a quiet place and revel in the glory and musical expressions of latter day Savatage.
This is an essential remastered release for lovers of real musicians, for current fans of the band it is a worthwhile package, especially buying the DVD option that is not present for me in this promo package. Savatage are one of the underlying must-have bands in your music collection, sometimes slayed and dismissed, and that is a big mistake. For me, musical experimentation and genius starts with Savatage.
http://www.savatage.com/
http://www.myspace.com/savatage
http://www.myspace.com/earmusicofficial
http://www.myspace.com/edelrecords
