SIRENS

Savatage

Progressive Metal

3.08 | 92 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

Savatage is one of the best American heavy metal bands in the 80's, they gradually improved their songwriting and lyrics and became a fantastic progressive metal band in the 90's.

Savatage were formed by brothers Jon (vocals) and Criss Oliva (guitar), they initially were a trio and called themselves "Avatar" with Jon singing and playing bass, Criss on guitar and Steve Wacholz on drums. Soon later Jon Oliva decided to concentrate on singing and they recluted bass player Keith Collins. Just the day before the release date of their debut album ("Sirens") they were pushed to change the name of the group as "Avatar" already was the name of another recording band. They inmediately came up with the name SAVATAGE.

"Sirens" was recorded in only two days. Jon Oliva (a multi-instrumentalist himself) wrote almost all the material assisted by his brother Criss on some tracks. Jon Oliva's vocals are that kind of "love-it-or-hate-it", his voice being raspy and gritty not unlike Quiet Riot's singer or Alice Cooper, however he does a good job and his voice fits the music very well. Savatage's music at this point was straight-forward heavy metal yet with quality on the songwriting as can be noticed on the great track "Sirens". Criss Oliva proved to be a very talented musician with style and technique close to Randy Rhoads and Eddie Van Halen. Most of the songs from this album became live favorites during the 80's.

I can't give this record more than 2 stars because it's not progressive at all, not even close to prog-metal, in turn it's full of very good and aggresive heavy metal therefore it's a must for metal-heads; in a heavy metal context I give 3 or 4 stars to this record. As Savatage developed a more symphonic and progressive approach on later years, "Sirens" is an interesting listening for the adventurous prog-metal lover.

Prosciutto | 2/5 | 2005-8-30

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