Savatage - 'Still The Orchestra Plays 1&2'

A Rocktopia user review written by Speedy Hicks.

What a great value for money package this is. 2 CDs and a live DVD housed in a lovely big 4 panel digi pack.
Starting with the music we get 20 studio versions, plus in 2009 Jon Oliva recorded 3 unreleased acoustic tracks
which have been included as bonus material.
All the classics are on here including “Hall of the Mountain King” which is still as huge as it was all
those years ago and without doubt is the highlight of the group’s impressive career. Listening to songs such as
“24 Hours Ago” and the insane “Gutter Ballet” it becomes apparent that “Savatage” were different to most if
not all rock bands from that era, never afraid to push the boundaries into concept work as well as huge songs
that had more twist and turns than an Olympic downhill. Various line ups of the group are covered including
guitarist Alex Skolnick who had the almost impossible task of replacing Criss Oliva who was so selfishly  
killed by a drink driver. What is going to make this CD /DVD sell in such huge numbers is the live concert shot
in 1994 in Japan and originally only available in VHS it has now been spruced up and brought inline with the
digital age, and what a great document it is. “Zachary Stevens” handles the majority of the vocals with Jon Oliva
taking more of a back seat and handling keyboards and some rhythm guitar it’s a great snapshot in time but you cant
help but feel so sad that Criss is not on stage with his band and you can just see that Jon is not the same without
his brother, never the less you get the full live concert with a brilliant version of “Handful of Rain” and the epic
“Sirens” all this for under a tenner is a bargain in anyone’s book.

SPEEDY HICKS.