Metal Reviews

You're welcome to comment on:


Click here to see the review.

I've been a HUGE Savatage fan ever since albums like Sirens, The Dungeons Are Calling, Hall of the Mountain King, etc. I truly feel that the last decent album with Oliva on vocals was Streets. At that time his voice was drastically deteriorating from all the cocaine he did. The still put out some decent releases with Zach Stevens such as Edge of Thorns and Handfull of Rain. Anything else after that was not the same, especially when Chris Oliva passed on.

When Doctor Butcher came out, I was really curious to see what Oliva could offer aside from his Savatage stuff. The end result for me was that it was better that anything he did on Dead Winter Dead and Wake of Magellan. His voice even sounded a little better. Over all a much heavier direction. I just that it's never been anything that has blown me away as it seems it has done for you Marty, though I do think it has it's moments. The remasters are definately a step up when compared to the original, and the bonus material is a nice touch. I really miss his vocals from the first four Savatage albums. Based on his style of singing, the stress of the death of his brother, as well as the drugs and all the smoking he's done over the years, one could expect for his voice to somewhat deteriorate and sound the way it does today. Still, I give him credit for stepping out after all the events and giving us something to bang our heads to. 8)

I love this album. I love anything Jon Oliva touches. His voice is certainly different from what it used to be, but at times I find his voice is even better than what it was, like on the Pain album. Anyways, great review.

Good review, Jon Oliva rules.

Yes, excellent review. This CD kicks ass! Jon's vocals are a definite "acquired taste," but once you get used to them he is sick! I first heard Savatage a looooong time ago when "Gutter Ballet" was a mild radio hit. I was young then—around 14, I think—so I didn't actually pick up a Savatage album until years later. The first album I got by them was "Edge Of Thorns," so my first real introduction to them was with Zak singing. At this point I'm pretty sure they'd just released Dead Winter Dead and I picked that one up and then Handful Of Rain, or vice versa. Either way, my love for Savatage grew around Zak Steven's on vocals.

So, you can understand my shock when I went back and picked up their earlier material. Though I loved the song "Gutter Ballet" from the first time I'd heard it, Jon's vocals overall are much more virtiolic than that song showcases. So it took me a good while to get used to them, but now I love them. I'm probably one of the few people that thinks Poets & Madmen is a brilliant album, it's like old school Savatage meets new school Savatage, it's awesome!

Dr. Butcher is just another page in the amazing book of Jon Oliva.

I'm with you on that one, I mean both Commissar and Morphine Child are monstrous songs and then the rest ranges from great to good. It was definately better than any Zak era Tage release IMO.

It's definitely a killer album and I would have thought that after the more epic, symphonic Wake Of Magellan this is what people would have wanted. A lot of people seemed to start getting wary of the band on Magellan because they were getting away from the traditional metal sound. Jon brought it back big time on that album.

Yes, I also agree it was one of the better Savatage albums after ones like Wake of Magellan and Dead Winter Dead. I really liked the first two with Stevens. In fact, I really felt that Alex Skolnik maintained the Chris Oliva sound on "Handful of Rain" he was so convincing I almost didn't realize that Chris was not on it.

Now this is pretty damn awesome!