Next in the series of SAVATAGE reissues are 1995’s ‘Dead Winter Dead’ and 1997’s ‘The Wake Of Magellan’.
‘Dead Winter Dead’ is an important, transitional record for the band and one that was mostly composed on piano. It firmly established their European fanbase whilst Oliva reclaimed a more active role within the band. It also served as the final chapter of the story that started on ‘Streets’. ‘The Wake Of Magellan’ saw the band return to their more guitar-driven, concept roots. On the surface it was a typically enjoyable Savatage album, but one also with hidden depth and meaning.
Each available on 180g black vinyl as well as in a limited coloured collector’s edition. Including enhanced artwork, extensive liner notes, unreleased live bonus track and other assorted items, it’s another Savatage release that belongs in your collection.
The reunion of one of the world’s greatest progressive metal bands, SAVATAGE, anxiously awaited by fans, has moved within reach. Now, in 2015, for the first time in over a decade, SAVATAGE will return to the stage as part of a big live celebration at the Wacken Open Air.
To celebrate the reunion performance, SAVATAGE and earMUSIC releases the ultimate “Return To Wacken” on June 19th 2015 through earMUSIC. A selection of classic studio songs, that the band played live at Wacken in their now two historical shows at the world-famous Festival.
Founded in 1981 in Tampa, Florida, by brothers Jon and Criss Oliva, Savatage quickly got noticed for their powerful metal albums. Soon after they paired with producer / co-writer Paul O’Neill, their progressive metal sound became defined by emphatic orchestrations and a strong melodic component, paired with catchy melodies and complex arrangements.
The band did not only extend their artistic range album after album, but also the general borders of the heavy rock genre itself. By doing this, they reached a huge number of followers worldwide and their albums often occupied the highest positions in the charts all over the world. In 2007, the year of the band’s 25th anniversary, Jon Oliva announced the final split up of the band.
“Return To Wacken” is based on the setlists of these memorable performances at Wacken Open Air 1998 and 2002 and it celebrates the return to the stage of one of the world’s greatest progressive metal bands with each and every song. Besides SAVATAGE’S greatest hits and classics, such as “Hall Of The Mountain King”, “Gutter Ballet”, or “The Wake Of Magellan”, the album booklet gives some real insights into the band with personal memories of Jon Oliva, with rare pictures and press quotes to the two past performances at Wacken Open Air.
Tracklist
01. Hall of the Mountain King
02. Gutter Ballet
03. Believe
04. Chance
05. Edge of Thorns
06. The Wake of Magellan
07. Dead Winter Dead
08. The Hourglass
09. Tonight He Grins Again
10. Prelude to Madness
11. When the Crowds are Gone
On Saturday, December 14th, SAVATAGE frontman/founder JON OLIVA concluded his Storytellers east coast solo tour at the State Theatre in St. Petersburg, Florida. Fan-filmed video from the gig is available below:
The show was filmed for a future DVD release. Oliva is planning on taking his Storytellers tour to the west coast in 2014.
More than thirty years after the start of his career with Savatage, and successive projects/bands like TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA and Jon Oliva’s Pain, now legendary songwriter and performer Jon Oliva released his first ever solo album, titled Raise The Curtain. The album was released simply under the banner OLIVA and you can expect a mixture of Jon Oliva’s early influences and the material he wrote and recorded throughout his whole artistic career.
BW&BK’s new interview with Oliva about his solo album, Raise The Curtain can be found at this location.
Check out the first taste of the album, written by Jon Oliva and his late brother/Savatage guitarist Criss Oliva, via the ‘Father Time’ lyric video below:
Matt Coe of DeadRhetoric.com recently conducted an interview with JON OLIVA’S PAIN and SAVATAGE mastermind Jon Oliva. A few excerpts from the chat follow below:
DeadRhetoric.com: “Raise The Curtain” is the first solo album in your career. Can you inform the readers why now is the right time to release a solo record and what type of guidelines did you put on the songwriting that maybe differentiate this release from your work in SAVATAGE or JON OLIVA’S PAIN?
Jon Oliva: The idea actually came to do the solo record when guitarist Matt LaPorte passed away. A friend of mine, Dan Fasciano, who you see on the record, co-wrote a lot of the material with me. I was working with TSO (TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA) in the afternoons and Dan and I would hang out in the mornings and we just started writing material. I had a few riffs of [late SAVATAGE guitarist and Jon‘s brother] Criss‘s [Oliva] left that I wanted to do something with and it wasn’t really planned that way. Losing Matt, I didn’t want to deal with the whole band situation at that time — I needed something to keep me busy. It’s kind of like what happened when Criss died and I did “Handful Of Rain”; it was kind of living the same movie again. He had some great stuff, I had some great stuff, and if there was ever a time to do a solo record, now was the time to do it. I’m in between what I want to do about replacing Matt for sure, plus the music I had of Criss‘s was the earliest stuff we ever wrote, and it was pre-heavy metal, so it didn’t lend itself to a JON OLIVA’S PAIN thing. They were very old school, so I thought I could do whatever I want with this solo record and not have to follow any particular guidelines. And that’s how the whole idea started, then we put material together and it went on from there.
DeadRhetoric.com: When thinking about Criss‘s riffs/solos, is there any one in particular that stands out? Or how about, his most underrated piece?
Oliva: I think Criss‘ greatest riff is in “Hall Of The Mountain King”, the riff that comes in after the opera part. That and “Power Of The Night” are two of his best pieces. Criss was a great riff guy; he was more of a riff guy than a pure songwriter. He didn’t really understand vocals; he would write a great part and then tell me I had to come up with something that I could sing to it. He would give me these cassettes, and give me riffs from that — he would have a half of a song, a chorus part… Paul [O’Neill] or myself would finish it off. I also think on the “Streets” album, the song “Can You Hear Me Now” was one of the songs Criss wrote most of the music for. The weirdness of that, I played the drums and bass on that and Criss did the guitars.
DeadRhetoric.com: Do you find it troubling that you have a tough time bringing in crowds in America, but in Europe, you play to packed houses?
Oliva: It’s because things are different here in America; we are lazy. People don’t want to go… It’s hard to play a show on a Tuesday night and people have to get up and go to work early the next morning, and you don’t go on stage until 11:30-12 o’clock at night and you pay money to get in, money to drink. I think it’s more that than anything… In the early ’90s, it is where things started to go down. you didn’t get the big turnouts. When the drinking age changed from 18 to 21 in all the states, that’s a big hit that all live performance venues took. In Europe, they seem to be more into the live-performance thing. In America, people are too busy and it’s too expensive. You worry about getting busted by the cops if you leave having too much alcohol in your system. It scares a lot of people off.
JON OLIVA’S PAIN and SAVATAGE mastermind Jon Oliva has completed recording his first-ever solo album, to be released later this year via AFM Records. The 11-song CD, which contains ideas collected over the course of the last four or five years, was tracked earlier this winter at Morrisound Studios in Tampa, Florida with producer Tom Morris, with Jon handling laying down nearly all the instrument tracks and vocals himself as well as playing drums on three songs.
Commented JON OLIVA’S PAIN drummer/producer Christopher Kinder: “Oliva will be the first to admit that it took one hell of a challenge writing, performing 90% of all the tracks himself and vocals… he is exhausted, for sure.”
He added: “It’s a very interesting and powerful offering. Diverse, emotional, and varying styles of writing and music everywhere. A truly great accomplishment for the mountain king, indeed.”
Oliva previously stated about his decision to record a solo album: “I’ve got some weird ideas that I wanna try and I’ve got some time to do it. I don’t want do just ‘another’ JON OLIVA’S PAIN record. I’ve done four of those already. I wanna do something different. I have some material that I’ve wanted to put out for a while, that I’ll talk with the record company about, maybe putting something out quickly, like in the next four or five months, to give me more time to do this JON OLIVA’S PAIN record. I want the next JON OLIVA’S PAIN CD to be very special. I’ve got some great friends from other bands that are going to be a significant part of the next JON OLIVA’S PAIN release. We are going to do a killer JON OLIVA’S PAIN record and then an additional bonus CD with guest stars.. kind of like the AVANTASIA thing, but not in a story line. [EDGUY and AVANTASIA mastermind] Tobias Sammet does a magnificent job with it, but I don’t have that much time to write a whole story, so I’ll just have some powerhouse friends from various bands come in and take it over the top.”
Last summer, JON OLIVA’S PAIN toured Europe where it celebrated the 25th anniversary of one of heavy metal’s most iconic records, “Hall Of The Mountain King” by SAVATAGE. The band performed the entire album as a special one-time-only treat for the still massive amount of loyal fans, along with songs from the DOCTOR BUTCHER album (by Jon Oliva and Chris Caffery, released in 1995), SAVATAGE and JON OLIVA’S PAIN.
JON OLIVA’S PAIN and SAVATAGE mastermind Jon Oliva will release first-ever solo album in early 2013 via AFM Records. Drum recordings for the CD will begin mid-December at the Morrisound Studios in Tampa, Florida.
Commented JON OLIVA’S PAIN drummer/producer Christopher Kinder: “Jon has assembled a collection of ideas from the past 4-5 years and wants the opportunity to present them as his own work. Jon will be recording nearly all the instrument tracks and vocals himself and also playing drums on several tracks. Once again, I have the honor of recording the bulk of the drum tracks on the new CD, but this record will have been created from start to finish with Jon being completely at the helm.”
Added Oliva: “I’ve got some weird ideas that I wanna try and I’ve got some time to do it. I don’t want do just ‘another’ JON OLIVA’S PAIN record. I’ve done four of those already. I wanna do something different. I have some material that I’ve wanted to put out for a while, that I’ll talk with the record company about, maybe putting something out quickly, like in the next four or five months, to give me more time to do this JON OLIVA’S PAIN record. I want the next JON OLIVA’S PAIN CD to be very special. I’ve got some great friends from other bands that are going to be a significant part of the next JON OLIVA’S PAIN release. We are going to do a killer JON OLIVA’S PAIN record and then an additional bonus CD with guest stars… kind of like the AVANTASIA thing, but not in a story line. [EDGUY and AVANTASIA mastermind] Tobias Sammet does a magnificent job with it, but I don’t have that much time to write a whole story, so I’ll just have some powerhouse friends from various bands come in and take it over the top.”
This past summer, JON OLIVA’S PAIN toured Europe where it celebrated the 25th anniversary of one of heavy metal’s most iconic records, “Hall Of The Mountain King” by SAVATAGE. The band performed the entire album as a special one-time-only treat for the still massive amount of loyal fans, along with songs from the DOCTOR BUTCHER album (by Jon Oliva and Chris Caffery, released in 1995), SAVATAGE and JON OLIVA’S PAIN.
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