Savatage - Elegant metal

Who doesn't know Savatage? Their saga officially spans nearly 20 years and has earned this renowned band a place among the classics of heavy metal alongside names like Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Samson, Saxon, Accept and Dio. With the turn of the millennium, the Savatage universe expanded considerably, mainly due to the new monikers carried forward by the band's members, which in one way or another picked up its legacy or became associated with it. Although the last album released under the Savatage name came out in 2001, we can consider the band's story to span nearly forty years if we include the subsequent projects: a long ride through '80s heavy metal, speed-power metal, progressive and even symphonic rock.

The original core of Savatage was formed in Tampa, Florida, by brothers Jon and Cristopher Michael Oliva, who in the second half of the '70s formed Metropolis, a cover band playing the likes of Black Sabbath, Kiss and Deep Purple. Being sons of musicians, the two grew up with a strong passion for music that led them to dabble with various instruments, but Criss favored the guitar while Jon, while remaining fairly versatile, devoted himself mainly to the microphone. Before long, however, Metropolis broke up and the two brothers went their separate ways for a short period, before reuniting and recruiting bassist Keith Collins and drummer Steve Wacholz, with whom they formed Avatar in 1978. With great dedication, gig after gig, they managed to earn a decent following in the Florida underground, which first led them to record two tracks for a minor label's compilation and then to put out a promising EP titled City Beneath The Surface, rich with fantasy themes used as metaphors for real life and issues such as drug abuse.

The EP allowed them to make a name for themselves and earn enough to move forward with a proper full-length album. Jon and Criss quickly wrote a batch of songs and, continuing the fantasy concept, titled the album Sirens, after one of the tracks from the EP, recorded in a single day in January 1983 and released shortly after.

An unexpected problem arose, though: the day before the deadline to send the album to print, it emerged that a band called Avatar already existed. So that evening Jon, Criss and their respective wives gathered around a table to fix the situation. They wrote the band's name on a piece of paper and started adding a letter here, removing one there, shuffling a few around, mixing in other words... until, blending "avatar" and "sabotage", out came the name that would make them famous: Savatage.

The beginnings

Sirens (and the EP Dungeons Are Calling, recorded in the same session but released only the following year) was a hit within the American metal scene and allowed Savatage to build up an imposing fanbase right from the start. The band's growing reputation, and the success they enjoyed live with hits like "By The Grace Of The Witch", "Lady In Disguise", "Before I Hang", "Stranger In The Dark" and "Living For The Night", enabled the Americans to sign to a major label, Atlantic, with whom they released the album Power Of The Night as early as 1985. Once the tour for that record wrapped up, Keith Collins left the band over musical differences, being replaced by the band's new, and ultimately long-standing, bassist Johnny Lee Middleton.

In this first phase of their career the band showcased a hard-edged style, in which the melodic intensity of Rainbow, the speed of Accept, and the technical prowess of Judas Priest were reinterpreted with the rougher, more energetic attitude of the American metal scene, occasionally adding a touch of synthesizer to set the mood (as on "City Beneath The Surface"). Every song is rough, forceful, direct and catchy. As mentioned, the themes draw on fantasy: mythological creatures, the wildest heroes and the most merciless monsters, all serving as a metaphor for real life. The  phenomenal title track "Dungeons Are Calling" tells of the drama of drug addiction, disguising it as a tale of torture in an infernal prison.

Certain fast, square-edged guitar riffs (as on "Ride", "Washed Out" or "Visions"), typical of speed metal, were already tinged by the first power metal releases emerging between Europe and the United States in those years (with the American strand being darker, rougher and more aggressive than its European counterpart).

The two brothers proved to be musicians of the highest caliber, but it was above all Criss Oliva's guitar technique that astonished: despite his young age, he effortlessly played Van Halen's "Eruption" live, and had nothing to envy from any guitar hero when it came to virtuosity — quite the opposite. Alex Skolnick of Testament reportedly said of him: "he has the fluidity of guys like George Lynch and Warren DeMartini, but with an aggressive, melodic edge that suits Savatage perfectly". Dave Ellefson of Megadeth added: "in his style you can hear his classical roots and appreciate the knowledge, mastery and dexterity that define his work. He was a trailblazer for metal guitar exactly like Randy Rhoads was". Jon Oliva, on the other hand, had grown up reading about Ozzy Osbourne, Motorhead and "all those crazy bands living the rock and roll lifestyle every single day" (as he would later put it), listening just as much to the Beatles as to Kiss, and proved to be a charismatic frontman, more at ease with dark, gritty vocal lines than with the high notes that were becoming a trademark of chart-friendly metal in Europe and America during those years.

According to the new label, however, Savatage's success wasn't enough, and to boost it the label decided to push them toward a much more easy-listening sound, in line with the radio trends that were sweeping the hard & heavy scene in the mid-'80s. This led the band to record Fight For The Rock, a highly controversial album that was heavily criticized by all the fans of the time — even by Savatage themselves, who nicknamed it "Fight for the nightmare", so troubled was its genesis.

The top brass at Atlantic Records got together and decided that Savatage should write songs for some of the pop-rock and glam rock artists they had under contract, John Waite among them. Then they changed their minds and forced the band to repurpose the songs they'd written for an album that was far more "in vogue" and palatable for the mass market. In essence, it was all one big commercial maneuver, but Savatage, still young and unsure of their career path, had no choice but to go along with it. The result is very smooth and catchy, but also undermined by a number of flaws: bombastic melodies, over-polished guitar work, lyrics bordering on cliché, bland ballads, keyboards used more to pad out the songs' catchiness than to enrich them, uninspired choruses, and a visible strain in a band forced to recycle surrogate pop-metal hits.

The album was savaged mercilessly by critics and drove away many of the band's fans, plunging them into a very difficult period — so difficult, in fact, that Jon Oliva fell into depression and sought refuge in alcohol and drugs to cope with the crisis. The outlook was anything but encouraging, but as the saying goes: when the waters rise, the boat rises with them.

The arrival of Paul O'Neill and Chris Caffery

Paul O'Neill was no rookie: as a producer, manager and promoter, he had already built up considerable experience as an assistant to manager David Krebs, working on rock festivals in Japan and carving out small roles in productions for bands like Aerosmith or the Australian band Heaven. But his career would become inextricably tied to Savatage, for whom he would essentially become an added member (at times even collaborating on songwriting). It was a fruitful partnership for everyone involved, and one that would allow him to forge a long and rewarding friendship.

Sent over by Atlantic, Paul met the band during the tour for their latest album and brought a wave of enthusiasm at a difficult time for everyone. It's 1987, and the album that emerges at this point, with Savatage once again enthusiastic and brimming with inspiration, as well as having mended their relationship with Atlantic, is — up to that point — their own personal masterpiece from Savatage's first five years as a band, their most mature and robust album, dedicated to the 19th-century composer Edvard Grieg: Hall Of The Mountain King. A jolt of energy aimed squarely at anyone who had lost faith in the band, delivered through dynamic, emphatic heavy metal, capable of near-speed-metal outbursts as well as more atmospheric moments, packed with songs that would go down in the band's history. The compositions grow more technical and refined, to the point that some journalists tried to pin the "progressive-metal" label on them and compare the band to acts like Queensryche or Fates Warning. Many fans, with hindsight, instead see it as the trait d'union between the early records and the more symphonic albums that followed. In truth, it's still a very direct, impactful album: it doesn't yet anticipate the guitar/piano duets that would be introduced later, and the themes are still closer to the lyrical vein of the early records.

Still, it's a remarkable record, with substantial tracks like the aggressive "24 Hours Ago", the thoroughly gripping "Legions", the atmospheric "Strange Wings" (whose riff is somewhat reminiscent of Rush's "Witch Hunt") or the now-legendary title track. Jon himself would be nicknamed "Mountain King" from this album onward, such was its success among the fans. Perhaps its only misfortune is that it didn't come out a few years earlier, which would have cemented it among the genre's essential cornerstones; paradoxically, it came before what are considered the band's finest albums, and as a result it sometimes gets overshadowed.

During the recording sessions for this album, Savatage met Chris Caffery, who on this occasion became both a fan and a friend, to the point of being offered the chance to play rhythm guitar with them on tour alongside Ronnie James Dio and Dave Mustaine's Megadeth, since he already knew the songs. This too would prove to be another important bond for the Tampa band. In the accounts of O'Neill and Dan Campbell (Criss Oliva's sound engineer for eight years), it's said that Jon was watching Megadeth relax in front of an episode of "The Jetsons", while Ronnie James Dio sat quietly off to the side, and he thought to himself: "I don't want to be like that. I want to meet people; I want to play; I want to breathe the air; I have no intention of being a cardboard rock star," as he famously put it.

However, excess never bodes well, and together with Mustaine he started a contest over who could cause more chaos. The result was an emergency hospitalization for overdose, which gave the unruly frontman the chance to reflect on everything he'd been through. Encounters with figures like Eric Clapton and actor Ben Vereen also proved important to his growth. It was at this point that he began planning a long and prolific string of songs that would address the issue of drugs explicitly, no longer through metaphor, exploring the subject with a uniquely poetic sensibility.

On another occasion, Paul O'Neill gave Jon and drummer Wacholz tickets to a Broadway musical about The Phantom of the Opera. On the way back from the show, Jon was completely captivated and enraptured, gaining another surge of inspiration that led him to compose the piano introduction to Gutter Ballet, the track that would give its name to the album then in the works, inspired by lyrics O'Neill himself had written ten years earlier. It would remain a defining trait of Savatage from then on.

A rock opera from the streets to the stars, all the way to tragedy

Gutter Ballet is closely connected to the previous album, yet in some ways it's also quite different. Above all, it proves to be a union of opposites, serving as a turning point in the band's career: a storm of class, melody, feeling and energy, of searing solos and scorching riffs set alongside elegant keyboards. A majestic, driving, poetic dance in the mud of the streets; a caress of silk hiding a soul of steel. It's the rough-edged poetry of the lyrics, co-written with O'Neill, that provides the final touch completing the record, also giving a new character to the themes Jon tackles.

Gary Smith's cover art seems to hint at the essence of the record: an imposing, luxurious parlor with a piano in the foreground, haunted by the ghosts of a dancing ballerina and a guitarist, while statues and reliefs in the walls conceal frightening creatures. The dark arpeggios of the Priest-like "Hounds", the epic choruses of "The Unholy" between power-speed riffs and melodic bridges à-la Rush, the acoustic folk interlude of "Silk And Steel", the lightning-fast outbursts of "She's In Love", the moving nostalgia of "Summer's Rain", the classically-tinged instrumental "Temptation Revelation" are just some of the band's landmark songs, but Jon Oliva is especially attached to the ballad "When The Crowds Are Gone", which became something of a flagship for the band — emphatic and melodic, at times even bombastic.

At the peak of popularity they had reached up to that point, Savatage embarked on a nine-month tour (at the end of which Chris Caffery temporarily left the band to pursue a personal project with his brother), while in the meantime producer Paul O'Neill grew ever closer to the band, even beyond the work itself. During a party at Paul's house, Criss Oliva stumbled upon an old, long-forgotten screenplay. This manuscript of Paul's immediately captivated Criss, especially because of its similarity to Jon's personal story. He then proposed it to the band as the theme for Savatage's next album. It's the story of D.T. Jesus, a New York musician who became a famous, celebrated rock star, alternating moments of glory with far darker ones, finding in music an apparent comfort from the weight of the events overwhelming his life. The world of showbiz is anything but an idyllic paradise, because, as if constantly hunted by a malevolent shadow, Jesus must fight a personal battle with drugs, one he tries to escape. In the end he succeeds, but never fully breaking free of the torment it brings, with painful memories, difficulties resurfacing from the past, and crises of the heart and spirit. It's the story behind what is probably Savatage's most famous album, namely Streets: A Rock Opera.

It wasn't the first concept album in metal — just a few years earlier, in 1988, Queensryche had already released the essential "Operation: Mindcrime" on the other side of the United States, with which it vies for the title of most popular concept album among metal fans. But it is, in all likelihood, the artistic peak reached by the band. Streets expands and consolidates the sound that had taken shape on the previous record, refining it and making everything even more cohesive, varied and direct. The now-legendary opening title track moves from a swift sense of innocence to the ruthlessness of downtown, with relentless riffs and a sinister chorus where the voices overlap to create a striking effect; the equally legendary closing ballad "Believe" is poignant, optimistic, melodramatic, at times bombastic — perhaps Jon Oliva's most famous song ever.

Meanwhile, Jesus's story unfolds, moving between emotional peaks like "Tonight He Grins Again" and the claustrophobic snapshot of the world of drugs in "Agony And Ecstasy". Despite the character having been conceived by Paul O'Neill, Jon Oliva's own personal story lives on through Jesus, making the album almost autobiographical.

Streets proves to be a huge success, but things aren't all smooth sailing for Savatage: during the tour Jon begins suffering from vocal problems that grow increasingly persistent, affecting the shows to the point that one night he's simply unable to sing. The medical diagnosis is deeply worrying: years of reckless living, with grueling tours and albums packed with ferocious screams (to such an extent that none other than Ronnie James Dio advised him to change his singing technique), have weakened his vocal cords. This, combined with his ongoing struggles with drug relapses, makes him realize he can no longer guarantee reliability behind the microphone, especially given the band's growing touring commitments. Reluctantly, Jon has to give up his role as Savatage's frontman to begin rehab treatment, deciding instead to focus more on his roles as pianist, composer and the band's creative mastermind. These were roles in which the Mountain King still had all his old fire. Meanwhile, Jon also launches a side project with Chris Caffery, closer in sound to the band's early albums, called Dr. Butcher, through which he gradually starts singing again, at a much lighter and more manageable pace than the main band's shows. He also plans a musical about the Romanovs with producer Paul O'Neill, though it will never see the light of day.

In any case, the auditions to find a replacement singer for Savatage don't turn out to be satisfying, until one day Paul O'Neill (him again!) introduces the band to a new face, one Zachary Stevens, previously a member of Wicked Witch, with whom he'd built up a solid reputation on the Tampa scene.

Zac's voice has a smooth yet powerful timbre, instantly recognizable and well-suited to the sound Savatage had been pursuing. He's perhaps less charismatic than Jon. But Jon himself, above all, considers Savatage a big family, and welcomes him even more warmly than the fans do. Under a renewed sense of enthusiasm, Savatage record Edge Of Thorns, which crystallizes a style that, since Gutter Bullet, had evolved into a highly melodic, almost symphonic heavy metal, with plenty of room given to melody, technique and carefully crafted arrangements. The result is a more guitar-driven record than its illustrious predecessor, but less startling and more predictable. While the opening title track is a classic tune, built on a conventional structure, fun and irresistible, pieces like the gorgeous instrumentals "Labyrints" and "Exit Music" still show the band's more reflective, "classicist" side, featuring some of Jon's finest melodic keyboard work and elegant duets with Criss's guitar. The rest of the album, unfortunately, is less surprising and sounds more formulaic. Steve Wacholz also experiments with electronic drums, though it's a strictly marginal element. The cover, meanwhile, depicts Dawn, Criss's wife, as an innocent nymph, while bare tree branches intertwine to form Jon's grinning, devilish face.

This is the last album to feature Criss Oliva's talent on guitar, because Savatage are about to face the most tragic event in their history, far worse than Jon's struggles with drugs or his voice: on October 17, 1993, while on his way to a music festival in Florida, Criss Oliva is killed in a car accident along with his wife Dawn, caused by a drunk driver attempting to overtake another car and swerving out of his lane. There's nothing to be done: Criss dies instantly, while Dawn survives, though injured and, above all, left psychologically scarred by the crash. Nothing, for the band, could ever make up for this loss, not even musical success.

Poetry and madness

Criss Oliva's death is a devastating blow for Savatage, who now find themselves on the verge of splitting up. Jon, however, after talking it over with the others and especially with his collaborator and friend Paul O'Neill, decides at the funeral that the best way to honor his memory is to keep playing and keep the Savatage name alive; he shuts himself away alone in a studio, pouring his sadness and feelings into the music, rather than slipping back into drugs as he surely would have done years earlier. The Mountain King writes eleven whole songs himself, assisted by Paul O'Neill on the lyrics, playing virtually every instrument himself, something he obviously can't do for the actual recordings, where Zachary Stevens steps in to help him. Steve "Killdrum" Wacholz no longer wants to play in the band, as he feels that the spirit of Savatage left with Criss and that he's unsatisfied with the stylistic direction they're taking (he instead names Dr. Butcher as "the true sound and essence of Savatage"), while Johnny Lee Middleton doesn't leave the band but doesn't feel up to recording an album. Their friend Chris Caffery is brought in for the role of lead guitarist, but the label suggests Alex Skolnick of Testament instead.

Handful Of Rain is essentially a Jon Oliva solo album despite the moniker on the cover, and it shows much darker, more pessimistic moods than its predecessor. Many tracks are pure energy, though a bit of repetitiveness creeps in: the opener "Taunting Cobras" is a pounding, hammering thrash-metal outburst, "Nothing Going On" is an obsessive slice of speed-metal; other songs instead showcase the band's more symphonic, reflective side, like the progressive gem "Chance" (originally written for Streets, it's the album's masterpiece, with vocal counterpoints, atmospheric layers and epic orchestrations that foreshadow the band's later albums). Also worth noting are the short, bleak "Visions" and the closing ballad "Alone You Breathe", dedicated to Criss's memory. The rest of the record, however, proves forgettable. Overall the album is uneven, alternating highs and lows both in its themes (varied, deep, reflective, touching on historical figures like Chiune Sugihara and contemporary ones like Giovanni Falcone, murdered by the mafia only two years earlier) and in its songwriting. It's a transitional work, as Savatage are at this point changing shape.

While the hard-won, self-titled debut from Dr. Butcher is released almost immediately afterward, an unpleasant episode disrupts the band's peace: during live shows, Alex Skolnick starts reinterpreting the solos from Savatage songs in his own way, changing them. The rest of the band doesn't appreciate this, and since Skolnick in turn doesn't feel comfortable playing a supporting role instead of freely expressing his own creativity, the partnership ends shortly after the tour following the album. Caffery immediately returns, to pay the proper "spiritual respect" to Criss's memory onstage, bringing along a guitarist friend, Al Pitrelli, who had previously worked with, among others, Alice Cooper and Asia. Meanwhile, Jeff Plate, a friend of Zachary Stevens, had already taken over on drums.

The next album comes out in 1995, titled Dead Winter Dead. Another concept album, this time inspired by the war in the Balkans and the tragic ethnic conflict in the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo. It's a metal record orchestrated with classical instruments as well, deeply melodic and evocative (if baroque). There's ample room where the guitars support the overall structure of the song or step back, giving more space to the rest of the instrumentation, classical references ("In Memory" and Beethoven's Ninth), stirring ballads ("This Isn't What We Meant"), darker moments ("Starlight") and brighter ones ("One Child"), and even a couple of tracks where Jon returns to lead vocals (the hallucinatory, disorienting symphonism of "I Am", the thrashy, ironic edge of "Doesn't Matter Anyway"). A multifaceted structure and elegant, atmospheric arrangements, thanks above all to the abundant keyboards, bring the album close to progressive-metal territory, but at its core this is essentially symphonic metal, melodic and atmospheric, with a touch of pomp but never overdone. The instrumental "Mozart And Madness" is unforgettable, a captivating interplay of piano, keyboards, strings and guitars, by turns sweet and melodic, forceful and pounding, the peak of the album's symphonic element. It's one of the band's best works in terms of pathos, even if the baroque flourishes might be hard to stomach for some. All in all it's a successful effort, their most inspired since Streets.

Following the release of Dead Winter Dead, Savatage are temporarily put on hold due to the birth (helped along by the unexpected success of the single "Christmas Eve [Sarajevo 12-24]") of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Paul O'Neill's orchestral rock project, in which the producer involved Savatage and especially Jon Oliva. It's a project that would go on to find a far bigger audience than Savatage ever had, to the point of leaving Jon somewhat frustrated, since, under a different moniker than Savatage, certain ballads he reworked get far more attention within the Orchestra.

Returning to Savatage, with the same lineup, in 1998 the band writes a new concept album titled Wake Of Magellan, inspired by the Maersk Dubai incident (in which a Taiwanese pirate captain threw three Romanian stowaways into the middle of the Atlantic) and the murder of Irish reporter Veronica Guerin (who was fighting drug trafficking in her country). Compared to the previous Dead Winter Dead, though, the musical retelling of this story follows a less intimate and musically less ambitious path, with more simplified arrangements and a greater leaning toward a solemn, stirring theatricality drawing on the aforementioned musicals, by now a genuine passion for Oliva and O'Neill. Stylistically, many of the orchestral flourishes and the more deliberate approach are abandoned in favor of something more immediate, without giving up the piano/guitar duets and the more intense guitar riffing.

It's an album that can be enjoyable but is overall much less successful than its predecessor. Some of the melodic emphasis starts to feel a bit forced, and the overall flow of the songs is uneven, with good tracks (chief among them the tough, theatrical "Another Way", with Jon back on vocals, and the title track, which picks up some elements from "Chance" and features one of Zachary Stevens's finest performances) followed by weaker ones. Still, it remains a decent release, with expressive lyrics, and certainly essential for the band's die-hard fans.

At this point the Savatage name enters a kind of limbo, as the success of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra pushes Jon Oliva and Paul O'Neill to focus more on their new project, which remains active to this day. Going into it in depth here would eat up all the space we have and take us away from our main subject, so we'll limit ourselves to its most successful work. The most significant and celebrated album is probably Beethoven's Last Night from 2000, a symphonic rock concept album telling the story of a lost Beethoven symphony, with the intrusion of a Faustian Mephistopheles. The music is lavish and highly melodic, veering into melodrama. The musical-theater attitude unfortunately drags down many tracks, which end up feeling like little more than filler, while the classical music references (understandable as they are) come across as overly mannered.

Only in 2001 does Savatage's 11th studio album finally see the light of day, notably released under the Nuclear Blast label instead of their longtime home Atlantic: Poets & Madmen (a title taken from the lyrics of "Symmetry" from Handful Of Rain). But the album's gestation is troubled, as Al Pitrelli and Zachary Stevens leave the band, the former to join Megadeth (though he still records a few solos), while the latter has recently become a father and doesn't feel up to leaving his family for another long tour. Meanwhile, a young singer, Damond Jiniya, is brought in, with the idea of splitting the vocal duties with him. Damond, however, can't take part in the studio recordings due to numerous other commitments, only the live shows, so Jon chooses to return fully to the microphone for the entire album, exactly ten years after the last time he did so.

The music on Poets & Madmen marks a harder-edged turn for Savatage's sound compared to Wake Of Magellan, with more aggressive riffs, tougher breakdowns, fewer soft-oriented openings: in short, a more genuinely "heavy" record. But that doesn't stop it from still sounding more atmospheric than the genre standard, with Jon's keyboards enriching the tracks with their melodic touches (as in the dark "Commissar" or the scorching "There In The Silence"). The mood running through the album takes on darker tones than the previous record, partly to suit the concept, and Jon's dark, caustic voice fits these qualities perfectly.

"Morphine Child" is the gem of the album, the only track with a multifaceted structure that shifts rapidly from one mood to another: thrilling, melancholic, epic, aggressive, at times with Jon singing softly over timid chord progressions, at others with towering, overlapping liturgical choirs. It's also the longest track in Savatage's history, clocking in at ten minutes. Closing the album is "Back To A Reason", a moving ballad with an emotional crescendo (sweet and atmospheric at first, then growing increasingly impetuous until it becomes an intense rocker, a contrast that's notably sharper and better balanced than in "Rumor"). It's the album's swan song and the last track credited to Savatage, who after the following tour were put on hold to make room for the members' new projects.

Beyond Savatage

Even though the band can effectively be considered disbanded, its music lives on. After Criss's death, Savatage became identified with Jon himself, and with everyone who stood alongside him on his new musical path, starting with his trusted producer Paul O'Neill, who after 1993 more than ever would turn out to be the band's "ghost member". And even though he doesn't use the Savatage moniker, Oliva keeps composing music and also founds a new personal project, Jon Oliva's Pain, with different new session guests on each album who assist him in recording and touring. It's the start of yet another chapter.

Jon Oliva's Pain partly returns to the harder, grittier style of Savatage, that is, the one from the first part of their history, with some melodic touches drawn from later years. It's like a look back at the past, since the main influence comes from the albums of the early and mid-career period. The guitarists Jon brings in from time to time absorb the style of the late Criss Oliva and of Al Pitrelli well (though Jon's own hand is also at work). There's no shortage of small touches of symphonic melody, some noir atmospheres, melodic yet powerful tracks, ballads and nods to progressive metal. They're essentially Savatage reborn, insofar as Savatage is Jon Oliva, though not insofar as it includes the collective also made up of O'Neill, Caffery and the others. The result, as one can easily guess, rather heavily emphasizes Jon's personal style, at times self-derivative and occasionally uneven, enough that it doesn't always fully convince listeners outside the Savatage fan base. Still, there remains that certain feeling that Jon Oliva manages to recreate in any record bearing his touch, delivering catchy, determined songs. Still, his drive to give vent to his creative streak is commendable, and it's good to see him active and so eager to compose (perhaps too eager, given that among his many projects he's gotten himself into trouble with contracts and is forced to write several albums in a short span of time, at the expense of focus).

All four albums are aimed mainly at Savatage fans, but they're not the only projects tinged with a wave of "nostalgia". Zachary Stevens simultaneously launched Circle II Circle, a prolific band offering melodic, symphonic heavy metal still in line with the Savatage style, followed a few years later by Machines of Grace, a hard-rock project also featuring Jeff Plate. Chris Caffery, meanwhile, embarked on a solo career, seeking a middle ground between power, aggression, technique and eclecticism, touching on tones ranging from melodic rock to extreme metal; and bassist Johnny Lee Middleton has also recently started a solo career.

Finally, there's the ever-active Trans-Siberian Orchestra, where Jon Oliva, Paul O'Neill, Al Pitrelli and many others handle the more symphonic, melodic side of their music, and which Jon himself considers "Savatage under another name" — at times showing a colorful flair for composition, but at others coming across as rather cloying.

The Savatage name becomes active again for an official reunion in 2014, in which both current and former members of the band come together for a nostalgia-driven tour that culminates in a historic concert at Wacken Open Air, with Jon Oliva more active than ever despite his 55 years, crowning a long, theatrical and monumental career that has weathered both triumphs and hardships — the most recent, chronologically, being the death of Paul O'Neill in 2017 at just 61, due to an adverse reaction to medications prescribed for the numerous chronic conditions that plagued him.

Further reading on the web:

http://www.savatage.com/multimedia/articles/news_5.92.html

http://hardrockhaven.net/online/2013/08/jon-oliva-of-savatage-pain-interview/

http://www.rockline.it/intervista/jon-oliva-s-pain

http://www.truemetal.it/news/savatage-jon-oliva-chiarisce-in-un-intervista-quale-sara-il-futuro-del-gruppo-77582

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