Savatage

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Savatage is a / band founded by the brothers Jon and Criss Oliva in 1979. The band is known for recording many rock operas. Early on, Savatage was a traditional heavy metal band, who stood out from the pack due to guitarist Criss Oliva’s uncommonly heavy riffing and vocalist Jon Oliva’s unique vocal stylings.

Following the failure of Fight for the Rock, an attempt to commercialize their sound, Savatage began moving in a more operatic direction, releasing a number of rock opera albums in collaboration with producer Paul O’Neill.

After the tragic death of Criss Oliva in 1993, the band soldiered on to continued critical acclaim but diminishing commercial success. However, Oliva and O’Neill lucked out when a single from Dead Winter Dead, “Christmas Eve (Sarajevo 12/24)”, managed to crack the singles chart. The song, a reworking of a classic Christmas hymn, acted as a launching pad for the immensely successful Trans-Siberian Orchestra project.

Savatage is currently considered to on indefinite hiatus. Guitarist Chris Caffery, vocalist Zak Stevens, and even Oliva himself have all collaborated to some extent on each others’ solo projects. Jon Oliva has a successful solo-project, Jon Oliva’s Pain, and Zak Stevens and Jeff Plate have worked together in Machines Of Grace.

In 2010 a best-of was released, “Still the Orchestra Plays”, including their Japan Live ‘94 show on DVD.
In 2011 their entire catalogue was remastered and reissued.

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  • Veinrot

    My newfound love ♥

    8 May 8:39pm Reply
  • Neue_regel_

    One of their last live shows: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nr7vIkhxtLg (2 hours) in Athens, January 2002. Setlist: here

    24 Apr 3:55pm Reply
  • mk741

    Also one of the best.

    22 Apr 5:22am Reply
  • wadda7jarad

    One of the MOST Underrated Bands of ALL TIME !

    19 Apr 12:46pm Reply
  • Oniren

    These guys still rank among my favorites. Really, anything they touch I end up liking or loving. Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Jon Oliva's Pain, Circle II Circle, Machines of Grace, ...

    1 Apr 10:26pm Reply
  • Dudu_Heep

    BY!!! THE GRACE OF THE WITCH

    30 Mar 7:59pm Reply
  • ikd-sj

    'STRANGE WINGS' AWESOME (✷ɷ✷)

    28 Mar 2:34am Reply
  • naturefirst

    wake of magellan/ dead winter dead / true symphonic metal

    5 Mar 9:07am Reply
  • metalinvader34

    King of teh mountain!

    5 Mar 1:04am Reply
  • RoverTheGreat

    интервью с Circle II Circle для украинского метал портала: http://www.froster.org/sections/article-329.html

    3 Mar 10:31am Reply
  • Plook

    Streets, their best one, fantastic album \o/

    1 Mar 8:30pm Reply
  • Lionheartattack

    I'd say listen to Streets: A Rock Opera if you liked Gutter. Those are my two favorite Savatage albums as we speak! Also, Hall of the Mountain King, Handful of Rain, and Poets and Madmen. All these mentioned are "more operatic" than their first albums, although those have their share of especially extraordinary vocals as well. Not to mention some bad ass metal. They started to purposefully go operatic around HotMK and Gutter, and they more or less kept it up to the end of their recording career.

    25 Feb 7:37pm Reply
  • HauntedRoad

    They are indeed underrated.

    25 Feb 4:07am Reply
  • ArminRocksOn

    im growing to know them! they are so much underrated!

    14 Feb 9:32am Reply
  • ClassyMusicSnob

    If you started with Gutter then go to HOTMK, Sirens, The Dungeons are Calling, Handful of Rain, Edge of Thorns, Dead Winter Dead, Poets and Madmen, Wake of Magellan, Power of the Night and finally Fight for the Rock.

    12 Feb 9:11pm Reply
  • thenktor

    I love POTN \m/

    9 Feb 6:15pm Reply
  • viadiva

    Poets and Madmen, fantastic record [2]

    9 Feb 4:15pm Reply
  • naturefirst

    poets and madmen , fantastic record

    31 Jan 8:39am Reply
  • drikazeppelin

    whenever I enter here gives me a nostalgia

    11 Jan 7:32pm Reply
  • Metamorphic_

    Fair enough. The sound is not as full blown yet on "Power..." but it had the mainstream direction which they kicked up a notch on "Fight"

    11 Jan 4:32pm Reply
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