Savatage
Savatage is an American heavy metal band founded by brothers Jon and Criss Oliva in 1979 in Tarpon Springs, Florida. The band was first called Avatar, but, shortly before the release of their debut album Sirens, they changed their name to Savatage, as Avatar was already taken by at least one other band. Savatage is considered to be an integral part of the American heavy metal movement of the early-to-mid-1980s and has been cited as a key influence on numerous metal genres. The band has released eleven studio albums, two live albums, five compilations and three EPs.
For their fourth album Hall of the Mountain King, Savatage teamed up with producer/songwriter Paul O'Neil. This new partnership earned the band significant critical acclaim, and O'Neil would work with Savatage on all their future albums until his death in 2017. The band's success continued with the albums Gutter Ballet and Streets: A Rock Opera, both of which cemented their transition from their earlier power metal sound to progressive metal, with the band also experimenting with opera-inspired lyrics.
The band's seventh album Edge of Thorns garnered the band's only charting single "Edge of Thorns". On October 17, 1993, six months after the album's release, guitarist Criss Oliva was killed in a car accident. Following his death, Jon decided to continue Savatage in memory of his brother. The band released four more studio albums, and went through several lineup changes before going on an extended hiatus in 2002. During the years—partly even before the hiatus—members founded various new bands such as Jon Oliva's Pain, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Circle II Circle and Doctor Butcher. On August 2, 2014, Savatage announced that they were reuniting for the 2015 Wacken Open Air; despite having discussed the possibility of more shows and new music, the band resumed their hiatus. The members of Savatage claimed in interviews conducted in 2020–2021 that they were working on new material together, with a reunion of the band confirmed by Jon Oliva in April 2023. They are currently working on their first studio album in more than two decades, tentatively titled Curtain Call, with an intended release date of 2026.
History
Early days (1979–1986)
and his brother Jon formed their first band together, called Avatar, in 1979. Their former bands were Tower and Alien, respectively. In 1980, the duo met up with drummer Steve "Doc" Wacholz and practiced in a small shack behind the Oliva home that was dubbed "The Pit" by the band. Wacholz originally tried out to be part of Jon's band, Alien, but when the first Savatage lineup was taking shape, Jon, who was originally on drum duties, was relieved of them by Wacholz. They also gave Wacholz a nickname that would follow him throughout his career: "Doctor Hardware Killdrums", often shortened to just "Doc" or "Doc Killdrums", which referred to his hard playing style.Criss, Jon and Wacholz played Tampa and Clearwater area clubs for many years. In 1981, Ronald Leon Sisson joined them to relieve Jon of bass guitar duties. In late 2006, footage was released onto the internet of an early performance by Avatar at a gig in a Clearwater parking lot and was prominent in featuring an early version of the song "Holocaust", which would later be released on Savatage's first album and a cover of Van Halen's "Eruption" and the latter's cover version of "You Really Got Me". In 1982, Avatar took part in some heavy metal compilations, most notably The YNF Pirate Tape, a promotion by Tampa rock radio station 95YNF for local Florida bands. Shortly after its release, Avatar was forced to change its name due to copyright issues. Combining the words "Savage" and "Avatar", the band decided on Savatage.
Their first album, Sirens and the following EP The Dungeons Are Calling, were released on Par Records, an independent label. In 1984, they signed a contract with Atlantic Records and released their second full-length album Power of the Night in May of the following year. Power of the Night showcased the band's unorthodox approach to metal, which included Jon's liberal use of keyboards on songs like "Fountain of Youth" and Broadway-style song structures like the kind employed on "Warriors". It was well received by critics but fell short of sales expectations. Atlantic budgeted to provide funds to make a video for "Hard for Love", on the condition that it be retitled "Hot for Love" for broadcast purposes. The band refused to change the song and consequently the video was never released. In promotion of Power of the Night, Savatage embarked on the Monsters of the Universe Tour with Rogue Male and Illusion, and also played with Mötley Crüe, Quiet Riot, Exodus, Raven, Overkill and Armored Saint.
In 1986, after the release of their third album, Fight for the Rock, a failed attempt at a commercial approach imposed by the record company which the band themselves called Fight for the Nightmare, Savatage toured with Metallica, Kiss and Motörhead. The band was not happy with the album, with pressure from the label to include two cover versions. Jon Oliva had been retained to write material for other artists on the Atlantic label, such as John Waite and other pop-rock artists. Later, the label demanded Savatage record the material themselves. In a choice they would later regret, the band agreed. Not only did it destroy them in the press, it nearly destroyed the band and sent Jon into his early alcohol and drug problems. Jon recently admitted however the album did have strong points, including the band's cover of Badfinger's "Day After Day". During this time, original bassist Keith Collins left the band, and Johnny Lee Middleton joined the band. Since 1987, Middleton has been the only consistent member of Savatage, performing on every album.
Rise to popularity and death of Criss Oliva (1987–1993)
The commercial failure of Fight for the Rock resulted in Savatage nearly disbanding, during which Jon auditioned for Black Sabbath and Criss had considered joining Megadeth; however, Jon decided that he and Criss "didn't want to split up", and were encouraged by producer Paul O'Neill to continue Savatage. In 1987, the band released their first commercially successful album, and first collaboration with O'Neill, Hall of the Mountain King, which became the base for the band rising into a more mainstream arena. They recorded their first music video for the album's title song, which received extensive air play on MTV's Headbangers Ball, and was followed up by a video for the song "24 Hours Ago". A world tour in support of the album throughout 1987 and 1988 followed, playing with a variety of bands like Dio, Megadeth, Iron Maiden, Testament, Sanctuary, Pandemonium, Nuclear Assault, Heathen, Forbidden, and Helstar. Hall of the Mountain King not only found a new audience for Savatage, but also introduced a new musical style, featuring symphonic elements, strongly influenced by O'Neill, that would shape the band's future recordings. O'Neill contributed most of the lyrics for the rest of their career and gave them a more conceptual edge starting with their next album, Gutter Ballet.Gutter Ballet, which was released in January 1990, has been considered the band's true turning point. This album saw the band adopt a more progressive style, writing longer songs with more complex melodies and differing vocal styles, rather than the more straightforward power metal style that was apparent in earlier works. The change to a more progressive, operatic style was also precipitated by Jon, after seeing a performance of Phantom of the Opera in Toronto. The songs "Gutter Ballet" and "When the Crowds Are Gone" are examples of this influence from that album, as was the next Savatage's release. Many additional songs already written, before the decision of this change of style, were unused and subsequently published as bonus tracks, in the Sirens and The Dungeons Are Calling 2002 reissues, some of them were also re-worked and published by Jon Oliva's Pain. Gutter Ballet proved to be another success for Savatage, with the title track and "When the Crowds Are Gone" receiving considerable airplay on Headbangers Ball and album-oriented radio stations. The album was once again promoted with a grueling tour, which took place throughout most of 1990, touring North America with Testament and Nuclear Assault, and Europe with King Diamond and Candlemass. They also toured North America with Trouble.
Chris Caffery, who had been playing with Savatage in the previous tour performing rhythm guitar and keyboards offstage, officially joined the band in 1989. He never played on the Gutter Ballet album, even though he was credited with guitars and keyboards and was pictured in the album's booklet "both to prepare the fans for the lineup they'd see on tour and confirm his permanent member status". Despite this, Caffery left the band after the Gutter Ballet tour for personal reasons, but kept writing music with Jon Oliva and would later return to Savatage during the second half of the 1990s.
In 1991, the band created their first rock opera, Streets: A Rock Opera, featuring the story of a fallen rock star called DT Jesus who has hit hard times. The record did not sell as well as the band would have liked however, as it was released around the time that grunge exploded into the mainstream music arena, but a video for "Jesus Saves" was recorded and again got airplay, drawing a new audience to appreciate the band. Over the years Streets has become one of the most appreciated and a landmark album in Savatage's career. Originally, this record was intended to be a double album, but Atlantic Records did not like the idea, so it was trimmed down to 17 songs. The album was then going to have spoken tracks in-between all the songs but that was scrapped also. The final version scrapped the 17th song "Larry Elbows" and erased all the spoken tracks except for the intro to Jesus Saves. The cover had the story explained in it to make up for the lost spoken tracks. Atlantic somehow over the years managed to lose the master tapes to Streets so the left over songs truly are lost. Many of the riffs from these songs showed up on the next album Edge of Thorns. Another interesting detail about the album is that "Jesus Saves" was originally written as a midtempo song, not the rocker it became on the finished album. In 2013, a narrated version of the album was re-issued with the title: Streets: A Rock Opera - Narrated Version.
The world tour in support of Streets began in October 1991 in Europe, with support from Vicious Rumors. The next several months were spent touring relentlessly in North America, with the likes of Armored Saint and Fates Warning, followed by their first shows in Japan. After the Streets tour ended in the spring of 1992, Jon Oliva left the band to concentrate on his side projects Doctor Butcher and his Broadway-bound musical Romanov, as well as continuing co-writing Savatage material with his brother Criss and producer Paul O'Neill. However, as of 2013, only one instrumental track from the Romanov project was released under the moniker Trans-Siberian Orchestra on the Dreams of Fireflies EP. After this EP, together with a Broadway version of Streets named Gutter Ballet, even Romanov was planned as a future Trans-Siberian Orchestra album.
On June 13, 1992, during Jon's "farewell show" at the Rock-It Club in Tampa, 28 songs were played to cover all the main highlights of the band. This show was not intended, recorded or filmed for any sort of live album.
The new lead vocalist, former Wicked Witch singer Zachary Stevens, was discovered and introduced to the band by Criss' best friend and guitar technician Dan Campbell. The band recorded their follow-up to Streets, Edge of Thorns, in 1993. Drummer Steve Wacholz decided to record the album but he was not interested in touring, even though he stated he intended to return to the band in the future, and hand-picked his replacement as well in drummer Andy James. For the first time, Savatage began to enjoy mainstream recognition, including increased radio play and a world tour which gained international press as "the best Savatage has ever sounded live". However, tragedy struck when founder and lead guitarist Criss Oliva was killed by a drunk driver on October 17, 1993. Jon chose to continue the band, although he has since admitted that the band was pretty much over after Criss' death, but only kept going because of his memory and to "keep his music alive".