Are you referring more to songwriting chops.......turning the concepts into great songs? That is very subjective and open to interpretation but , in my mind at least (if we're talking playing chops) , the musical talent of Criss in particular is less up for debate.
I can see that Chris Oliva is pretty good. I am getting that.
Maybe it's the vocals (Jon era). Maybe it's the drums. Maybe it's the production. I felt like maybe they were too much of a straightforward metal band to pull off what they were trying to do, and I'm looking at Streets and Gutter Ballet. Even a little of Hall.
Opinions are changing for sure, but I felt like when I heard those albums that there was something holding them back.
I didn't have a lot of time earlier after I made my post (I had a lot of shit to do), but I did have a chance to catch this and had some time to think about while going about my day.
First off, I think, at least instrumentally, Savatage's chops are above reproach. I wouldn't put them in the same league as, say, Dream Theater or Symphony X, but just from listening to their albums and seeing various members of the band play live (especially in TSO), it's clear they have musical talent in spades. Criss Oliva was a special sort of genius, but the other guitarists who followed in his wake (Caffery, Skolnik, Pitrelli) are all world class shredders in their own right. And while the band's drum and bass section tends to get a bit overlooked, I feel there was, and still is, a lot of technical skill there as well. From the unorthodox beats of songs like 24 Hours Ago to latter day groove-fests like the title cut from The Wake Of Magellan, it's clear that Middleton, Plate and Doc were all masters of their instruments.
Now vocally, Savatage is very much an acquired taste, and I think this is where a lot of people start to have issues with the band. Jon's take on singing is unique, to say the least, and while I like it, I totally understand why others don't. He has a lot of range, both in terms of octaves and tone (he has this weird ability to morph his voice like a cartoon voice actor), but his lack of formal training led him to create his own way of singing, which due to his reliance on screams is why he blew out his voice in 1992. He was always inconsistent live, having good nights and bad, and it's unfortunate he didn't get any professional direction before damaging his voice.
Now Zak is a totally different creature entirely. His voice was much more refined, and it certainly helped Savatage gain more mainstream respect in the 90's. At the same time, though, the blues-and-country roots in his singing style seemed to put off a lot of fans from a more metal musical background, and I have seen it said that his voice made the band
too commercially friendly,
too smooth, and
too safe. Again, this is largely a matter of taste, and I personally happen to like Zak's voice a lot, but, as with Jon, I can understand why others do not. I do think it must be said that his delivery of Jon-era songs was rather hit or miss. His Southern drawl works very well on some songs (especially Jesus Saves) and not so well on others. There is a reason Savatage limited their performance of pre-Edge of Thorns tracks before Jon started singing again more frequently later in the band's career.
Songwriting, much like vocals, is largely subjective. That being said, for many Savatage fans, the songwriting is one of the best things about this band, and while the bulk of the compositional work can be credited to Jon, I fell this is where Paul's influence helped the band to shine the most. Starting with Hall Of The Mountain King, the band, little by little, became much more progressive and ambitious in their works, and Paul's collaborations with the Olivas really blossomed during the Gutter Ballet and Streets era, pushing them into musical realms far beyond what was explored by most of their contemporaries. It was that same ambition that led them to create so many rock operas, and ultimately led to the creation of TSO.
That being said, I think it is worth noting that by the later period of the band's career, their reach was starting to exceed their grasp. Albums like Dead Winter Dead and The Wake of Magellan, with layers upon layers of vocal melodies and orchestrations, were no less complex then their concurrent TSO siblings. And yet, from a creative stand point, the band's set up, with only two singers and five full time musicians, limited their ability to fully explore the musical territory into which they were delving. It's not too difficult to see why TSO was a much better vehicle for that sort of music. Even as far back as Streets, Jon and Paul were beginning to realize their ambitions were a bit too grandiose for a simple heavy metal band, hence the creation of Romanov and, ultimately, TSO.
This is where the disparity between the band's vision and their abilities becomes most apparent. It's not so much that the members lacked the quality of talent; they lacked the quantity. Tanking an orchestra on the road is obscenely expensive, and was far beyond the resources of Savatage. The band's symphonic ambitions were limited, especially live, by practicality. Likewise, rock operas with only one or two singers become, in effect, just concept albums with narratives. Even with the relative diversity of vocal styles of which Jon was capable, creatively, the band was still left in want of more. More singers, more instruments...
All that can only be accomplished with a bigger budget, and given how much Savatage struggled to find commercial success, their budgetary constraints had to be considerable. The later Savatage albums literally cost
millions of dollars to make, and yet the band was still slugging it out in clubs. Where is the room on a club stage for an orchestra and 24 singers? Where does a band at that level get the money to even attempt such a thing?
Ultimately, tragically, the band's vision far outstripped what they could actually do, at least as a simple heavy metal band with only 4-6 guys. Worse, their stigma as just being a simple metal band hurt their commercial appeal, and caused a lot of people to overlook their songwriting prowess that extended far beyond such easy genrefication, which in turn limited their ability to make the money they needed to bring their dreams to fruition.
In the end, they found a solution to their problems, and the only thing it cost them was their name...