Dead Winter Dead

Gargoyles are metal. Fact. Go and look at Entombed's Crawl EP if you have any doubt. So if you see a Savatage album with a gargoyle on its cover, you would be forgiven for assuming that what you'll get is something reasonably dark and metal, though still not quite in the Entombed ballpark. Or, at least, if you weren't aware that the band had drastically changed upon releasing Streets: A Rock Opera, you might assume that a Savatage album with a gargoyle was going to be nice and heavy.

It's not heavy.

It's a rock opera.

And so it goes, seeing as the first three songs feature nary a riff between them unless you are disposed to think of power chord sequences as actual riffs. There's a lot of piano, which is going to turn some metalheads off so much that their genitals will actually retract into their abdomens, while frankly speaking the vocals aren't going to be met with a much better reaction, probably aiding any Entombed fans who may have been suckered in to reach for the sick bucket. Therefore, as a metal album, there isn't very much to recommend this, barring some heavier stuff on the title track and 'Starlight', plus a few solos that might tickle your fancy.

So, on to the next review. Dead Winter Dead as a rock opera. I'm not a fan of musicals, not only the true Broadway kind, but also the whole "rock opera" genre, since even when the songs are halfway decent (The Who's Tommy is a good place to start) the story is ridiculous, camp, and often plain boring. That's one point where Dead Winter Dead doesn't completely drop the ball, since the early 1990s war in Yugoslavia is hardly a ridiculous or camp topic, though that's what I would have thought about the French Revolution until fucking Les Miserables came along and wrecked that. The problem is, if this album had been about the struggle for freedom and general potency of the whole Sarajevo issue it might have been halfway decent, but instead we get a gargoyle sadly failing to comprehend human emotions, a pseudo love story between a Christian man and a Muslim woman, plus an old bloke playing Mozart on a rooftop while bombs are falling all around, all of which not only avoids the idea of the conflict but actually trivialises it to some extent. Reading the story on Savatage's website (link available in the Additional Notes tab) will inform you whether this is the album for you after about two minutes viewing.

Now, regarding the musical side of Dead Winter Dead, there are a couple of other issues, though not so heinous as the "metal album" problems or the conceptual ones. As previously mentioned, the whole thing starts off very slowly, basically pussyfooting through two intros before we get down to "business" on the underwhelming 'This Is the Time'. The styles present on this release travel between piano/keyboard/orchestral atmosphere and balladry and a harder rocking character that uses the guitars as primarily rhythmic mechanisms or to form a groove in order to inject some grit into the lyrics. The drums and bass get roughly zero attention aside from some odd moments, such as the breakdown on 'Doesn't Matter Anyway', which veers closer to funk than I would expect from a song about different kinds of weaponry. Zak Stevens does vocals on the majority of the tracks and varies from passably emotive on 'This Isn't What We Meant' to potentially life-ruining on 'This Is the Time', while Jon Oliva pops up for a lead performance on 'I Am' and 'Doesn't Matter Anyway', though you'll wish he hadn't bothered when you hear how forced some of the sections sound. In rather unlikely fashion, the best part of Dead Winter Dead is the solos, which fit in rather like they tend to in Japanese or Chinese pop music - surprisingly skilful insertions to otherwise poppy songs, though no less welcome for it. 'Starlight' particularly gets the lead guitar right, adding a great soaring quality to creepy instrumentation.

Listening to this as an entire album or as a "story" is pretty hard work for all but the most hardened of theatre-goers; additionally, there isn't much continuity from track to track, instead dipping in and out of the Savatage's heavier and lighter styles so that no one can be happy for more than five minutes at a time. I would personally recommend visitors to the Metal Archives to try the title track and 'This Isn't What We Meant' to gauge whether or not this is bearable, while anyone comfortable with ballads could do worse than look at 'Sarajevo' and 'One Child', while 'Starlight' strikes a reasonable balance between the two. The intros and instrumental interludes (aside from being too numerous) are not too bad, especially 'Mozart and Madness' and 'Christmas Eve', which both have worthwhile classical and atmospheric content respectively.

Eventually, the point on which this fails is that there is too much nonsense for listeners. As pure listening experience, Dead Winter Dead is quite a confusing and fragmented album that doesn't do justice to its inspiration, its creators, or its listeners. It isn't the fact that this is lazy or essentially poor: it just doesn't really have any specific audience in mind and suffers from its seriousness. Since there is no real sense of letting go (except at the end of the decent title track), the emotion and drama that should have been obvious isn't conveyed and the listener ends up feeling nonplussed, asking, "Is that all? I thought gargoyles were cool."

Dead Winter Dead is the first (and better) of two historical concept albums the veteran Savatage would compose to fill out the 90s, and it's at the very least a pretty ambitious effort which sees a continued shift in the landscape of the group's membership. After Alex Skolnick's short one-off performing the leads for Handful of Rain, he is replaced with another guitar god, Al Pitrelli. Longtime drummer Steve 'Doc' Wacholz had also departed the band, and his spot was filled by Jeff Plate. Most importantly, Jon Oliva decided to return to the microphone for a few songs, sharing duties with Zak Stevens, and this immediately makes the record a more tolerable listen for me.

Hell, even Stevens seems to blend in more with this production, not that his inflection has changed, but the moodier and sultrier nature of the compositions seems to better fit him during solemn sequences like the intro to "Starlight" or the secondary, narrative intro, "Sarajevo". The album itself is essentially a Romeo & Juliet style tale being spun through the Bosnian War conflict, far more interesting than Streets: A Rock Opera in concept, and another of the reasons I actually found this superior to the two albums leading up to it. This is far more of a pure progressive metal record, with moments of sheer heaviness amidst the gravitas of somber emotions, not to mention the incorporation of classical medleys in "Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/12", which would prove responsible for the creation of Trans-Siberian Orchestra (who would re-release this very same track), but hearkens back to "Prelude to Madness" on Hall of the Mountain King. They also pay tribute to a few classical composers like Mozart and Beethoven by lifting directly from them. Pay close attention, folks, because while album might not have been an enormous success, it spawned a project that would practically make the band a household name, at long lost...all they had to do was abandon Savatage.

Overall, though, the album seems such a transcendent leap from the creative knuckle dragging of Edge of Thorns or the almost random Handful of Rain, and it's far more effective at expressing its sentimentality than their prior attempt at a pure concept record. Still a lot of Queen influence, also some from The Who. The production beautifully captures the contrast between the harder hitting metal sequences, often no more than a few simple chords per lick, and the arrangement and keyboards of Jon and Bob Kinkel feel like you're staring out over an orchestra pit, drafts of warm tone rising towards you with voluminous confidence. Pitrelli's presence is clearly felt, adding a fusion/jazz element to the lead sequences even more than Skolnick did, and they definitely create a minor spectacle amidst the baser, sweeping bombast of the rhythm section. Though I don't always love Stevens' vocals in them, and the album would have been far superior with just Oliva, or perhaps another front man, tracks like "Starlight" and "This Isn't What We Meant" are admittedly well written. The fact that most of the lyrics are told from a characters' perspective renders them a lot less cheesy than the ballads on the last two discs.

Plate's performance is great, and the rhythm guitars are grafted with plenty of push, so much that there's this clean, live feeling to Dead Winter Dead which feels like Streets on steroids. It's admirable that the band would tackle a fairly recent, relevant event in history without coming off too judgmental or political. The love story doesn't do much for me, but I dig where it's set, and the conflicts created through the setting, a fine twist on Shakespearean tragedy, despite the happier ending. Yuck! I still don't enjoy Zak Stevens, but he was less intrusive on the experience than before, and despite the fact that I STILL feel like I got all the rock opera Savatage I needed with a handful of songs on Gutter Ballet, this seemed to restore some sanity to what in my opinion was an understandably ailing outfit. Sure, I miss the Criss Oliva riffs, the flash and flame of his performance, but you can almost sense his spirit out in the audience, smiling from the V.I.P. box at his survivors' perseverance. Not a great album, but a passable, consistent piece that isn't shy on ambition.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

As I'm sure is the case with many other people, I only learned of Savatage's existence though Trans-Siberian Orchestra. While I love TSO, Hearing Dead Winter Dead made me wish I had gotten into Savatage sooner, MUCH sooner.

Simply put, this is one of the finest metal albums out there for many reasons. One of them being the superb vocals. There are few metal vocalists I enjoy listening to more than Zak Stevens and Jon Oliva. You get to hear the emotive, more ballad-style singing of Zak and then the more rock-em sock-em tough gravely voice of Jon's as well, which gives the record great variety.

What is consistent throughout Dead Winter Dead though is the amazing instrumentals. The guitar wizardry of Al Pitrelli and Chris Caffery is in full force here. Their playing never gets repetitive and the solos are mind-blowing. Throw in the drumming of Jeff Plate, one of my all time favorites, plus excellent orchestral accompaniment on these songs, and you have one awesome feast for the ears indeed.

The album starts off with the perfect intro "Overture" which really helps set the dramatic mood and overall feel of Dead Winter Dead, then overlaps into the superb "Sarajevo" and "This is the place." These three tracks seem more like one song than three individual tracks which I thought was interesting. You then hear the menacing "I am" with Jon Oliva on vocals. It only gets better from there. From the ballady "This isn't what we meant" to the Mozart tribute "Mozart and madness" and the title track "Dead Winter Dead" (with a hint of Beethoven's "Ode To Joy" thrown in for good measure). There simply isn't a weak track on this record, and the variety keeps the listener guessing. TSO fans will recognize "Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24" From the TSO debut "Christmas Eve and other stories." All the songs here are very accessible which makes me wonder why Savatage never got the commercial success they so deserved. The stuff here is much better than any of the modern-rock fluff of that time or anything on the radio today. Most people I talk to, even people who like heavy metal, do not know who I am talking about when I mention the name Savatage, which really is a shame.

The general view of Savatage, even from the mouth of Jon Oliva himself, is that they were never the same after the tragic death of his brother Criss, one of the most gifted players ever. While this may be so, that doesn't they were not any good after this either. In fact, far from it. The only other instance I can think of a band doing something this great after such a devastating loss is when AC/DC made a little album called "Back in Black."

In closing, I recommend Dead Winter Dead to anyone who loves listenable, infectious heavy metal or even hard rock. Ignore the haters, this one is not to be missed.

I actually enjoyed Handful of Rain quite a bit, as it was a fitting tribute to Criss Oliva, and the rock opera shit hadn't totally eclipsed the guitar work. I found Streets to be okay at points, but totally not my cup of tea. Savatage should have really stopped with Handful of Rain, as on here, it becomes even more of what Streets was, and you can definately feel them reaching out to become Trans Siberian Orchestra (again, not my cup of tea, but at least it's called something else).

I'd like to be objective, so I'll point out what I do like. The first part of "This Isn't What We Meant," "This Is the Time," and "Not What You See" are decent Sava tracks, definately more in the vein of Edge of Thorns than Hall of the Mountain King, but they don't do it for me. "I Am" and "Doesn't Matter Anyway" try to kick up the heaviness, but it's really not the same without Criss. There is really some unnamed element of the guitarwork that is totally missing, and it doesn't feel like Savatage. Handful of Rain got away with that, because it was a farewell album, really showing the absence of Criss, but here? It should have been done under a different name.

The production is great, and every musician gives it their all. Especially nice is hearing Jon Oliva singing again, even if it's not a lot. They still have their logo on the front, which is good. Chris Caffery and Al Pitrelli are both great guitarists, but their solos seem lackluster compared to what you'd expect on a Sava album. And I can't blame them--they're stepping into GIANT shoes.

But what sucks? Well, pretty much the rest of the songs themselves. It's not that the material is terrible, but I sure expect much more out of Savatage. The orchestration, rock opera cappella chorus la-la-la singing really rapes the shit out of otherwise good material, coming across as totally preposterious and obnoxious. There is just not enough rocking material here, no wicked swinging riffs and nowhere nearly enough grit. I'm sure that the story was meant to be touching and emotional, and the actual music too, but it just grates on me at worst, and bores me for the most part. I feel like I'm watching a broadway musical, or fucking Abba on Ice or some such shit. What the fuck happened?

Gutter Ballet was the perfect blend of rock opera and heaviness. Streets was terrible, barring a few really excellent songs, but Dead Winter Dead has a lot of mediocre rock opera bullshit with no highlights. Better than Streets, but not by much.

They should have released this as Trans Siberian Orchestra. Then I would have listened to it once, and not bought the damn album.

I started Savatage with three albums, “Gutter Ballet”, “Hall of the Mountain King” and “Sirens”. For a VERY long time I didn’t feel the need to get the others because I just couldn’t get enough of the ones I already had. Then I visited their page here to see that most of their albums had impressive review averages. “Wow, if the albums are really as good as they appear to be, this band might just become one of my all time favourites alongside Maiden and Priest”, I thought. Getting their complete discography became a top priority!

But now that I’ve heard everything, I must say, no, they didn’t reach the spot. Why? Because the classical and opera influences have totally overshadowed the metal in it. Instead of the impressively constructed yet catchy traditional metal songs, they are making music you hear in broad way plays. The masters and pioneers of rock operas; have gone a little too far with this one. I appreciate the creativity and stuff, but come on; half of the songs on this album are like one of those ballads every glam metal band made in the middle of their career to boost record sales.

All I hear is copious amounts of keyboards and Zak Stevens crooning away to glory. The lack of tempo variations is the biggest problem with this record. The whole thing is just flat and boring. You wait for a pick up but nothing big happens except for maybe a good guitar solo (that I’ll give them). Everything just trudges and plods along the same bloody formula.

This is a concept album with a very complex story which obviously only a band as talented as this one can come up with. It’s surprising and sad that they couldn’t follow it up with the kind of top notch music it deserved. They were probably under the wrong impression that they would blow away the audience with their emotional and passionate performance; it’s emotional alright, a little too! You see, when you opt to do something like this, it is very important to make sure the effort does not sound pallid and/or soporific.

The only way you can really love this album is if you love opera or classical music more than metal.

There are only 2 Savatage albums I'd give a poor score to. They are Dead Winter Dead and Fight for the Rock. And boy is that rating deserved on Dead Winter Dead.

You see, on this album, Savatage go through all the motions of a metal opera ala streets. Unfortunately, this album is bankrupt of the feeling and creativity of Streets, and for that matter, almost any other Savatage album. I would describe individual songs, but none really stick to my head. I have no problem with the "broadway metal" sound that Savatage seems to have pioneered. What I do have a problem with is the mindless ponceyness of this CD. This CD goes through the motions but doesn't have any force behind it. There's nothing done here that hasn't been done before, I hate to say it. And if they had done it successfully, and made an album that applied the formula successfully, I'dve at least given it an 80. Unfortunately, I can't.

Why? Many reasons.

First off, the guitar tone on this album is wimpy. I thought with 2 great guitarists, one of them would at least have a mean guitar tone. Neither of them do on this album. It makes me wanna shoot the producer. While Caffery's influence would be heard on later albums more, here it seems to be Pitrelli and Oliva on an ego trip. Secondly, there's no drama here. The music has no tension, no feeling, no trial or hardship. It's all sing songy chorii, everything is pre-tested and it lacks any bite, any darkness, ANYTHING that would make music interesting. Third, and I'll say this until I die, Zak Stevens does NOT work on this album. His voice, while competently done, is boring and unspectacular. His voice works on the later TSO albums, and it worked on Edge of Thorns. Here, it doesn't work. It just makes the album sound more and more boring and bland. The fourth reason, and this is the kicker, is that the album lacks DYNAMICS. It's like a McDonald's Filet-o-fish, a homogenized and processed version of the real thing.

This work is a disappointment to everything that Savatage has done before it and will do after it. It's not entirely bad, and I'll give Savatage 50 points for effort, and another 4 for having a good story. It's a shame, because the story is good and deserves better music.

I feel bad giving this album a mediocre grade, I really do. Savatage is one of my favorite bands of all time, and if you combine them with TSO they stand high over ANY other band.

It needs to be said that this album almost never happened. Savatage was done after Handful of Rain, yet Jon Oliva saw all the stuff going on in Yugoslavia and, along with producer Paul O'Neill, put together a whole concept album involving the people in the city of Sarajevo, as well as the people shelling said city. It's a very good story and there's such great poetry telling the story as well. The band was originally Jon (although Jon wasn't "officially" part of the band for some reason at this time), Chris Caffery, Johnny Middleton (what would a Savatage band photo be without Johnny and his open shirt?), and Jeff Plate on drums. Oh yeah, did I mention their fantastic singer Zak Stevens? The band's label got Al Pitrelli on board due to his impressive resume (Asia, Dee Snider's solo stuff, etc.) to play lead guitar. Listening to the Doctor Butcher album that was released a year before this with Jon Oliva and Chris Caffery (who also wrote all of the songs on that album), it's interesting to wonder what the band's sound would have been had Caffery and Oliva continued that trend in Savatage. But then again, after hearing Al Pitrelli's guitar on the first TSO album, I became interested in heavy metal, trying to find anyone who could come anywhere close to that fantastic Les Paul guitar sound (Slash on the Use Your Illusion albums was the only one I have found so far). So without Pitrelli, I would probably still be listening to classic rock exculsively.

I got this CD for Christmas 2004 which is appropriate since most of the concept takes place around this time, ten years before. It instantly became one of my favorite albums of all time. "Starlight," "Dead Winter Dead," and the emotional "This Isn't What We Meant," blew me away! "Mozart and Madness," with it's classical influence, was such a cool instrumental. Yet, as time went on, I just lost interest, even with the four previously mentioned songs. To this day I am not 100% sure why. Maybe because Al Pitrelli's soloing is, for the most part, boring and uninspired. The songs aren't very deep, once you listen to them two or three times, you pretty much have an idea of what to expect; there wasn't anything on this album that I "discovered" some time later. "One Child" and "Not What You See" continue the band's tendancy for terrible ballads, these two being more boring and lame than anything they've done before or since. The latter sounds like something from a Disney movie! That all being said, "Christmas Eve (Sarajevo 12/24)" is the best instrumental ever made. To this day, two years later (I first heard it on the TSO CD) it still blows me away every Thanksgiving when I put my TSO CD's in high rotation. The guitar work, the melodic yet heavy keyboard work; it doesn't get any better than this. Buy this CD just for that song.

This album is probably too light for fans of metal, but fans of the theatrical (Rhapsody, TSO, Stratovarius) will eat this up. For more "metal," look to the band's two following albums, "Wake of Magellan" and "Poets and Madmen," which are much better than this, and not just because they are heavier.

After the trails of Handful of Rain, Savatage progresses even farther along the operatic/classical path by creating a brilliant concept album that have be best described as a grand musical spectacle. Just as on Streets, the music doesn't simply pamper to the ears. It creates a flurry of musical bliss that fits every mood perfectly, advancing a tale of hate, sorrow, but ultimately love in the midst of the horror of the Bosnian War.

Musically, this is still vintage Savatage, but there is a noticeably lighter approach than anything they have previously done. With the side project of the Trans Siberian Orchestra, it's no surprise that Paul O'Neill and Jon Oliva have transferred some of that classical touch to this album, injecting excerpts of Mozart and Beethoven. Even the Christmas anthem, Carol of the Bells makes an appearance in the song, Christmas Eve (Sarajevo 12/24) , that would also appear on TSO's debut album.

Despite the overall softer tinge, there are definite moments of heaviness intermingling throughout the album and hearing the manner which the heavy and soft parts interact in the disc is truly a pleasure. Mozart and Madness demonstrates that to perfection in a segment that is one of the many highlights of the album. The serenity of the orchestra and the harshness of the band duel and trade back and forth, creating a stark contrast of music that aurally characterizes the two sides of the war.

Other high points of the album include This is the Time which has not one but three absolutely spine shivering solos, This Isn’t What We Meant with its beautiful piano passages and a stunning passionate vocal performance from Stevens that only further emphasizes the bleak lyrical content at that part of the story, and One Child, which runs through various musical moods and includes the first of two incredible layered and round table-esque vocals. Of course, I could not mention the best songs without mentioning the best of them all, the finale, Not What You See. This song is as emotional as you get, providing closure to the tenuous but heartwarming relationship that develops between characters of the story. The backing piano is unbelievably poignant and beautiful, and Stevens vocals, layered again in a round table effect, are incredibly uplifting. With two of the most moving solos interjecting as well, this song is simply heart wrenching and one of the best Savatage has ever done.

Also noteworthy about this album is the return of Jon Oliva in some cameo and backing vocal spots, including delightfully sinister parts in both I Am and Don’t Matter Anyway that perfectly exemplifies the type of anger and aggression that was looming in the area at the time.

This is just a magnificent album, and marks as one of the band’s best efforts yet. They took what they started with Handful of Rain and simply took it to the next level. Everything is extraordinary from the lyrics and story to the musicianship to the vocal performances to the production. Savatage have once again proven themselves to be trendsetters, crafting an exceptional piece of music that should not only appeal to metal fans, but people of all musical tastes. My highest recommendation.