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List Of Savatage Band Members
''Savatage'' has known several lineups during its active periods from 1979 to 1993, 1994 to 2002 and currently from 2014. The band was founded by brothers Jon (vocals, keys) and Criss Oliva (guitar) in the late 1970s, and the band's first stable line-up in the early eighties also included drummer Steve "Doc" Wacholz, and Keith Collins on bass. During the second half of eighties Collins was replaced by Johnny Lee Middleton, and the line-up was expanded to include second guitarist Chris Caffery. The nineties began with the band again down to four after Caffery's departure, and in 1992 Jon Oliva stepped down as frontman though he remained involved in songwriting. He was replaced by vocalist Zachary Stevens, but the band dissolved when guitarist Criss Oliva died in a car accident in 1993. Jon Oliva reformed Savatage in 1994. The band again saw many members come and go during this second period, but had a solid lineup from 1995 to 2000 featuring the return of Middleton (bass), Stevens ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Poets And Madmen
''Poets and Madmen'' is the eleventh studio album by American heavy metal band Savatage, released in 2001. It was their last album before their 12-year hiatus, which lasted from 2002 to 2014. The album has a loose concept inspired by the career and death of journalist Kevin Carter, but has much less narrative in the lyrics than the previous two rock operas (''Dead Winter Dead'' and '' The Wake of Magellan'') penned by Paul O'Neill. Everything said in the album is fiction, except with regards to what is sung about Carter. The album is also noted as it is the only Savatage album to not feature a title song from the album, although the title was taken from lyrics to the track "Symmetry" from the band's 1994 album, ''Handful of Rain''. The album was the first since '' Streets: A Rock Opera'' in 1991 to feature the band's original vocalist Jon Oliva on lead vocals for all songs after the amicable departure of Zachary Stevens. It is also the first Savatage album to have guitarist Chri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chris Caffery
Christopher Caffery (born September 9, 1967) is an American musician, best known for his work as a member of Savatage and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Recently, Chris has been pursuing a solo career, releasing four albums since 2004. Biography Raised in Mahwah, New Jersey, Chris began playing guitar at age 11, but some of his earliest memories include performing the Beatles song ''Help!'' for a show and tell in kindergarten. Chris' favorite bands growing up included the Beatles, Kiss, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest and Rush among others. He has cited guitarists such as Ted Nugent, Rik Emmett, Ace Frehley, Randy Rhoads, Michael Schenker as influences throughout the years as well. After only 13 months, Chris grew bored with guitar lessons and decided to teach himself. He was part of a band called ''"Blitzkrieg"'' in middle school and played a few shows, the first of which was at a bar in Ridgewood, New Jersey when Chris was only 13. At the age of 14, Chris and his brother formed a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gutter Ballet
''Gutter Ballet'' is the fifth full-length album produced by the American progressive metal band Savatage. This was the second album created under the direction of producer Paul O'Neill and was initially released in December 1, 1989. Overview This album was a true turning point for the band, as the sound transitioned from a heavy metal to experiment with a more progressive sound, which is reflected in songs such as "When the Crowds Are Gone" and "Gutter Ballet". During the final recording sessions while Criss was tracking guitar solos, Paul O'Neil gave Jon Oliva tickets to see Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical ''The Phantom of the Opera'' on Broadway. Jon was so inspired that immediately following the performance, he went back to the studio and wrote the music for the title track. ''Gutter Ballet'' is not a concept album, but the final three songs ("Mentally Yours", "Summer's Rain", "Thorazine Shuffle") are a conceptual suite dealing with a single character as revealed by the band ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Kinkel
Robert Kinkel is an American professional session keyboardist and music engineer most known for his role as a co-creator/co-producer/co-composer and touring keyboardist with Trans-Siberian Orchestra along with extensive studio work with the progressive metal band Savatage. He attended Hamilton College and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in music with a minor in physics.The Composers Trans-Siberian Orchestra website "The World Of Trans-Siberian Orchestra Blogtalkradio weekly podcast", episodes 26 & 27 "Composer Spotlight: Bob Kinkel Parts 1 & 2" July 2011 Life and career Kinkel was born in |
Hall Of The Mountain King (album)
''Hall of the Mountain King'' is the fourth studio album by the American heavy metal band Savatage, released in 1987 under the direction of producer Paul O'Neill. It is their first album produced by O'Neill, who was assigned to the band after the tour in support of ''Fight for the Rock''. O'Neill's influence pushed Savatage to adopt a conceptual progressive metal style beginning with this album. "Prelude to Madness" is an arrangement of Grieg's "In the Hall of the Mountain King" from the ''Peer Gynt'' suite. Oddly, Grieg is not credited for this song, but for the following title track - which is an original song. The intro of "Prelude to Madness" features keyboards and guitar playing "Mars, the Bringer of War" from Gustav Holst's suite, ''The Planets''. The song would be re-recorded by Trans-Siberian Orchestra in 2009 under the title of "The Mountain", appearing on that group's fifth studio album, ''Night Castle''. "This Is Where You Should Be", recorded during the studio sessi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ray Gillen
Raymond Arthur Gillen (May 12, 1959 – December 1, 1993) was an American rock singer. He is best known for his work with Badlands, in addition to his stint with Black Sabbath in the mid-1980s and recording most of the vocals on Phenomena's ''Dream Runner'' album. Early life Gillen was born on May 12, 1959, in New York, but was raised in Cliffside Park, New Jersey. He was an only child and started singing while in high school. He played the New Jersey club circuit with various bands, including club bands Quest (1978–80), the punk rock influenced F-66 (1980–81), Savage, and, most notably, Vendetta and Harlette. In 1985, he joined Bobby Rondinelli's band, Rondinelli. Career In 1986, Black Sabbath started touring for the ''Seventh Star'' album when after only a few shows, singer Glenn Hughes got into a fist-fight and lost his voice due to the related sinus and throat injuries. Gillen was offered the job to replace Hughes, which meant leaving Rondinelli to accept the offe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul O'Neill (producer)
Paul O'Neill (February 23, 1956 – April 5, 2017) was an American music composer, producer, lyricist, and guitarist. Career Early years Paul O'Neill was born in Flushing, Queens, New York City,Huffington Post, Entertainment, April 25, 2012 the second of his parents' ten children. His music and literary influences, as well as his own artistic visions, were well established before he began working full-time in the industry in his late teens. O'Neill began playing guitar with a number of rock bands in high school and quickly graduated to folk guitar gigs at downtown clubs. He took his first serious musical steps in the mid-1970s when he took his first progressive rock band, Slowburn, into Jimi Hendrix's Electric Lady Studios in New York City. It was there that he first met engineer Dave Wittman who had the ability to capture on tape the sounds O'Neill was hearing in his head. O'Neill ended up shelving the project because he was not happy with final results. He later credited Slowb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Savatage
Savatage () was an American heavy metal band founded by brothers Jon and Criss Oliva in 1979 in Tarpon Springs, Florida. The band was first called Avatar, but, shortly before the release of their debut album ''Sirens'' (1983), they changed their name to Savatage, as Avatar was already taken by another band. Savatage is considered a significant member of the American heavy metal movement of the early-to-mid-1980s and has been cited as a key influence on many genres, such as power metal, progressive metal, speed metal, thrash metal, death metal and symphonic metal. Savatage has released eleven studio albums, two live albums, four compilations and three EPs. The band first reached substantial commercial success with its third studio album ''Fight for the Rock'' (1986), which peaked at number 158 on the ''Billboard'' 200. Its next four albums—'' Hall of the Mountain King'' (1987), ''Gutter Ballet'' (1989), '' Streets: A Rock Opera'' (1991) and ''Edge of Thorns'' (1993)—were als ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Damond Jiniya
Damond Jiniya is an American vocalist, lyricist and author. He was born December 16, 1974, in Palm Springs, California. His most notable work was fronting the prog metal band Savatage. Damond also achieved international notoriety with his electro-metal band Diet of Worms.. He recorded with Lover of Sin (Christian Death). Damond has performed at festivals such as Wacken Open Air (DE), Graspop (BE), "Gods of Metal (IT) and the Dracfest UK. He has been featured worldwide in publications such as ''NME'' (U.K), ''Metal Edge'' (U.S.A), ''Rock Hard'' (DE), ''Metal Maniacs'' (U.S.A), ''Aardschok'' (NL) and most recently ''Roadie Crew'' (Brazil). In early 2022 he published 2 full literary books. "Anarchist Poems" and "Amerikan Family Ultra". In Oct. 2022 Damond launched his unique brand of children's music books. journals and activity books " Jiniya Notebooks" Early life Damond was born in Palm Springs, California Dec 16th, 1974. He comes from a family of performers. His grandmother, mo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alex Skolnick
Alex Skolnick (born September 29, 1968) is an American musician. He is best known as the lead guitarist and one of the songwriters of the thrash metal band Testament and has played with several other bands, including The Alex Skolnick Trio, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Savatage and the heavy metal supergroup Metal Allegiance. Skolnick began his musical career at the age of 15 when he joined the local Bay Area thrash metal band Legacy, which eventually became Testament, and performed on five albums with them, between '' The Legacy'' (1987) and '' The Ritual'' (1992). By the time he left Testament in 1992, Skolnick had found considerable fame among the thrash metal and guitar communities; '' Guitar World'' magazine named him one of the greatest guitarists of all time, and as one of the "fastest guitarists of all time". After his first departure from Testament, Skolnick went on to pursue various musical careers, including briefly replacing Criss Oliva in Savatage for their album ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steve "Doc" Wacholz
Steve Wacholz (born November 5, 1962) is an American heavy metal drummer. He is best known as the drummer of Savatage from 1977, 1979–1994. His hard-hitting playing style earned him the nickname "Doctor Hardware Killdrums" (simply "Doc") by his bandmates, as he was known for using a large three kick drumset and extra large 3S drumsticks. Biography Wacholz was born in White Plains, New York Steve "Doc" Wacholz met Criss Oliva when he was 14 years old in Tampa Bay Florida. In 1979, Steve Wacholz joined the Oliva brothers band Avatar and jammed in a shack behind the Oliva home that was dubbed "The Pit" by the band. Wacholz originally had tried out to be part of Criss' older brother Jon Oliva's band, Alien, but when the first Savatage line-up was taking shape in 1977, Jon, who was originally on drum duties, was relieved of them by Wacholz. They also gave Steve a nickname that would follow him throughout his career: "Doctor Hardware Killdrums", often shortened to just "Doc" or "D ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Criss Oliva
Christopher Michael Oliva (April 3, 1963 – October 17, 1993) was an American musician who was the lead guitarist and co-founder of the heavy metal band Savatage. During his lifetime, he released seven studio albums and one EP with the band. Biography Early life Oliva's family moved around the country during his childhood, stopping off in California before making Florida their home. It was in California that Oliva found music and considered it his calling, and he continued his musical interests when he moved to Florida. His main influences as a guitarist were Ritchie Blackmore, Tony Iommi, Uli Jon Roth and Michael Schenker. He spent countless hours figuring out his favorite songs on records, and when he found it difficult to figure out a part on the record he just made up his own licks. This would later help him in his songwriting. Savatage Oliva and his brother Jon formed their first band together, Avatar, in 1978, from the ashes of their former bands Tower and Alien ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
