- Mar 1, 2004
- 1,219
- 24
- 38
I thought I'd spend the day with old friends Jon Oliva and Paul O'Neil, just to see what the hold up on this disc was.
Not much good to say about the disc. Sound wise, it's like a sterile, clean sounding Savatage. Not enough crunch and balls and not enough chance taking. It stays close to formula when they are in their symphonic christmas'y glory. When they branch out and play some of the more rock/radio friendly stuff, they sound like just another generic band. With as much money that was in the budget, this disc just sounds so boring and middling.
Vocally is where I was most disappointed. There is nothing here that makes me want to hit replay. This disc is pretty much a spin-once and dispose. The 1st thing that interested me on the entire disc is "Past Forgotten", but as soon as the female vocals jump in, I gave up on the song. When they dig into the Savatage past with the outtake from the Streets era, "Stay", I think I just want to give this disc to the next person I see walking by. They rely on female vocals wayyyyy too much. Not that they are bad singers, there just isn't enough variation. The song "Not The Same" has a Savatage feel to it, reminding me of "Somewhere in Time/Believe, but without the pompous, powerful driving guitars. Maybe a bit like the outtake "Desiree", but with female vocals again.
As you can probably tell, I am a Savatage fanboy and I am comparing this to what Savatage might sound like today musically. I miss the crunch and balls of Jon Oliva/Criss Oliva/Al Pitrelli/ Chris Caffery/Zak Stevens era. To me this is almost as much of an outrage as TSO doing old Savatage songs.
Time has moved on without a Savatage to help me carry-on. The lyrics on the final song sums this up 100 % perfectly.
"The passion we once had is fading...into the whirlwind of our lives"
Not much good to say about the disc. Sound wise, it's like a sterile, clean sounding Savatage. Not enough crunch and balls and not enough chance taking. It stays close to formula when they are in their symphonic christmas'y glory. When they branch out and play some of the more rock/radio friendly stuff, they sound like just another generic band. With as much money that was in the budget, this disc just sounds so boring and middling.
Vocally is where I was most disappointed. There is nothing here that makes me want to hit replay. This disc is pretty much a spin-once and dispose. The 1st thing that interested me on the entire disc is "Past Forgotten", but as soon as the female vocals jump in, I gave up on the song. When they dig into the Savatage past with the outtake from the Streets era, "Stay", I think I just want to give this disc to the next person I see walking by. They rely on female vocals wayyyyy too much. Not that they are bad singers, there just isn't enough variation. The song "Not The Same" has a Savatage feel to it, reminding me of "Somewhere in Time/Believe, but without the pompous, powerful driving guitars. Maybe a bit like the outtake "Desiree", but with female vocals again.
As you can probably tell, I am a Savatage fanboy and I am comparing this to what Savatage might sound like today musically. I miss the crunch and balls of Jon Oliva/Criss Oliva/Al Pitrelli/ Chris Caffery/Zak Stevens era. To me this is almost as much of an outrage as TSO doing old Savatage songs.
Time has moved on without a Savatage to help me carry-on. The lyrics on the final song sums this up 100 % perfectly.
"The passion we once had is fading...into the whirlwind of our lives"
