So, with the Christmas season rolling in, I've been listening to TSO a bit heavier then I do for the rest of the year, which of course led to me listening to Savatage quite a bit (after having given them a break for a few months), which eventually led to me listening to quite a bit of JOP. As I listen to the JOP records, I find myself wondering: what would these songs have sounded like had they been done as "Savatage"? Granted, Jon is/was the main composer of Savatage, so the music is obviously there, but there has always been something about JOP that has never sounded quite up to the level of Savatage for me.
So I listened to the JOP records while trying to imagine what they would have sounded like as Savatage; thinking about what Paul would have brought to the table in terms of production quality, vocal melodies, lyrics and arrangements. And also wondering how the performances of Caffery, Middleton and co. would have compared to what we got on those records with the ex-CIIC guys (no offence to them, of course). After quite a few listens, and comparing the JOP songs with the last albums we got from Savatage (mostly P&M, but also to a lesser extent TWOM), I have to say: I could definitely hear it. Sure, some stuff would have been different here and there, especially on Paul's end of things. But overall, I think the songs would have mostly been the same, just a bit more "Savatage-y" sounding.
So this brings me to a question: what do you guys think about the idea of JOP being, as Jon himself said in other words, the musical successor and continuation of Savatage? Historically, I've often held the view that TSO was the proper continuation of Savatage due to the presence of Paul and all the recent band members, as well as the fact that the whole TSO sound is a direct distillation of the style Savatage had honed on DWD. But recently, I've become a bit less sure. Given that many of the JOP songs were, in part or in whole, originally intended for Savatage in the first place, and well as the fact that the more metal angle of JOP is not only more compatible with the greater part of the Savatage discography, but also a more likely continuation of the direction Savatage was going on P&M, how would you have felt about the JOP albums, with Paul and the Savatage guys on board (and all the changes that would entail), being the Savatage albums we would have gotten from 2004-2010 had the band not gone on hiatus?