[TemjinStrife]

So, Savatage has had a pretty ...extensive history, with many lineup changes, style revisions, and tragedy... but the music is amazing throughout. Dramatically different too. Watch the evolution... and if you don't like the stuff at the beginning, you might like it at the end!

Criss Oliva (R.I.P.) is an amazing guitarist, but Jon Oliva really carries it with his songwriting and arranging talents.

Early Savatage, circa 1983 - note the complex arrangements and fairly mature sound, even at this stage.


Savatage's first really big album, circa 1987 - Oliva's voice starting to get shredded, more "generic" here and almost less complex; oddly, one of my less favorite albums. Rocking song though!


In the late 80s, Jon Oliva saw a performance of The Phantom of the Opera, beginning their transition into a different "storytelling" style of music that really drew me into them:


1993 - Criss' last album, and the first with Zak Stevens. More "modern" and accessible sound... I love this stuff!


1994 - Handful of Rain... first use of a soon-to-be Savatage trademark, layered "round" style vocals in "Chance." (Ignore the video, unfortunately there was no real music video created for this track!)


1995 - Dead Winter Dead. My first experience with them, and my favorite album. Contained the famous "Carol of the Bells" track that would define the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, among many others.


1996 - TSO begins. Let the money roll in!
(I was at this show!)


2001 - Poets and Madmen (Yes, I skipped The Wake of Magellan, an awesome album in its own right, but w/e)
Zak leaves band, Jon records a same-yet-different Savatage album including Morphine Child, the shortest ten-minute song in existence. Seriously, everything Savatage learned went into this track.


Nowadays, Jon Oliva and Chris Caffery have their own Savatage-esque solo projects, and Zak Stevens' band "Circle II Circle" shows heavy Savatage influence, with Jon featuring heavily in the songwriting. Jon has promised one more album before officially ending Savatage... will we ever see it? Perhaps, but god knows it'll be awhile, as the forthcoming TSO album "Night Castle" has been promised for over four years, and is still in production...

[Toshiro]

The Criss era was the best by far, IMO. I did not like Handful Of Rain in the slightest, but the newer releases were pretty cool.

[chaztrip]

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

Gutter Ballet is my favorite.

There's so much content on that record, yet the music never suffers, it's brilliantly laid together.

[PeteLaramee]

I've always loved Savatage. I first heard them in '87 with HOTMK and have been hooked ever since.

[Variant]

'Edge Of Thorns' was one the templates for myself as a guitar player. Criss was a god!