POWER OF THE NIGHT

Riffs, riffs, riffs. This album has plenty of them and all of them are tasty with nice little hooks. The production is awesome for it's time (1985) due to the fact of star producer Max Norman producing this, who is a household name for his powerful, clean productions. Chris Oliva's guitar work is unbeatable yet again, as this album shows plenty of his creative solos and riffs. The whole band is tight on the songs, and Savatage planned all these songs very well before recording. The album starts off with the killer title track "Power of the Night" which has one of the greatest riffs I've ever heard and this song is more or less based around the groove of the band, than the singing with a legendary chorus passage: RAISE THE FIST OF THE METAL CHILD!!!

#2 on this album is "Unusual" which is a more vocal-oriented song that has some eerie keyboards,and guitar parts to give the album some needed varience. Steve Wacholz does a great job pounding the skins on this album, and Keith Collins does some pretty bass playing to back up the band nicely. Jon Oliva ails like a madman about to rip off someones balls on this album.

Anyways track number three is "Warriors" and is one of the catchiest songs on the cd which opens with a cool guitar part and then has some outstanding Vocals during the Verse and Chorus. As Jon Oliva chants "Warriors, warriors, warriors of the World" I always think of the Manowar cd "Warriors of the World"....were Manowar Savatage fans? Warriors is one of early Sava's best song period in my opinion.

Next up is "Necrophilia" which starts off with another great guitar riff, and busts into a heavy rockin' song, that lasts the remainder of the song (which is not a bad thing in the least bit as this is one of Savas most killer tracks ever). If you want metal with catchy riffs rocking songs then this is the one for you. Like any of Savatage's early CDs.

"Washed Out" is the next offering on Power of the Night and although it is a short song it delivers some pretty good fast paced riffage.

"Hard For Love" is one of my fave songs on this album as it has a very catchy guitar part and a sweet and memorable chorus to boot.

"Fountain of Youth" is a special song on here, with some simple but very effective axe work by Criss Oliva. I love Jon Olivas screams in this song so much it gets me going all the time. The atmosphere of this track always captures me.

Next up is "Skull Session" which starts off with a fast powerful riff and then turns into a groovy verse with plenty of surprises. One of the less memorable songs on the disc, but still solid though.

"Stuck on You" has yet a handful of great riffs, but is the weakest track on POTN in my book. The song becomes tired pretty fast, but is still worth a listen of course.

"In the Dream", the closing piece, is more of a mellow track, which is Savatage's first real power ballad, as it suits the ending of the album, and still has that edge that is very attracting to the ears. The song has a sentimental vibe with sad lyrics and a catchy chorus. Very good indeed!

Overall this is a great album from start to finish (with possible exception of Skull Session and Stuck on You) and should be in your collection if you like Metal/Hard Rock of the 80's or Savatage. Traditional US power metal at it's best! Not interestening for a stucked proghead though, but already for the casual classic metal collector/listener.

album rating: 8.5/10 points = 85 % on MPV scale = 4/5 stars

point-system: 0 - 3 points = 1 star / 3.5 - 5.5 points = 2 stars / 6 - 7 points = 3 stars / 7.5 - 8.5 points = 4 stars / 9 - 10 points = 5 stars

I think that Power of the Night is one of the weakest Savatage's album, along with Fight for The Rock. It lacks the rough sound and the energy of the two previous albums, and the songs aren't as catchy. Nevertheless, I'll give this album three stars because it supposed one step ahead in the subject of the production, and Criss Oliva's guitars sound very good!

Best songs for me: Power of the Night (Raise the fist of the metal child!!!), Warriors and In The Dream, the first Savatage's ballad!

"Power Of The Night" is the 2nd full-length studio album by US, Florida based heavy/power metal act Savatage. The album was released through Atlantic Records in May 1985. Savatage was formed in 1979 under the Avatar monicker (they also occasionally went by the Metropolis monicker). After releasing a demo and an EP under the Avatar name they changed their name to Savatage in 1983 and recorded a demo before being signed to Par Records for the release of their debut full-length studio album "Sirens (1983)". "The Dungeons Are Calling" EP followed in 1984 (also released through Par Records), before Savatage was picked up by major label Atlantic Records. At this point in time Savatage seemed destined for greatness and commercial success.

Stylistically "Power Of The Night" continues the traditional heavy metal style of "Sirens (1983)", although the tracks are generally a bit more polished and in the case of "Hard For Love" obviously aimed at a mainstream audience. In the other end of the spectrum Savatage also experiments with new features like slightly symphonic keyboards on "Unusual". So "Power Of The Night" is overall a more diverse release than "Sirens (1983)".

The sound production is sligthly thin sounding, but otherwise detailed and powerful enough. The performances are as always on a high level. Jon Oliva is blessed with a set of really strong pipes, and his delivery is commanding and passionate. Little brother Criss Oliva is a guitarist extraordinaire and puts the icing on the cake with his hard edged riffs and blistering solos. The cake here being the tight and well playing rhythm section of Keith Collins (bass, backing vocals) and Steve Wacholz (drums, percussion).

So upon conclusion "Power Of The Night" is a great sophomore album by Savatage although I wouldn´t necessarily call it a step up from "Sirens (1983)". It´s debatable if the more polished and accessible nature of some of the tracks is a plus or a minus, but it did show that Savatage wasn´t a one-trick pony and that they were capable of composing music in different musical styles. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

|C| A solid album from 1985 and another relevant work of proto-prog metal.

Power of the Night, the sophomore effort of the (at this stage) 80s proto-prog metal band Savatage, is quite a solid step up from their debut, and shows much more of the band's creative potential in pioneering the use of new artistic devices of composition ("progressiveness") in their music. Whilst this may be primarily an 80s metal oriented album, it is by no means the musical equivalent of the popular hair-metal "one hit wonder" counterparts of the time, as there is far more substance, creativity, and passion and far less "hook" and other superfluous idioms of much corporate-created music, though there are attempts on a couple tracks in this direction. That being said, this is still far from overtly progressive sounding metal, though there are plenty of hints and even overt statements of the style, enough to deem this album as a fairly good model of "proto-prog metal" if we should choose to use such simultaneously specific yet in fact vague labels. Certainly, in the context of the 80s metal style, the music here is far less repetitive and much more creative than pretty much any of their popular 80s hair-metal counterparts.

Track Commentary: The album title track has an interesting introduction with electronic- music pads and sound effects, which I find an interesting way to start a metal album. This moves straight into the main riff. This song is definitely your typical (though high quality) early 80s metal, everything really pieces together quite nicely in this song, and I really like the heavy use of syncopation during the verse and solo. This song is very characteristic of the band's aggressive metal sound, with a really cool bass-guitar unison ending. Unusual, the second track, continues in much of the same vein, though a slower, sixteenth-note rhythm based feel. I like the use of string sounds during the verse, and the synthesizers during the chorus really add so much, as well as the throbbing base. I like the modulations in the section before the solo, very creative and not something you'd ever hear in heavy metal, particularly at the time. Warriors has an overtly prog-metal sound to it, which is cool hearing that considering this album came out right in the middle of the eighties, probably prog's darkest period in its existence. The chorus of the song seems a little forced, though Jon Oliva does a great job with it, especially when he does that downward chromatic movement on the repeat. The section before the ending chorus as another synth-pad-laden, which is really cool though a little out of place considering its context within the song. Necrophilia is a very driven song with a sort of bluesy sounding guitar work, quite superb riffs all around. The duel octave-sounding guitar work is really great. It sort of sounds like where they would go with their music with Hall of the Mountain King. Washed out is more NWBHM sounding, lots of chugging sixteenth note playing by the bass and guitar, and very eighties metal sounding solo (meaning awesome). Hard for Love, as the title suggests, sounds like another one of those typical "record-company-pressured-us-to-try-to-make-a- hit" song, which is really lame. It's exactly the sort of rubbish that gives 80s metal such a low "dated" reputation among even less musically educated metal-heads, though the band tries to incorporate some unique things in it, as if to say "you know we'd like to make better music than this but it is what it is." Fountain of Youth is pretty much the artistic opposite, starting off with less conventional and thicker distortion-guitar chords (similar to the ones often used by Fates Warning, if I'm not mistaken) and some synth effects. I sense that this is the sort of music that represents the band's true creative outlet. The guitar tabbing is played very clean and sounds great. There is a very progressive sounding section with voice effect synth-pads with really effective and creative guitar work. And talk about an unconventional ending! Skull Session is a much more straightforward track, another very driving, somewhat NWBHM sounding galloping-rhythm-based track. Stuck On You is actually much better than you'd expect considering the title (and even the lyrics), the guitar work is very good, especially during the chorus, and the overall song has a very metal head-banging feel to it (particularly during the solo), though the lyrics are still really annoying and uncharacteristic of the song. I love the micro-meter triplet hemiola they throw in toward the end of the solo, which they do several times at the end of the song. Really cool. In The Dream sounds a lot like where they would go much later in their discography with Streets and what-not, a sort of heavy ballad, and I suppose their potential for that sound was always there, they just didn't go full on with it until later, which I find interesting. The song provides a good ending for a good album.

Considering the "mixed-bag," inconsistent nature of their debut, this album has a generally higher level of quality all around; enough that, in my view, it should establish the album as a relevant work of proto-prog metal. The raised level of maturity and consistency in the band's sound is more than noticeable, and other than the dreadful record-company-forced follow- up album Fight for Rock, it could be considered the great foundation of their sound from which the band would soar to new heights in their creativity for the next few works of their discography.

A good album for progressive rock listeners, excellent for fans of prog-metal, and most recommended for people with an interest in the development of prog metal. (I apologize to the reader for the excessive use of hyphens in this review.)