Fight
For The Rock
(Atlantic
'86)
After that it goes downhill with the prosperous career of Savatage. What the fans were fearing at "POTN" now became reality. Savatage goes to the Trident Studios in London with producer Stephan Galfas and returns with the way too commercially sounding "Fight For The Rock". This record, which is released in the summer of 1986, is a great disappointment for the Sava-fans. The production of the record is less heavy and one by one the songs are more mellow than "Hyde", by far the softest track on "FFTR" .Besides, the covers aren't very well received by the Savatage Legion. Where,on the back of "FFTR" the fierce cry: ' Raise The Fist Of The Metal Child ' appeared, on the new record the fans have to settle for the vague : 'Stalking The Neon Citites Standing In The Shadows '.
Nevertheless the record sells well in those american "Neon Cities", but the European fans prefer the swampy sounds of the previous records. Thanks to the succes of "POTN" and "Sirens" they do, without the co-operation of Atlantic, a few succesful gigs in Europe during 1986, Belgium and the Netherlands included. The band doesn't seem to have been happy with this record, and since 1989 has never played songs from this record live. Although they used a part of "Edge Of Midnight" to open their 'Streets-gigs'. Band-internally this record has been referred to lately as "Fight For The Nightmare".
Hall
Of The Mountain King
(Atlantic
'87)
Although the press was at least as positive about 'Gutter Ballet' and 'Streets', this was going to be their best selling record. When the record is released, hardrock and heavy metal are very popular in the States, and Savatage regains its reputation as a true metal-act. And many new fans are won over. The record has the same heavy sound as on the old records, which they owe to a new producer: Paul O'Neill. On top of that, they are experimenting for the first time with a more orchestrated musical approach. Paul O'Neill will prove to be the saviour of Savatage.
He still remembers the first time he saw Savatage live: "I hadn't completely promised to do the job and wanted to see the band live first. I flew over to Florida and arrived there, but the show already had started. I couldn't believe my eyes. The place was sold-out, completely. Jon stood on top of a rack of Marshalls and sang with a great and powerful voice. After that Criss hit out and that was completely amazing! I was convinced. I could work with this band and saw unprecedented possibilities." Paul O'Neill then already was an old hand in the business. He had worked with Aerosmith and Michael Schenker Group." I was very impressed by the talent of this band. There's a difference between talent and inborn talent. The Oliva-brothers were like Mozart-brothers to me, they could play anything. Jon is a schizofrenic in vocals, his voice has different aspects. He can sing ballads, screaming rocksongs and passionate acapella parts very easily. That created possibilities. Normally you need different singers for a rockopera, but Jon has so many characters in his voice, that he can manage it all by himself. From the soft "Heal My Soul" till the raw "Agony And Ecstacy"-feeling. I can't name any other band that can create what Savatage created in the studio. I felt like a kid in the candystore!"
Jon compliments Paul on the given analysis and tells:" The first song Paul and I wrote was "Hall Of The Mountain King". When we were working on "24 Hours Ago" I knew it would work." Paul:"We were three persons with the same vision" Jon: "Excactly. And that made it lot easier" Paul:" Jon and Criss were the fuel and I was probably the match. With "Hall Of The Mountain King" things really got started in the States. The Tour was regularly visited and the videos could often be seen on MTV. We toured for nine months and most of it together with Dio and Megadeth". On that tour Chris Caffery makes his debut . To unburden Criss as well as Jon live, he played guitars as well as keys. For that matter, he wasn't always on stage but most of the time behind the PA-speakers, and because he was being bullied by the road-crew there, he quit after that tour. Because of the succes in the States the ardent wish to tour in Europein '88 was rejected by Atlantic, the band has to come up with a successor quickly, but halfway those recordings they come to Europe for the Dynamo Open Air festival.
Gutter
Ballet
(Atlantic
'89)
The working title of this album
was "Hounds Of Zaroff" .Of some of the song the lyrics
are autobiographic. Like "Thorazine Shuffle", which
appears to tell us about Jon's forced holiday at a clinic, where
he stayed for detox. Talking about the pleasures of life, mister
Oliva is a real artist, who has to crash first, before his
creativity can come to the surface. It figures that Dave Mustaine
wanted to go "On Suicide Mission with the Mountain King
", more than was good for them. You can guess what that
means! Nowadays Jon only has his addiction to smoking. Without
that Jon, according to Paul O'Neill, could easily have been a
millionaire.
Everybody realises that the next record has an important role. A
lot of demos are being made before the band goes into the studio.
Optimists believe that there's still a lot of unreleased material
from 'Gutter Ballet' somewhere, but that'll exceed expectations
in reality. A lot of that material will later be used by Jon and
Paul. As an example we find the song "Follow Me" on
"Edge Of Thorns" , which has a big part of the
unreleased "Stranger In The Dark".
Paul:" We got a unlimited budget for "Gutter Ballet" and a big sum in advance. It makes a good cheer, that Savatage uses this kind of money to record and not for some car, like many other bands! Atlantic told us that we could use what we wanted!" Jon:" And we DID! We knew right from the start what we wanted to do with this record, everybody was very happy from the beginning. We had regained our self esteem after "Hall Of The Mountain King" and this record was made very naturally, therefore!" Paul:" We also got a unlimited budget for the videos of "When The Crowds are Gone" and "Gutter Ballet" At that time we were America's most famous cultband! Only Japan wasn't tacked. "Gutter Ballet" was originally meant to be a rockopera, but we decided to wait for that. The song "When The Crowds Are Gone" was originally supposed to be on "Streets" and "Gutter Ballet" was to be entitled "Streets". We stole a lot from ourselves back then.".
The band has become aware of the advantages of having a second guitarist and asks Chris Caffery again for the tour. He rejoins on better terms and will be on stage during the "A Night With Savatage/Rulin' Gutter"-tour in 1989/1990. He is also given credits on the record: Chris Caffery-guitars and keys. And that's really loyal of the band, because Caffery didn't play a single note for the record. After the European part of the tour, as support act of King Diamond, he again leaves the stage for reasons unknown.
From: Aardschok Savatage History
Translated by Patrick van der Horst and Ellen Bakvis
