Savatage The Wake of Magellan Review

This originally appeared in issue 13 of Married Punks, which was published in 1998.


Savatage The Wake of Magellan

I've always considered Savatage to be a loser band.  After all, my brother saw them at the Airport City Music Hall in Allentown, PA during the Gutter Ballet Tour and stole a bunch of tapes from the guys' tour bus when he was invited to hang out with them.

That said, this CD blew me away.

Zachary Stevens handles the vocals, singing writer Paul O'Neil's lyrics with aplomb.  The end result is a hard rock opera that is incredibly well done.  Imagine Billy Joel, who is a successful songwriter becase he writes catch songs, doing a hard rock concept album.  Sound strange?  It is, but it works.  One can't aruge that Savatage's heart isn't in this.

I don't want to go into the story on the CD, but I do want to mention that this has changed my view on Savatage.  Stevens, back by a band that acts almost like an orchestra, brings a voice to this story that will chill you to the bone.

True music fans of whatever genre will agree that this is one hell of a release.  People who look to music for little more than entertainment may find this hard to swallow.  Their loss.