Register Forgot login?

© 2002-2024
Encyclopaedia Metallum

Privacy Policy

Savatage > Power of the Night > Reviews
Savatage - Power of the Night

Suffers by comparison - 77%

gasmask_colostomy, January 4th, 2016

Saying the words "80s Savatage" to a fan of classic metal should have more or less the same effect as pouring a pint of warm milk into their underwear. These guys were doing something exciting for most of the decade and still maintain a kind of gritty ferocity and drive that remains difficult to see in anyone who sounds this acceptable to my mum. 'Sirens' was a gobsmacking debut, 'Hall of the Mountain King' was the outstanding pinnacle of their sound, and 'Gutter Ballet' was a brave divergence before they saturated their sound with balladry and Criss Oliva died sadly early. 'Power of the Night' doesn't get a mention in those highlights, right? And yet, there are songs here that stand up to anything on those other excellent albums, particularly the blisteringly heavy and unnervingly creepy 'Unusual' and 'Necrophilia'. However, it remains just songs, not the whole experience.

If we break Savatage into their basic parts, we have a four-piece all of whom excel in their chosen field without ever resorting to pure wankmanship or losing track of their songs. Jon Oliva has a voice that possesses some high-pitched heroism, a sinister snarl, and a visceral energy all at once, which has probably led to the band being labelled as a heavy/power hybrid, despite resorting to very few of power metal's pompous tricks. Jon's brother Criss mans the guitars on his lonesome and plays a stripped-down, brutish style of strident metal riffery, which is absolutely lean and mean, resembling a badass swagger more than Iron Maiden's horseback charge or power metal's lightweight speed. When he strikes, he fucking strikes to the bone. Then the less well-known duo of Steve Wacholz and Keith Collins, who both keep the aggression high without quite leaving the realms of hard rock out of sight. Collins' bass especially grunts and burbles its way around 'Power of the Night' with abandon, keeping a slightly flat production buoyant and flashing out some great fills in the jumpy 'Necrophilia'.

What happens with this album is in part the same story as 'Sirens', but sadly has a few weaker chapters thrown in. To begin with the good, there are 3 songs at the start of the record that are all capable of blowing the cobwebs away and peeling the paint from the walls in inimitable fashion. The highlight is probably 'Unusual', which gets the best helping of riffs, licks, solos, and atmosphere to combine into an adrenaline-filled journey through dark streets. The chorus melody should send chills down any living spine, while the bridge will give your heart some serious activity. The title track and 'Necrophilia' are also great, forging ahead with typical confidence and white-knuckle tension, though they represent the only other real strikes of the album. The first half also includes decent attempts with 'Warriors' and 'Washed Out', the first of which pumps along until its lame one-word chorus, while 'Washed Out' ventures into slightly generic speed metal territory and takes its spoils courtesy of its urgency and a great solo late on.

The second half of the album is where things start to fall out of shape. A hair metal or hard rock feeling sweeps over 'Hard for Love' and 'Stuck on You', both of which are too cliche and raunchy for a band this creative, even if the former does contain some decent riffing. There are a couple of songs too that just drift by without anything deadly enough to mark their length. This is what gets to me, because they aren't actually too bad, but they miss the category of great due to their grooves seeming out of sync for some of the time or the chemistry failing to ignite. 'Skull Session', for example, has a poor riff, yet really takes off when Criss begins his solos, making me wonder what happened to the rest of the song.

Perhaps it's inevitable that a band who emerged with such force as Savatage must suffer slightly from their highest quality offerings being so amazing, while the intermittent weaker efforts don't actually weigh up too badly compared to other bands of the same era. 'Power of the Night' is clearly inferior to the two great Savatage albums, though it only misses the jump from good to great by a few inches - times when someone should have jumped for glory and held back instead, or when they did jump and didn't manage to cling on for more than a few seconds. Still worth hearing in its own right, 'Power of the Night' comes with the advice to think of this as another gift from a great band, even if it is less generously rewarding than the previous one.

A kitschy, catchy fist to the nethers - 83%

autothrall, September 10th, 2012

Power of the Night was clearly cognizant of its stature as the first of Savatage's major label efforts, and I think it was little surprise that the band pursued a more accessible countenance than Sirens; but honestly, apart from the huge leap in production values here, the vastly cleaner mix, this is not in fact a stylistic departure from its predecessors. Less gloomy and grim than The Dungeons are Calling EP? Sure, but I don't feel that the band had abandoned its atmospheric principles here. In fact the use of synthesizers and horror/sex themes throughout the sophomore seem to implicate something far more than the usual Mötley Crüe or Dokken associations that were pretty hot at the time, and I for one still enjoy this album despite a few of the laugh out loud lyrics.

Some accused this album very early on of being a 'sellout' which veered a little too closely to the more mainstream hard rock sounds of its day, but I find the notion to lack some credibility, since there were already some similar riffing patterns on the older releases, not to mention the cheesy sex lyrics. Of course, Power of the Night seems rather obsessed with the subject, with the pole-dancing Zeppelin-esque rock of "Hard for Love" with its melodic backing chorus vocals; or the smutty speed metal of "Skull Session", or the corpse-copulating grooves of "Necrophilia", but what do all three of these songs have in common? They're actually pretty goddamn catchy, as much as I might cringe to admit it (in the case of "Hard for Love") when I hear a line like 'I like when we move faster/that's why I'm gonna blast ya!'. And it's not like there aren't a handful of the more 'serious' songs here which have similarly goofy lyrics. 'Raise the fist of the metal child', indeed. Despite the estimable camp, though, Power of the Night seems pretty heartfelt, a misty, midnight street alternative to Sirens' claustrophobic sewer catacombs.

Thanks to the crisp mix, Criss Oliva's guitars absolutely smolder here through both the rhythm licks and the incendiary leads, both of which seem to have developed quite nicely from the earlier records. Guitar tone in general is far easier to follow than the clunkier production of Sirens, and where the grooves merge with Jon's keyboards in pieces like "Unusual", the album is genuinely creepy, or at least it seemed that way in the mid 80s. Collins' bass lines are more standout here, and 'Doc's' drums also delivered in a better ratio to the vocals and rhythm guitars, but the brothers Oliva are still the champions here, whether they're lashing out the dirty stripper-pole grooves in "Stuck On You" or the street fighting overtures of "Warriors". Influences run the gamut from Queen (intro to "Warriors") to Judas Priest ("Washed Out"), and each of the tunes has a readily defined, distinct chorus sequence which separates it from the rest. You also get an early incarnation of the band's 'rock opera' here: "In the Dream"; once more smacking of Queen, and my least favorite on this album, but certainly a premonition for much of the material on Gutter Ballet or Streets.

All told, I still find the album pretty irresistible thanks to the songwriting, production, and perhaps most importantly, the guitar playing. It's as sincere as it looks, a metal gauntlet thrust through a sheet of glass beneath a chrome-tinted logo. The riffing in tunes like "Power of the Night" or "Unusual" is unforgettable, and I can recall weeks of going through these old Savatage records and learning the individual licks, so enamored was I to Criss' sense of flare and style. This was one of Max Norman's earlier metal records, along with the work he was doing with Japan's Loudness, and he really brought the group out of the Dark Ages so you could really appreciate their ample wizardry. I can understand how a few fans might have found this dry, or less inspired than The Dungeons Are Calling, but if you don't mind a little mix of 70s and 80s hard rock influence in your bowl of metal flakes, and a few amusing, dated lyrical passages, there's no reason not to join in the fun. Not their best, perhaps, but I'd easily take this over anything else they've released in the past 20 years and change.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

Necrophilia Is Better Than 'Hard For Love' - 70%

Tlacaxipehualiztli, March 10th, 2011

Only just one year after releasing of the glorious Ep “The Dungeons Are Calling”, Savatage created next album under the banner of Atlantic records. Because of this the band had a bigger budget, a new producer (Max Norman), I hope the members had a new power to compose heavy metal. Of course the main question appears suddenly in my head: did Oliva brothers/company manage to record another masterpiece of metal music?

Yes, that’s true that production is clearer and cleaner, but I do not really know if it is an advantage. The main aspect the music is… average. Yes, I have to write such a critical sentence, but “Power Of The Night” is disappointment I am afraid. I can’t rate it just like two previous efforts of the band despite of new label, producer and bigger experience. Savatage doesn’t propose change of style, this is still heavy metal however, but in my opinion this music is played without impulsiveness and brilliant ideas. These two factors mean the album is the equivalent word for ‘good’ metal album. In the case of such band as Savatage only ‘good’. Merely two songs have a spirit from the beginning of the way, this is really sad because I always expect only the best offering from this band. Savatage came short unfortunately.

I wrote about two songs which are classics for me, the songs I can just put in the contents of the predecessors. The first one is the title track and the opener as well. But there is one thing which is done with half a heart. This is a short, one minute keyboard intro. Why the hell the band didn’t place Criss guitar intro here for example? Mercifully the first bad feeling disappears and excellent riffs storm my mind. Vocals of Jon are perfect, I can see here enormous evolution just like guitar performance of his brother. Power of the night? Power of the Brothers he, he… The solo leads (4!) and this special kind of ‘ornaments’ (in fact short eruption of Criss guitar lead) cause these sounds are one of the best heavy metal song. The next song is the last one on the album and this is… ballad “In The Dream”. Yes, it sounds incredibly especially I can tell you it is a heartbreaker song played with passion and touch of genius. This tale is conducted by perfect guitar performance, beautiful solo and melodic chorus. Yes, I mentioned about it, but as you probably know, the remainder is rather mediocre for a band. The second track called “Unusual” is played in a different way a bit with very strange patch of keys (completely needless I think), the third “Warriors” is faster, but with no life inside (dead warriors???). Next “Necrophilia” is much better with interesting riffings and outstanding solos (yes, yes again…). But the real time of awakening comes with “Washed Out” which is in fact heavy metal firecracker in the vein of mighty “Rage” (“Sirens”). Number six and I have to face another unfavourable impression, song called “Hard For Love” is a hard rock in a really bad meaning. It is like feckless copy of AC/DC… The next tracks “Fountain Of Youth” and “Skull Session” (despite of fine beginning) strike with averageness. “Stuck On You”, the ninth proposition is very similar to “Hard For Love” so any comment is redundant here…

Being a huge fan of Savatage music, I can objectively indicate good and bad things concerning the music. This album and the next offering (it’s like a ‘worse is yet to come’ he,he…) are the only albums with low marks. Besides Savatage recorded masterpieces (with Criss on guitar) and very good metal albums. And with “Hall Of The Mountain King” album we can talk about a new member on the board: Paul O’Neill. And this is marvelous story…

What went wrong with this one? - 64%

evermetal, October 13th, 2009

Power of the Night is the third album of Savatage and was released in 1985, shortly after the incredible The Dungeons are Calling that had made the best impressions and allowed the band to sign a contract with a bigger record label. This was good to a point, since they could afford the money for a better production and promotion. On the other hand I think that it added more pressure to them to make it all the way to success.

Starting by the impressive cover you prepare yourself to listen to something really heavy. Indeed, what you get here is typical power metal but there is an obvious lack of inspiration and most of the songs are rather weak compared to the power metal anthems of their short past. The tension and the passion which flowed out of the first two albums are absent and Savatage sound as if they repeat themselves. Still, in their defense, they perform very well. Jon Oliva as always, continues to give vocal seminars and his brother is once again fantastic! His amazing riffs and solos throughout the whole album have become a trademark for the band.

But this can not keep some songs from diving ti the sea of mediocrity. I find it hard to believe that the Oliva brothers, the main composers besides few exceptions, were pleased by writing songs like Hard for Love or the hideous monstrosity called Stuck on You! These are extremely poser songs that surely don’t honor their creators. The only explanation I can give is that they were forced by their record label to write this kind of shit.

Somewhere in the middle are other tracks that are quite cool and catchy though not anything particularly great. Unusual, is mid-tempo and flows easily. Necrophilia, Scull Session and Washed Out keep a faster pace and will surely leave you satisfied, however they will not thrill you enough.

Then we get to the good stuff. Their first piano ballad In The Dream is a beautiful one and it’s a perfect sample of the amazingly melodic ballads they will give us in the future. Fountain of Youth is a slow but heavy song with a steady heavy riff and drums. One of the best three.

Even if you finally don’t like this album, you will certainly love the two heavy metal dynamites it possesses. The song that opens the LP is the self-titled hymn to metal. It starts with a long atmospheric introduction that lasts for about a minute before it explodes with a tremendous guitar by Criss and the aggressive singing by Jon. This one, along with Warriors, prevents the wreckage. Warriors is not as fast and pounding as Power of the Night, yet it is solid heavy metal to the bone.

Personally I have no problem listening this release, at least most of it. I would strongly recommend it to the fans of Savatage but those of you who don’t know them try something else from their early years.

Fistful of Savatage - 79%

DawnoftheShred, October 28th, 2008

With Power of the Night we find Savatage taking the raw elements that had made Sirens such an underground hit and attempting to develop them into something more prominent. Not a horrible way to progress their career really, as long as they didn’t lose touch with their roots. And they didn’t; in fact, they got heavier in the process. The attentive listener will notice that Criss Oliva’s guitars are tuned lower on this record and his riffs are focused toward a darker medium. While they still maintain a certain Judas Priest-like quality to them (“Washed Out”), there’s now a vicious undertone that arises at times to better complement some of the darker lyrical fodder (“Necrophilia,” “Unusual”) And then there’s some curious songs that would be pure glam metal if not for Jon Oliva’s gravelly vocals (“Hard for Love,” “In The Dream”). But overall the songwriting is more hit than miss.

And really, it is for songwriting that I listen to Savatage in the first place. I mean Jon has a unique voice, his brother can play some mean leads, and the rhythm section of Keith Collins and Steve Wacholz (bass and drums respectively) is immune to serious criticism, but nobody in this band is at an instrumental peak for the time period. But what they do excel at is piecing together heavy metal riffage into songs that are both rebellious and accessible. Lacking the frills of their more talented peers forced them to strengthen their songwriting and you better believe that it resulted in a good product.

Additionally, Jon’s keyboard work is applied a bit more thoughtfully, taking a good song like “Unusual” and making it a great song. Far from the oversaturated synth obsession of their later work, his contributions here are to be commended.

Ironically, Sirens still had more of a punch than this record. I could see fans of that album a little let down by this release, especially after the equally impressive Dungeons are Calling EP. But it ain’t bad, folks. Check out anything from “Stuck On You” to “Fountain of Youth” to the title track for a good representation of this album’s worth.

Fades away in the end - 62%

UltraBoris, April 15th, 2003

Hey, this starts off pretty damn promising and for a while stays consistent, but then sinks like a rock after a few songs.

Power of the Night and Warriors are both absolutely fucking awesome. Unusual is a very slight bit worse, but still quite decent. These three are power metal classics - kinda shrieky vocals, lots of kickass leads - if you like your metal classic, you'll like this.

Necrophilia is a bit silly but overall the riffs are decent, and it's a good song when all is said and done. Washed Out is the obligatory speed metal offering, but it's pretty damn weak - the riffage just doesn't have a really good sense of continuity, with the random breaks thrown in at times, while the rest of the time it rides that one single-note riff into the ground. The pre-chorus is pretty cool though. "It is time, for just one more ride!"

Hard for Love... this is an unmitigated disaster here. The chorus reeks of a bad Fuck Like a Beast ripoff, and the verses are just total shit. This song is worthless and let us not speak any more of it. Fountain of Youth is another snoozefest - yep, here the album has taken a turn for the shit.

Skull Session is pretty decent, but unfortunately this and the followip are the only good song on the second side... Stuck on You is also okay, with a cool solo and some nice riffs. Then the closer... well, Savatage have a gift for coming up with really cool atmospheric ballads, but this is not one of them. This one is just boring as fuck.

So well we've got a couple of great songs here, and the album may be worth it just for the first few tracks as well as the bright spot on the second side, but there are certainly a few really shitty tracks that merit skip-button jockeying.