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Rating:
"Where's the light, turn them on again
One more night to believe and then
Another note for my requiem
A memory to carry on
The story's over when the crowds are gone"
1989: "Gutter Ballet" represents the turning point in Savatage's career. To an already established hard and aggressive sound in their previous 5 albums, a previously absent component is added: the use of the piano as an occasionally introductory and at times leading instrument, certainly with an extraordinary impact on the band's melodies, which at times acquire a delicacy, sophistication, and expressiveness unprecedented.
This blend of piano harmonies and raw, hard guitar riffs, combined with the extraordinary voice of the majestic Jon Oliva, in my very humble opinion one of the most engaging and expressive metal singers of all time, has been the band's fortune from this album onward, making them a benchmark band in the global heavy metal scene. This album features all the multiple facets of the Californian band: fast and powerful tracks, instrumental pieces, and deeply evocative songs.
In the first category, we have "Of Rage And War", a track with a very strong sound and angry lyrics, speaking with disdain about war and humanity's tendency to always seek new methods to better annihilate itself, "She's In Love", and "The Unholy". The two instrumentals are nothing short of stunning: "Temptation Revelation", opening with a spine-chilling guitar solo accompanied by a simple piano, and "Silk And Steel", a piece consisting exclusively of a splendid classical-flavored acoustic guitar arpeggio with glimpses of "Friday Night In S.Francisco" (especially at the end), which makes us appreciate even more the vast and versatile guitar talent of the late Criss Oliva. Very interesting are "Hounds", alternating gritty riffs with relaxing interludes, "Mentally Yours", introduced by a beautiful piano line, and the bonus track "Thorazine Shuffle", which in my opinion represents the model of a typical Savatage song, powerful and energetic.
A particular applause goes to the delicate "Summer's Rain", truly very beautiful, another piece in full Savatage style, the perfect compromise between poignancy, sentiment, and emotional charge. Intentionally left at the end of the list, the epic "Gutter Ballet" and the poignant "When The Crowds Are Gone" are two absolute masterpieces of the Californian band, two pieces of extraordinary evocative power. I focus mainly on the latter, which in my modest opinion is the piece that most closely approaches, in its dramatic intensity, the magnificent "Believe" (the two songs are so similar that the last verse is the same in both). The lyrics consist of the last, heartbreaking plea of a musician at his final public appearance, feeling loneliness approaching as the lights go out and the crowds depart.
Well, I would say this is a very high-level album, it needs to be listened to a few times to be appreciated (at first, I didn't like it at all) and it is absolutely essential for those who appreciate Savatage, it's a milestone of the band, just one step below "Streets - A Rock Opera", which is, in my opinion, something unbeatable. And then pieces like "Temptation Revelation", "Silk and Steel", "When The Crowds Are Gone, and "Summer's Rain" are pure poetry, the kind that gets inside you and strikes you to the core, touching the most sensitive strings of our souls...
Tracklist Lyrics and Samples
01 Of Rage and War (04:46)
You got Libia, you got the Russians
You got civilian planes crashing to the oceans
Airports full of terrorists
Naziskins anarchists
When are they gonna learn
CHORUS:
Better listen to me you son of a bitch
Better disarm those missiles sleeping in the ditch
You have no goddamn right to do the things you do
The world will be a better place if we were rid of you
Of rage and war (4 x)
Every country's got the bomb
The scientists are working on
chemical weapons to melt the flesh
With no source of defense
Shoot me, I'll shoot you
Like there's nothing better to do
Who's the loser in the end
CHORUS
War broods in foreign lands
Missiles launch upon command
Islam Lebanon what the hell is going on
Ambassadors who say they try
Negotiating suicide
Are they prepared to face the end
Of rage and war (4 x)
02 Gutter Ballet (06:20)
Another sleepless night
A concrete paradise
Sirens screaming in the heat
Neon cuts the eye
as the jester sighs
at the world beneath his feet
CHORUS:
It's a gutter ballet
Just a menagerie
Still the orchestra plays
On a dark and lonely night
To a distant fading light
Balanced on their knives
Little parts of lives
Such a strange reality
Kill the unicorn
Just to have it's horn
Soon he's just a fantasy
CHORUS
The jester takes his bows
slips into the crowd
as the actors fade away
Another death to mourn
Another child is born
Another chapter in the play
CHORUS
04 When the Crowds Are Gone (05:46)
I don't know where the years have gone
Memories can only last so long
Like faded photographs, forgotten songs
and the things I never knew
When then skin is thin, the heart shows trough
Please believe me what I tell you is true
CHORUS:
Where's the lights, turn them on again
One more night to believe and then
Another note for my requiem
A memory to carry on
The story's over when the crowds are gone
All my friends have been crucified
They made life a long suicide true
Guess we never figured out the rules
But I'm still alive and my fingers feel
I'm gonna play on till the final reel's through
and read the credits from a different view
When the crowds are gone
and I'm all alone
Playing a final song
Now that the lights are gone
Turn them on again
One more time for me my friend
Turn them on again
I never wanted to know
Never wanted to see
I wasted my time till time wasted me
Never wanted to go
Always wanted to stay
Cause the person I am, are the parts that I play
So I play and I play
and hope that I scheme
to the lure of a night
Filled with unfinished dream
and I'm holding on tight
to a world gone astray
As they charge me for years
I can no longer pay
And the lights
Turn them off my friend
And the ghosts
Well just let them in
Cause in the dark
It's easier to see
06 She's in Love (03:51)
She likes what she sees
Starts to drop to her knees
Gazing with an appetite
Licks her lips in sheer delight
She's one of a kind
A sight for sore eyes
It's all the needs to be happy
I bet she never knew
It would taste so good
No she's in love
I knew she's in love
Oh no she's in love
Oh yeah she's in love
She just loves to please
Kiss of life her specialty
Oh how well she knows
Just how to make it grow
She's one of a kind
A sight for sore eyes
It's all she needs to be happy
No she's in love
I knew she's in love
Oh no she's in love
Oh yeah she's in love
07 Hounds (06:28)
Sun sets on the moor
The cry of the hounds live forevermore
Stalking the night
They roam the countryside till morning's light
CHORUS:
Do you hear the hounds they call
Scan the dark eyes aglow
Through the bitter rain and cold
they hunt you down
Hunt you down
They run wild and free
Across the fields and valleys of their native land
Nature's beasts deranged
Beyond belief no one understands
CHORUS
Can you hear them in the night
They got you in their sight
CHORUS
08 The Unholy (04:37)
Oh yeah
In distant ages long ago
Before the birth of Christ
Lived a race trapped in soul
Terror on the rise
United beyond the storm
They ruled the astral plane
No one could stop them
They wouldn't fall
In a while they would soon reign
A step beyond the grave
Visions so insane
They opened the gates of hell
Calling, calling
Unholy light is calling
Faster, faster
Prelude for disaster
But no
Here's your prize
Oh yeah
They're unholy
Raging spririts kept from the light
Enslaved in worlds of doom
Marching armies to the darker side
The devil's black platoon
Torches raised no mercy
Such was life
In the unholy years
Calling, calling
The lonely night is calling
Faster, faster
Prelude for disaster
Get straight
But no
Here's your prize
Oh yeah
The unholy
Oh yeah
They're unholy
They're unholy
Unholy
Unholy
Unholy
Unholy
11 Thorazine Shuffle (04:43)
Thinking about yesterday
and how my life used to be
Now I'm locked up this place
I'm a schizophrenic case
All the faces I now see
never show a sight of glee
Every night we start to hustle
It's time to do the thorazine shuffle
It's the thorazine shuffle
Everyday half past four
They push my food through the door
Every night right at eight
They put me back into my straight
All the paintings I have made
they look kind of strange
Every night we start to hustle
It's time to do the thorazine shuffle
It's the thorazine shuffle
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By HeavyZinco
"One of the most beautiful albums in the history of Hard 'n' Heavy."
"In a lifetime, solos of this caliber are fewer than the number of your fingers."
