''Fight for the Rock'' is the third full-length album by the American heavy metal band

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 thei ...

. It is their first album with new bass player

Johnny Lee Middleton Johnny Lee Middleton (born May 7, 1963) is an American musician and songwriter, best known as the bass guitar player for Savatage and Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Musical beginnings Middleton was born in St. Petersburg, Florida. His first experien ...

. Released in 1986, it is largely regarded as the band's worst release by both fans and band members, with the band referring to it as "Fight for the Nightmare".

Jon Oliva John Nicholas "Jon" Oliva (born July 22, 1959) is an American singer and musician. He is best known as the co-founder, keyboardist and lead vocalist of the heavy metal band Savatage, which he co-founded with his younger brother Criss Oliva. Sinc ...

said in October 1994, "I've never really been fond of that album. WE'VE never been fond of that album". The band said that they were driven to make the record by their label,

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over its first 20 years of operation, Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most i ...

; particularly Oliva began writing pop-rock songs for other artists on the label such as

John Waite John Charles Waite (born 4 July 1952) is an English musician. As a solo artist, he has released ten studio albums and is best known for the 1984 hit single " Missing You", which reached No. 1 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and the top ten on ...

. However, the label eventually turned around and told the band to record the music that Oliva had written for other artists themselves. This destroyed the band's credibility in the eyes of the press and reviews were not kind to the band. It not only destroyed the band's image, but the negative critical reaction has been cited as a cause of Oliva's bout of drug and alcohol depression which eventually drove him from the fore of the band. Atlantic Records also wanted the band to have photographs taken, since none of their previous releases had included any. The band hired a friend to do the photography work, with one of the photos featuring the band re-recreating the famous photo '' Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima''. The band agreed this was a good idea at the time, but look back with the same feelings on the photos taken as they do the album. When initially released, the album featured a

Parental Advisory Advisory (abbreviated PAL) is a warning label introduced by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in 1985 and adopted by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) in 2011. It is placed on audio recordings in recognition of profan ...

label on the front cover, despite having no "nasty words", as Jon Oliva puts it, featured anywhere on the record. This was largely done to please the label, as they felt that putting the sticker on the record would drive up record sales. Although it did chart, the band have been extremely reluctant to perform any of the songs live, and haven't done so since the early 1990s. Even on the tour in support of the album, the band only performed "Hyde", "The Edge of Midnight" and few others.

Track listing

Personnel

;Savatage *

–

lead vocals The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of t ...

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

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. ...

–

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

s, backing vocals *

–

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

, backing vocals *

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 h ...

–

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

, percussion ;Additional musicians *

Larry Dvoskin Larry Dvoskin is an American musician, songwriter, arranger, producer, professor and entrepreneur. He is best known in the industry as the songwriting partner of The Beach Boys' Al Jardine. The founder of Do What You Love Media, Miracle Music Inc a ...

(credited as "Dvoskin") – keyboards *Brent Daniels – backing vocals ;Production *

Stephan Galfas Stephan Galfas is an American record producer, currently CEO of International Talent Organization, Inc. and Miss Molly Records. Biography Galfas is a producer, composer, manager, musician, mixer and recording engineer who has worked with many a ...

– producer, engineer, mixing *Mario Rodriguez, Ralph Mastrangelo – assistant mixing *Mark Jolley – engineer *Dan McMillan – assistant engineer *

Bob Ludwig Robert C. Ludwig (born c. 1945) is an American mastering engineer. He has mastered recordings on all the major recording formats for all the major record labels, and on projects by more than 1,300 artists including Led Zeppelin, Lou Reed, Qu ...

– mastering at

Masterdisk Masterdisk is an American multimedia company in New York, located at 8 John Walsh Boulevard in Peekskill. They provide production services such as audio mastering, vinyl cutting and enhanced CD and DVD production. Their clients include such no ...

, New York *Robert Zemsky – associate producer, management *

Steven Machat Steven Machat (born October 18, 1952) is an American entertainment mogul, lawyer, and the producer of ''Bird on a Wire'', the documentary film of the Leonard Cohen 1972 European tour. Biography Machat was born in Manhattan, New York. His fathe ...

, Rick Smith – executive producers *Bob Defrin – art direction

Charts

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fight for the Rock 1986 albums Atlantic Records albums Savatage albums