Part 3 – The Legions Growing Stronger...
Released 20 May 1985
Recorded Bearsville Studios, Bearsville, New York
Genre Heavy metal, speed metal, power metal
Length 38:43
Label Atlantic
Producer Max Norman
Side one
No. Title
1. "Power of the Night" Jon Oliva (Lyrics) Criss Oliva (Music) 5:13
2. "Unusual" J. Oliva, Keith Collins (Lyrics) C. Oliva, J. Oliva, Collins (Music) 4:27
3. "Warriors" J. Oliva, Collins (Lyrics) C. Oliva, J. Oliva, Collins (Music) 4:03
4. "Necrophilia" J. Oliva, Collins (Lyrics) C. Oliva (Music) 3:36
5. "Washed Out" J. Oliva (Lyrics) C. Oliva, J. Oliva (Music)2:13
Side two
No. Title
6. "Hard for Love" J. Oliva, Collins (Lyrics) J. Oliva, C. Oliva (Music) 3:59
7. "Fountain of Youth" J. Oliva, Collins, Steve Wacholz (Lyrics) C. Oliva (Music) 4:31
8. "Skull Session" J. Oliva (Lyrics) C. Oliva, J. Oliva (Music) 3:21
9. "Stuck on You" J. Oliva (Lyrics) C. Oliva, Collins (Music) 3:10
10. "In the Dream" J. Oliva (Lyrics) C. Oliva, J. Oliva (Music) 4:15
Band members
Jon Oliva – lead vocals & keyboards
Criss Oliva – guitars
Keith Collins – bass guitar
Steve Wacholz – drums
Production
Max Norman - producer, engineer
Ken Lonas - assistant engineer
When Quiet Riot covered “Cum On Feel the Noize” for their
Metal Health album in 1983, it is doubtful anyone could have predicted the floodgates that would open for countless heavy metal bands to surge into the mainstream. Quite Riot was not the first metal band to experience huge mainstream success in America; just a year before, Judas Priest released
Screaming for Vengeance which would rack up multi-platinum sales thanks to the catchy lead single, “You Got Another Thing Comin'”. But the success of
Metal Health something different entirely. By 1983, the American underground was teeming with young metal bands, and with many major record labels having their headquarters in California, they began turning their eyes to their own backyard to sign any metal act that seemed to have even the slightest chance of producing a hit record. By the end of the decade, the metal explosion would be dominated by two distinct flavours; the hair metal scene of Los Angeles, which would rule the airwaves for much of the 80's, and the raw unbridled aggression of the thrash metal movement, which would serve as a counterpoint to the pop-laced singles of the hair bands. Heavy metal acts that did not fall easily into these two distinct styles would find their music a tough sell to an increasingly sectarian fanbase. This distinction was lost on the executives who ran the major labels. For a while in the mid 80's, when the initial metal explosion was taking America by storm, the “metal” tag was all that mattered, and it seemed as if any band could get signed to a major record label by virtue of being metal alone.
By 1985, Savatage was starting to appear promising for a record label looking to sign a young metal band with potential for even greater success in the future. Their first two records,
Sirens and
The Dungeons Are Calling, were receiving a good deal of praise and recognition from the metal press around the world, and the band was rapidly building up a loyal fanbase in their home state of Florida. The talents of their members, especially those of the Oliva brothers, were readily noticeable. When the band scored a gig opening up for Atlantic signings Zebra, Atlantic A&R man Jason Flom, with some encouragement from Zebra bassist Randy Jackson, decided to check out the young Savatage and was suitably impressed. After a second gig to reinforce his interest, Flom sent the band to the studio to record demos for a potential album. His confidence in the band's prowess now solidified, Flom subsequently signed Savatage to Atlantic for a ten album deal, narrowly beating out rival offers from the likes of Elektra and Geffin, as well as more metal-centric labels such as Megaforce and Metal Blade.
Their first offering to a major label would see a Savatage that had already progressed considerably from their relatively humble earlier records. Make no mistake,
Power of the Night is still a far cry from the symphonic and progressive landscapes the band would later craft; this is very much a classic heavy metal record in the vein of
Sirens and
Dungeons. But there is something instantly apparent in the music of this third Savatage album that sets it apart from it's predecessors. From the title track's lengthy and atmospheric intro to Criss' steady, indomitable guitar work and Jon's soaring vocals, there is something different about this new Savatage. The band had matured considerably in the time since
Dungeons, and while the album is every bit as much balls-to-the-wall metal as what Savatage had delivered before, there is a degree of patience and expertise in the songwriting that was simply absent before. The tracks are much more varied, the music much more melodic then what Savatage had made in their earliest days. Compared to the reckless abandon of
Sirens, or the unrelenting heaviness of
Dungeons,
Power of the Night is a rich and diverse record, relatively multifaceted and complex, given that the band was at such an early stage of their careers. Savatage may still have been quite young at the time, but they, and their songs, were starting to grow up, and aspire to be something more.
This new-found maturity is most easily noticed in the general rhythms, arrangements and structures of the album's various tracks. The track “Unusual”, one of two songs on the album about a man having a one night stand with a supernatural lover, has a steady, mid-paced groove that would have sounded very out of place on the earlier Savatage records. Wacholz and Collins take a laid back approach to the song as Criss weaves his smooth but still ballsy riffs and licks, while Jon's madman rants and shrieks resound through out the record, now utilized with a bit more precision then before. Attention must also be drawn to the increasing presence of keyboards in their music. They provide a ghostly chill to “Unusual” while providing a grand prelude to the next song, “Warriors”. This galloping track, based off the cult classic film of the same name, again displays a level of craftsmanship that was not yet realized on the first two albums. Rather then eagerly hammer the listener with a wall of noise, Savatage dabbles in dynamics on this record to a whole new degree. The chugg-a-long pace of “Warriors” is broken up by a dreamlike, synthesizer-laced interlude in the middle. It is with relatively small, but significant, moments such as these that
Power of the Night really shines.
Jon returns to his undead paramours with the rocking and rather amusing “Necrophilia”, while the band engages is an all out metal assault on “Washed Out,” very nearly a more polished version of “Rage” from
Sirens. We even have Savatage's first flirtations with commerciality here by way of “Hard for Love”. Allegedly, Atlantic would have been willing to record a video for this song, if only the band had changed the title to “Hot for Love,” an offer the band refused. While I would normally praise any artists for refusing such censorship, I do have to question the wisdom of turning down the possibility of MTV airplay for such a minor adjustment to a song that is, while certainly fine musically, not exactly a lyrical masterpiece. “Hard for Love” certainly had some genuine potential as a single, with it's hard-rocking radio friendly riffs and beats. It leaves one to wonder what might have been if Savatage had taken the plunge into MTV back in 1985 rather then 1987, but such a discussion is, ultimately, academic.
“Fountain of Youth” again changes up the pace of the album. Criss Oliva's guitar work on this mid-paced rocker is particularly enchanting, his mastery of the strings throughout backed up by some well placed keyboards by Jon before giving way to a notably silky solo. There is also some rather sweet melodic work in a mellower section about three and a half minutes in. With it's mystical lyrics delivered by one of Jon's more varied performances, this track is, along with the title cut and “Warriors” one of the stand out songs on the album. We then return to full tilt metal with the S&M flavoured (and very WASP-esque)“Skull Session”, followed by the slower but similarly themed “Stuck on You”, this latter track a veritable sibling of “Unusual.” Despite some rather mediocre lyrics, there is something about the groove of “Stuck on You” that makes it an enjoyable listen, even if it overshadowed by many of the album's better tracks. Savatage closes out their thrid record with their second ballad, “In the Dream.” While the vocal melodies of this track seem a bit less refined compared to the earlier “Out on the Streets”, the music is notably more well developed, with Jon's piano dabblings giving us the first foretaste of the band's future. The chorus is somewhat weak, but the listener is more then compensated by a kick ass solo section and a haunting outro that still manages to leave one wanting more.
It is worth noting that this was the final album with bassist Keith Collins, who had been with the Oliva brothers and Doc since the later Avatar days. Not much is known about why he left the band, but the timing does seem quite strange, considering that this was not only the first Savatage album for a major record label, but that Collins himself contributed rather significantly to the songwriting on
Power of the Night. Whatever the reason, the band would shrug off their first (although by no means last) member change, briefly performing as a three-piece with Jon pulling triple duty on vocals, guitar and keys, before hiring one Johnny Lee Middleton as their new full-time bassist. Middleton would remain with the band ever since, a constant fixture throughout their ever rotating series of linups for the remainder of their careers. He continues to perform with Trans-Siberian Orchestra even today.
All in all,
Power of the Night was a significant step up from Savatage's first works, and was eagerly lapped up by both their fans and the press. Yet Atlantic found the performance of the album disappointing. It failed to even chart in the top 200, and, without a video, was completely ignored by MTV, which had already become the primary medium by which many music fans at the time discovered new bands. Even radio seemed cold and indifferent to Savatage. In hindsight, it should be obvious that Atlantic's expectations that the band could produce a hit record was overtly optimistic. Savatage's brand of metal didn't exactly sit well with the slick and glammed-up hair bands that were ruling America's metal scene at the time. “Hard for Love” notwithstanding, there was little on
Power of the Night to appeal to an audience that was introduced to metal via the likes of Ratt, Motley Crue and Def Leppard. At the same time, though, the very presence of tracks like “Hard for Love” and “In the Dream” made the band
too mainstream friendly for the tastes of the increasingly “heavier-then-thou” thrash metal crowd. At an early juncture in their careers, Savatage found themselves caught between two sides of a heavy metal civil war that would dominate the genre into the early 90's. Despite the strength of their material, the band still had a long way to go before discovering how they fit into the world. But before they could figure it out on their own, the powers that be at Atlantic would attempt to steer them in a direction that would result in a disastrous fourth album, and nearly bring about the end of the band in the process...