Tag Archives: savatage

Happy Halloween 2017: Rockers Divulge Their Favorite Horror Films

It’s Halloween and with this post I am giving you a treat that will not promote tooth decay nor lead you to issues with your waistline. In the spirit of my inquiries that featured “Music Resolutions”; I’ve polled a number of Metal and Rock musicians in my world and asked them “What is your favorite Horror movie and why”. So get some popcorn, dim the lights and sit under a cozy blanket as we learn of some awesome talents favorite creepy film. It’s a lengthy list but splitting this one into parts didn’t make sense. Let’s go.

Chris Caffery (Savatage/Trans-Siberian Orchestra): “Halloween”. Because it was the only movie that not only scared me in the theaters it scared me afterwards in real life. In my opinion it’s the best horror film ever made. In the sense of true horror. A real killer. There was no superhuman bs in the first one. Just pure evil.

Gogo Melone (Aeonian Sorrow): From old films was “Dracula”… I really like the atmosphere and as a kid I was a big fan of vampires. The movie that scared my ass off the most and had nightmares for days with, were “The Ring” and “The Exorcism of Emily Rose”…I don’t think I’ll ever see them twice again ??

Jimmy Kunes (Cactus): God there’s so many. “Fearless Vampire Killers”, I know it’s a spoof. But what a film!!!

Elise Ryd (Amaranthe): “The Shining”. Those two kids are the most scary thing I’ve seen. And I don’t like that dude Johnny towards the end. “Here’s Johnny” ? And this is true.. Every time I’m in a hotel with long corridors I expect those kids to show up in the end of the hallway. Haha, that image is haunting me, STILL! It’s Enshrined in my memory.

Archie Kuosmanen (Santa Cruz): Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining because it’s the undisputed heavyweight champion of horror flicks!
Continue reading Happy Halloween 2017: Rockers Divulge Their Favorite Horror Films

“Return To Wacken” by Savatage

Artist: Savatage
Title: “Return To Wacken”
Label: Ear Music
Release Date: 6/30/2015
Genre: Heavy Metal
Rating: 4/5

It’s been far too long since the Metal world has had new music from the great Savatage and their last recorded work together was on “Poets and Madmen” which hit us hard back in 2001 care of Nuclear Blast Records. Since that time, Savatage has been on a bit of a lengthy hiatus while numerous members focused their creative energies on the holiday touring juggernaut known as the Trans-Siberian Orchestra while others continued on into projects of their own. Now in celebration of the bands return to the live stage for the Wacken Open Air Festival, a rather sound compilation of some of the bands classics has been issued and for the foreseeable future this is as close to “new” as we shall get from the legendary band. My notes on the release come from my relatively long association with their material (since 1988 if memory serves me correctly) and a deep knowledge of their back catalog. I didn’t have a copy of my own and was listening to a digital stream of it online. As a collection, this serves up well as a grouping of very necessary tracks for the listeners who might not be all that up on the bands historic game. Let’s consider this to be “Savatage Primer” since its all expected numbers as opposed to any sort of deep tracks. Perhaps if this was a double CD edition but alas this is only a single disc.
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Remembering Savatage’s Criss Oliva; Gone Twenty Years Today (10/17/93-10/17/13)

savatage logo

It was twenty years ago today that the Metal world lost Savatage guitarist and co-founder Criss Oliva to a drunk driver and the fans of his music still miss him as strongly as when this first happened. He was only 30 years old when at the time and was growing in popularity by leaps and bounds based on his incendiary skills on the lead guitar. Born Christopher Michael Oliva in 1963, he is the brother of Savatage’s own Jon Oliva (the legendary Mountain King) and together they formed Avatar which eventually took new musical shape and life as Savatage in 1983. Metal was about to get a dose of something different care of these guys and the ride was an exciting one to me as a new fan.

Photo - Criss Oliva

I was first turned on to the music of Savatage by my friend Rizzo who I eventually worked in a band with together for a few years and I guess that the time of this Metal referral was around when “Power Of The Night” was already released. I was a drummer and I loved the power of the riffs over the title track and used to rehearse against that tune regularly. I became more of a diehard to the band’s output with “Hall Of The Mountain King” and honestly who didn’t love almost all of that one in the Metal circles of the time. To continue to speak personally on this, our band Machine was floored when the legendary L’Amour’s in Brooklyn booked us to be the opener for the Savatage and Trouble show that was going to take place. The band had just released “Gutter Ballet” and I ran over to The Record Factory to buy a copy on this new CD medium that everyone was beginning to talk about a lot more. I liked that they had cool booklets and inside this one were individual pages with the members of the group.
Continue reading Remembering Savatage’s Criss Oliva; Gone Twenty Years Today (10/17/93-10/17/13)

New Year’s Music Resolutions For 2013: Part 10

new year's music resolutions

Whew. How are you all doing? Are you still with me as we press on towards the final stages of our “New Year’s Music Resolutions for 2013”? Man I sure hope so because this has been a ride like no other and I am loving getting the plans of the Metal and Rock greats out to your computer or mobile device screens. Here we go with Chapter Ten. Enjoy.

1. Jason Lekberg (Ikillya): My resolution for 2013 is to make the best album of my career thus far and hopefully share it with as many people as possible. 🙂

2. Michael Scondotto (The Last Stand/Inhuman): My New Year’s Music Resolution is to play as many shows as possible with The Last Stand, as our debut full length “The Time Is Now” comes out on January 22nd on Eulogy Recordings. Aside from that, look for another Inhuman vinyl edition and maybe my Metal project will surface sometime in 2013???

3. Alberto Rigoni (Solo Artist): Hey world, wanna still hear some good quality music in the future? Please support the bands and artists purchasing their music, digital or CD.. otherwise they will disappear!
Continue reading New Year’s Music Resolutions For 2013: Part 10

New Year’s Music Resolutions For 2013: Part 8

new year's music resolutions

We are off and running my dear readers in The Metal Republic and while it’s only day two of 2013, this is actually part eight of our “New Year’s Music Resolutions for 2013” from Metal and Hard Rock greats. Someone asked me why I actually started this just after Christmas, and well the answer is simple….I started them on 12/26 because I wanted to is why 🙂 Being serious, I do it like this to give you readers something new and interesting as the year closes since its generally a dry time for big happenings. It also lets me better space out the responding quotes. Now onto the regularly scheduled program….

1. Mo “Royce” Petersen (Tragedy: Heavy Metal Tribute To The Bee Gees): We resolve to look like Manowar by the end of 2013. (We already sound exactly like them)

2. Addiction For Destruction: Addiction For Destruction are looking forward to on tour over the world in 2013 and releasing a couple of new videos! We want to keep building our international fan base. Train keeps rollin’, stay tuned!

3. Steph Paynes (Lez Zeppelin): That Lez Zeppelin will be invited to play the Isle of Wight Festival, followed by a UK Tour, during which many magickal things will happen…
Continue reading New Year’s Music Resolutions For 2013: Part 8