Metal Reviews

http://www.myspace.com/chriscaffery

The new track is "Pins And Needles," and it's awesome! He's channeling that early Savatage stuff BIG TIME on this song. Damn! I can't wait for this album now.

EDIT: "In The Midst" is new, too. A nice little instrumental.

I've had the promo for a week now and I think it's a major improvement over Faces/GDW. His first album was just too pissed off for my tastes. This new one he tones it down a couple notches and adds a lot more progressive tendencies to the music.

As I said on another board, Caff has the potential to create a gold pedastal album within the next few years if he keeps improving at this pace.

He will need to fire the singer though, before he can ascend to gold pedastal status.

Bastard! I haven't gotten the promo yet!

Haha. I liked Faces/God Damn War/W.A.R.P.E.D., but I did feel that some songs could have been left off. I really dislike "Pisses Me Off," I think it's a stupid song. And while "Music Man" is a decent tune, it is sorely out of place on the album. Overall, though, I think he did a very good job for a debut.

And yeah, his vocals aren't that great, but neither are Jon Oliva's, and that worked for Savatage. And I think Chris sounds very much like Jon.

Awesome! I like the song Pins And Needles alot. He really sounds like Jon during the chorus parts (and Jon has a great voice! Always has Easily my favorite male singer).

In The Midst kicksass too, I love shit like this. Cant wait for the whole album!

Jon has an outstanding clean tone, but otherwise he's not a great singer. However, in Savatage he is a great singer (or, rather, singing his music, he is great). He fits. It's like the AC/DC connection. Brian Johnson sucks. Bon Scott sucked. But somehow they both fit perfectly with AC/DCs music.

Well I like his voice in everything Ive heard him in, his voice gives me the "omg awesome" goosebumps at times. I get what you mean, but I dont see the point in it, if I think he is great then he is great (to me). Whether or not he can reach the heights of other singers or whether he sometimes sings out of tune or screams when it doesnt fit doesnt matter because I love his voice and it sounds amazing.

Im having trouble explaining myself here so I hope what I said made some sense.

Well, I'm referring to a singer singer, you know? I would classify Zak Stevens as a singer, and Jon as a vocalist. If that makes any sense. If not...

Savatage/Dr. Butcher/Jon Oliva's Pain/TSO

This is Caff's major drawback, he doesn't have that outstanding clean tone (at least not that we've heard yet) and you have to admit he doesn't get anywhere near Jon in terms of quality, range and emotion. If he wants to step up from a silver pedastal he'll need someone with more diversity behind the mic. That stated, I'll admit to being very picky about vox, and I think it's just fine he's doing his own vocals while he gets his feet wet in the solo arena. Once he's comfortable with the role, primarily his own songwriting, I think he should hire a real singer and expand his horizons even more (right now he's limited to writing music that he can sing).

Well, on this track he seems to be better and stronger vocally than on the last album. My question is whether or not he's been singing for long. If he just basically picked up singing on his last album(s), then he's done very well. If he's been singing for a long, long time, then he's likely not going to get better, just stronger; similar to how much stronger Jon sounds on Poets & Madmen compared to earlier albums.

With that said, he does still have a very good clean tone. "Never," and the b-sides "Christmas Is" and "Forever I'll Be" are the best examples of this.

He's definitely better and stronger on this album, and I know from reading an interview with him that he just picked up singing when Savatage went stagnant several years ago. And I'll agree he has done well, but he's a little late in his career to go to vocal school and earn top honors. He'd be better served playing guitar and songwriting; the former he's already a master at, and the latter is vastly improving with time.

I like the new tune (Pins and Needles) alot. I'm just not sure why he included the rather awkward passage with the harmonics. I find that part kind of hard to listen to. I am really looking forward to this CD though.

Chris is awesome. My wife and I saw TSO this past December and I caught him on the "Faces" tour with Ripper Owens' Beyond Fear and Jon Oliva's Pain. Chris was extremely nice. His performance was superior.