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There are bands that have made rock history without ever staying in the spotlight of success and a large audience. There are bands that have invented or contributed to the evolution of musical genres while always remaining true to themselves and their ideals (musical and otherwise). There are bands that have evolved and deliberately changed their way of making and thinking about music without ever being conditioned, in doing so, by thoughts or desires for commercialization and without ever being attracted, in their choices of change, by the "God of Money". There are bands that have endured and resisted musical trends (grunge, britpop etc...) and personal adversities (the premature death of Chris Oliva R.I.P.), which would have brought down even the bravest spirits, without being completely influenced by them and, indeed, finding in them a reason to continue, with even more conviction, their story of men and artists. There are bands (and I hope there always will be) that fully reflect all the aforementioned characteristics and that make me proud to listen to a certain type of music... I personally believe that the most fitting example of such bands are, without a shadow of a doubt, the legendary Savatage.
A band that, after overcoming endless contractual and personal difficulties, presents itself in 1997 with what is their eleventh studio album in 18 years of career: "The Wake Of Magellan."
Let's make one thing clear: it is the first time in a decade that Savatage remains with the same line-up as the previous album (the immense "Dead Winter Dead") and you can feel it... The album, in fact, musically continues what was experimented and expressed in the previous work, but beware... It is absolutely not a copy and does not even draw from it... Of course, there are many common points (this is also a concept album and also in this one the symphonic-orchestral parts are decisive), but our guys continue, with this work, their path of evolution and refinement, being always original and never static or resting on what they have done before. In fact, "The Wake Of Magellan" is certainly less introspective, emotional, and reflective than "Dead Winter Dead," but at the same time, by evolving the sound, it results in being more theatrical, more "pompous," more ambitiously imposing... In short, more linked to a (pre)concept of "Musical" so dear to the good old Jon Oliva (who, enthusiastically, since he saw "The Phantom of the Opera" in a theater in 1989, has always tried to enrich his music more and more with that baroque component typical of certain works).
The album sounds somewhat like a summary of everything Savatage is in 1997: connected to the past and their origins, never denied, through square-shaped and driven songs where, as usual, Jon's powerful, cutting, and rough voice (author, among other things, of all the lyrics and almost all the music along with the now omnipresent Paul O'Neil) prevails, as in the case of the heavy and 80s-style "Another Way" or the stupendous and aggressive "Blackjack Guillotine" (where actually Zak Stevens sings)... Attached (as usual) to that sweet and dreamy conception of Rock-Metal with a retro taste, so much liked by guitarist Chris Caffery and bassist Johnny Lee Middleton, as in the energetic "Turns To Me" or in the semi-ballad "Morning Sun"... Attracted by that crazy experimentalism that sometimes leads them to wander in the most disparate fields of music, like in the strange and energetic "Paragons Of Innocents," where at minute 2:40 we find an incredible Jon delighting us with a break at the borderline of the most pissed-off Rap (yes, you heard right: Rap), or in the rhythmic and "modern" "Complaint In The System"; a track where the stopped rhythm and the filtered voices chorus combine the heaviest component with an almost "industrial" attitude of "new metal" (Nu-Metal?).
But there is much more: as usual, they confirm themselves as excellent performers, capable of delivering emotions even with their incredible and dreamy instrumental pieces, dominated by the splendid solo guitar of Al Pitrelli... this is the case with "Underture" and "The Storm", unforgettable moments of enormous evocative power (especially stunning "The Storm" where the instruments, in a whirlwind of passionately crescendo notes, seem to really catapult us into the heart of the most infernal ocean storm) that masterfully connect the various final parts of the story being told.
Personally, however, I believe that the best from the recent Savatage repertoire is given to us by the most majestic, epic, and symphonic-choral parts, which the group has managed to perfect over the years... Indeed, the album gives us splendid examples of this in the first two tracks: "The Ocean" and "Welcome"; the first starts with a sound of waves crashing on a beach, immediately followed by Jon's sad piano and the entry of all the other instruments that welcome us into the melancholic and reflective story of the concept in question... The second connects immediately to the first, gifting us one of the most majestic and theatrical moments of the album in question: we are faced with the first example of what I define as "Hollywood Metal," where the pressing and epic progression gives the music an almost "cinematic" spectacularity... Nothing to do with the fantasy-epic-dragon-Hollywood metal of Rhapsody and their medieval-like company, which, however, this album anticipates by a few months.
But that's not all... At the end come what are the most elaborate, complete, and imposing tracks of "The Wake Of Magellan," those that best express the symphonic-musical component of late-millennium Savatage: the title track starts with a base of drums and bass, then progressing, building up, into increasingly engaging and "metallic" moments that, supported by piano and orchestral scores (present throughout the album), culminate in the powerful and magnificent 6-voice overlapping choirs, now characteristic of "Savatage" production. Immediately following is the sweet and passionate "Anymore" which, picking up on the melodies of some songs and using choirs that I would dare to call "angelic and dreaming", offers us one of the most heartfelt and engaging moments of the entire work.
Savatage has always accustomed us to stunning closing songs and this time too they don't disappoint us at all: "The Hourglass" is the most representative thing our guys could give us to conclude the story... We are indeed facing a track that synthesizes and re-proposes all the facets of the album: from Jon’s tormented piano to the metallic anger, from the sweet melodies that pervade the whole album to the imposing polyphonic choirs already mentioned... In one word: Perfect.
The instrumental and vocal performance of all the members is as usual excellent... There isn't a blemish or an uncertainty, everything sounds full and satisfying, showing a meticulous attention to all details. The production is perfect, never too crystalline or confused, and best renders the atmospheres evoked in the story of the concept...
Right... The concept (the third for the band) is, as usual, touching and poetic... Spines-chilling. The story told (entirely written by the usual "Paul O'Neil") magnificently combines the melancholic aspect of human reflection with news and current events which, in those years, had greatly disturbed the worldwide interest.
I will not go on too long (perhaps) in the narrative, but I would like to summarize something for you anyway.
It all revolves around the tender and sad figure of the elderly Hector Del-Fuego Magellan (a descendant of the great navigator Ferdinand) who, conversing with his only friend "The Ocean," reflects on desires, mistakes, and the values of his own life. He finds himself, with a childlike gaze, looking at the woman he could never express his feelings to ("Turns To Me"). He sadly reflects on the lost values in his life, realizing that what was important to him now no longer exists and that his choice of solitude at sea has been at the expense of his happiness ("Morning Sun"). Finding on the beach the body of a young man who died of an overdose, he asks the ocean how it is possible that people throw their own lives away for trivial reasons and with a gentle "innocence" full of lightness... The ocean then responds by telling him the story of Veronica Guerin, a journalist who sacrificed her own life fighting against the "system" and the world of drugs ("Blackjack Guillotine", "Paragons of Innocents", and "Complaint In The System"). Overwhelmed and horrified by a world he can no longer recognize, he makes the dramatic decision to go to sea in search of the storm that will end his days of pain ("Underture" and "The Wake Of Magellan"). The story of the old man intertwines, throughout the album, with the (true) story of the poor sailor Miguel embarked on a frigate under the Taiwanese flag, the Maersk Dubai, and who during his journey, witnesses helplessly the cruelty of his captain ("for a captain at sea is as close to a God on earth as you can get") towards some stowaways he doesn't hesitate to throw overboard, thus sealing their certain death... Miguel manages, in the end, to save the last of the 4 stowaways, hiding him from the eyes of his companions, and to report the incident without succeeding in condemning the captain ("Another Way" and "Anymore"). The two stories touch when the old Hector Magellan, during the storm that the friendly ocean has sent to fulfill his death wish, manages to save from the waters the third of the 4 stowaways (the last to be thrown overboard)... But Miguel will never know this ("The Storm"). Finally, the old man prays the ocean to let him return to shore and delay the moment of his death, to save the life of the shipwreck victim... His new wish is granted and Hector finds, in the end, in the innocent and kind eyes of a child he had previously encountered, the strength to continue hoping that the world can still save itself from a selfish end...
And he returns, lonely, in front of the bar on his beach to secretly watch the woman he has always loved... Maybe one day he will find the courage to talk to her...
"When the night gathers darkness
In a black and pitch cloud,
Only poets, dreams, and fools
Will sail into the storm."
Savatage offers us an incredibly convincing performance where, as usual, the combination of lyrics and musical atmospheres is exhilarating...
And you may ask: But why, after praising this album so much, does Ocram only give it 4 out of 5 stars in the album rating?
Well... Let's say it... I personally believe that this work by our most affectionate, is slightly inferior to the previous work or to their best albums, and I will explain why.
It almost seems to me that this time Savatage, in their continuous search for perfection and evolution, have slightly neglected a small detail: the purely emotional aspect and "romantic" involvement that characterized "Dead Winter Dead." Don't get me wrong... They have given us an exceptional and exciting work, with songs on the verge of absolute masterpiece, and which should be taken as an example by all those young bands who claim to play metal... But it seems (and I highlight "seems") to me that they offer us a not entirely heartfelt performance, a performance, in short, where their involvement does not totally shine through their notes and which reflects in me a semblance of "slight coldness" and "imperceptible detachment."
But this is just my opinion... The hard sentence is yours to make!
Tracklist Lyrics and Samples
01 The Ocean (01:34)
When the night will gather darkness
And black clouds unadorned
Only poets, dreams and madmen
Will sail out into the storm
02 Welcome (02:11)
The lights come on The set is down The curtain's flown away To all you creatures of the night I say it's time we play We'll show you things That in your life You'd never dreamed you'd know So now before the ghosts arrive It's welcome to the show Minstrels, kings, explorers Fantasies on order Ghosts and dreams awakened Stories long forsakened The minstrel and the sorcerer Are switching their disguise The jester drinks and starts to think That he alone is wise The governor and journalist Exchange a judas kiss And now before the song is done The plot begins to twist Ghosts and lost explorers Fate with all her daughters Saints and hopeless sinners Wise men in their winters Know Welcome to the show Welcome to the show Welcome to the show Welcome to the show His life was nearly over As he stood upon the beach Thinking about death and the ocean While still safely out of reach And he held there in his hand A well worn hourglass And though the sand was still inside Soon this too would pass Then he knelt to touch the water Where the waves would gently fall Thinking here I touch the ocean And the ocean touches all For from a line of countless sailors He was the last man of his kind And the world had changed around him He had no mountains left to climb And his last name was Magellan A descendant of the same Or so he said in late night bars Though few believed his claim And so he now talked with the ocean As he had often done before But now the waves spoke back to him As he walked along the shore For eighty years plus seven He had been upon this earth And all of them but eight He'd spent on that ocean since his birth But he was not the only one Who walked along this coast There was a lady old and pale To some nearly a ghost She had once been a great beauty It was rumored in some bars When she'd left here many years before To become a movie star But every wish is not to be Ahh this in time she learned And when her final chance had passed Back here she had returned And everyday at six o'clock She came to a small cafe And had herself a glass of wine And then she'd walk away To others she was gray and old Not the beauty she'd been before But it did not matter what she was What mattered was what he saw And so for near three years now He'd watch her everyday And though they always were so close He felt so far away For he could never quite arrange The words inside his mind That he could say to make her stay And he was running out of time He could not find the words to say To such a work of dreams And so he watched her walk away And always stayed unseen
03 Turns to Me (06:01)
Stands all alone
Looks in the mirror
And sees what she wanted to be
Safely unknown
To anyone near her
She sees what she wanted to see
And turns to me
And turns to me
And turns to...
She was prophesied
For an early slide
Followed it to the letter
Well kept beauty queen
If there, always seen
Still you thought she'd know better
No erasing
The time you're wasting
But when you're wasting
You don't care
All those pieces
In short term leases
But when you need them
They're not there
For all those moments of yesterday
She's traded every tomorrow
And now all those moments are so far away
Ghosts haunt each word she would say
As she walks among the decay
She had Oscar Wilde's
Timeless sense of style
As had been her intention
Still she was afraid
Time must be repaid
And there'd be no redemption
Youth and time collide
She could not decide
On a certain direction
Time was catching up
Carefully made up
She avoided detection
For all those moments of yesterday
She's traded every tomorrow
And now all those moments are so far away
I saw it too
Closer than you
What else is there left to say
Wait for me now
I will be there for you
This I will vow
If you still want me to
But it won't be
This I have always known
And in the dark
There's no one to pray for me now
I don't understand what I'm feeling tonight
I don't understand but I'm waiting
Searching the shadows that fade in the light
But I'm feeling alive
Trying to survive
Float with the tide
Till you arrive and I....
04 Morning Sun (05:49)
(Oliva/O'Neill/Caffery)
When you look at the morning sun
Do you see what I see
Or could I be the only one
Seeing just what I need
I envision a different man
Than the one I've become
Pray the ocean will understand
That my time isn't done
Everyone's leading
But nobody's dancing
You stand on the stage
Just to turn all alone
I have waited this way
For a lifetime of days
I can't wait for the morning sun
As I stand with the sea
And the ocean she understands
Just the man I could be
Somewhere else there's a different world
With a sun that will rise
And a moon that will take its place
In another man's eyes
And perhaps it's a better world
Than the one that I see
Or if better for no one else
Perhaps better for me
Here in the dark where the sky shows its graces
Revealing each star while the moon plays the fool
Saying how it must be while the night disagrees
I can't wait for the morning sun
As I stand with the sea
And the ocean she understands
Just the man I could be
No, no, time doesn't wait for you
No, no, leave it alone
No, no, your days are far too few
This thing I have always known
When your time is up it's true
They never give another day to you
When your time is up it's through
No one cares how
Can't keep it
Can't save it
Can't take it away with you
So I say we use it now
06 Blackjack Guillotine (04:33)
Blackjack guillotine
Razor sharp
Always clean
Gotta lie
Very wide
Once inside she knows what to do
She knows what to do
Skin tight
China white
Just another neon life
In the vein
Leaves a stain
All the time you know that it's true
You know that its true
So tell me what you had in store
It doesn't matter anymore
It never did, it never will
But I'll be out there waiting still
You're moving fast but leaving tracks
A compromise to your attacks
There comes a time you want to take it back
Back
Back
Back
But can't think of nothing I
Can't think of nothing I
Can't think of nothing I
Lack
Junkie
Credit card
Gotta vein
Goes for yards
Hypnotised
You decide
Every neuron's changing its view
Changing its view
Gentlemen
Summarize
Every lie
Well disguised
Don't forget
Neuron death
In the mind awaiting its cue
Awaiting its cue
And so we found it very mod
The worshiping of lesser gods
And lie they do
For lie they must
For they know it's the lie we trust
And so we're out there laying tracks
Wherever there's a vein to pack
There comes a time you want to take it back
Back
Back
Back
Back
But I can't think of nothing
I can't think of nothing
I can't think of nothing
I lack
07 Paragons of Innocence (05:33)
Day
Into night
Into day
Into I don't know you anymore
But I stand
Where you say
Thinking all the time you planned it
You've been gone away too long
Leaving us to carry on
Though in truth you never tried
Just stepped back and watched the slide
Paragons of innocence
Questioning of your intent
Never quite sure what you meant
From the other side
Moments on the carousel
Must admit we ride it well
And the horses never tell
All throughout the ride
That no one leaves
No one leaves
No one leaves...
Alive
Time
On my hands
Slips away
Till I just don't feel it anymore
Thinking back
When I can
To the time when it began with
Bits of dreams all in a line
And somehow we missed the signs
That it all was never real
And in truth a fatal deal
Paragons of innocence
Questioning of your intent
Never quite sure what you meant
From the other side
Moments on the carousel
Must admit we ride it well
And the horses never tell
All throughout the ride
No one leaves
No one leaves
No one leaves...
Alive
There always comes a time
When you do what you want to do
You know you shouldn't do it
But you do it anyway
And when he had that time
When he knew what he wanted to
He quickly placed his order
Though he never thought he'd pay
But the lines turned to lies
And the lies turned to tangles
And you're pale as a cadaver
Though you think it doesn't show
So you live with the lies
And the friends that it gathers
But somewhere in your heart you know you
Got to let it
Got to let it
Go
Paragons of innocence
Questioning of your intent
Never quite sure what you meant
From the other side
Moments on the carousel
Must admit we ride it well
And the horses never tell
All throughout the ride
No one leaves
No one leaves
No one leaves...
Alive
Then the sailor picked a coat up
That had been laying there
And placed it over the body
And then he said a little prayer
And the ocean brought in on a wave
An old waterlogged wreath
And pushed it up along the sand
Till it touched the dead man's feet
And written on that wreath
In letters of gold foil
Was the name veronica guerin
But the letters were bent and soiled
The sailor said I see these flowers
That you so kindly gave
Are obviously from far away
And from another's grave
And I cannot help but to think
The sailor gently said
That it's unwise in god eyes
To steal flowers from the dead
The ocean said please trust me friend
This gift will cause no pain
And the person to whom they once belonged
Would surely say the same
You see this wreath was from the funeral
Of a woman who showed no fear
Of men who lived in mansions
Bought with other people's tears
Of men who lived in mansions
Bought with bits of others lives
Who at night still hugged their children
And brought gifts home to their wives
With money made from heroin
And packets of cocaine
And if a buyer overdosed
They never felt the pain
There were many flowers at her funeral
But none for this boy I fear
So the wind has blown this wreath to me
And I have brought it here
She gave her life to stop the spread
Of drugs among her kind
And if we leave these flowers for this boy
I'm sure she wouldn't mind
10 The Wake of Magellan (06:10)
As he stood upon the watch deck
Looking out onto the sea
It would offer no solutions
Only silent company
So he took hold of the reasons
As he tried to understand
But they offered just confusion
As they bled into his hands
Dear god
Couldn't you decide
What should happen to a man's assassins
Dear god
Is it suicide
I have never been a man of passions
I believe what the prophets said
That the oceans hold their dead
But at night when the waves are near
They whisper
And I hear
There are wounds that bleed inside us
There are wounds we never see
They are part of our refinements
That allow a man to be
There are wounds that bleed in silence
With aristocratic grace
There are tears we keep beside them
Never seen upon a face
Dear god
Do you think it's wise
To remember everything that's ever happened
Dear god
Could we compromise
Or must the shadows of this night be everlasting
I believe what the prophets said
That the oceans hold their dead
As I contemplate this stand
What I do
Is who I am
I believe what the prophets said
That the oceans hold their dead
But at night when the waves are near
They whisper
And I hear
Don't see the storms are forming
Don't see or heed the warning
Don't hear the sound of tyrants
Surrounded by the silence
Columbus and magellan and de gama
Sailed upon the ocean
In a world of ignorance
With thoughts so primitive
That men were killed
With no more will
Than that they simply had the notion
But in this world of heartless men
This thing they never did
Don't hear it
Don't hear it
Don't hear it
Don't hear it
Got to keep it underground
Pretend you never heard a sound
If they find it kill it blind it
If they find it kill it blind it
Lord tell me what is to be
Lord tell me what is to be
They whisper and I hear
11 Anymore (05:16)
(Oliva/O'Neill)
Don't want to walk upon the water
Don't want to look across the waves
Instead of seeing hills of water
I just see markers on their graves
But in the fading of a season
To look across an empty sky
For a forgotten childhood reason
To once more wish that you could
Close your eyes and just believe again
There's a God does he remember when
We were young and faith was not pretend
Anymore
Anymore
Anymore
Anymore
And in the night he sees the ocean
Carve its thoughts upon the shore
For in the way it was created
It can do this and nothing more
And every message it would leave him
The next wave carefully erased
As the tears that passed between them
Were so real that you could
Close your eyes and just believe again
There's a God does he remember when
We were young and faith was not pretend
Anymore
Anymore
Anymore
Anymore
And all at once the waves were getting higher
And as they crashed I thought I heard them say
There'd be a time when men would all be wiser
When everyone, everyone,
Yes everyone is
Saved
13 The Hourglass (08:05)
Standing alone by the edge of a river
He's traded his life for a glass full of tears
The bargain was quick for one's life is less dearer
When the sand's running out and the ending is near
The ending is near
The ending is near
The ending is...
The man climbed aboard and set sail for the ocean
He put on the mast all the canvas she'd take
Then laid himself down on the deck neath the tiller
The ship was his coffin this moment his wake
Runaway reasons
Runaway seasons
Time is a treason
That I give back to you now
The wind touched the sail and the ship
Moved the ocean
The wind from the storm set the course she would take
From a journey to nowhere towards a soul on the ocean
From the wake of Magellan to Magellan's wake
Runaway reasons
Runaway seasons
Everything in it
Hours and minutes
You take tomorrow
Because it means nothing
To me
To me
To...
In the dark he heard a whisper
Asking him to understand
In the desert look for water
On the ocean look for land
In the dark he heard a whisper
Asking him to understand
In the desert look for water
On the ocean look for land
And there in the waves
Was a man in his grave
That he saw in the night
'Tween the flashes of light
And he
Could not be there
And all he had prayed
Or had given away
He now found to be wrong
In the grip of the storm
And he
Could not be there
Could you keep our lives together
Safely back onto the shore
Could you grant this last illusion
Only this and nothing more
Could you keep our lives together
Safely back onto the shore
Could you grant this last illusion
Only this and nothing more
And all at once the heavens bled their fire
The anchor broke the chains they flew away
And suddenly the waves were reaching higher
And in the dark I thought I heard them say
Could you keep our lives together
Safely back onto the shore
Could you grant this last illusion
Only this and nothing more
But what the sailor did not know
And would never learn
Was on that beach now far away
The young child had returned
And finding the broken hourglass
He reset it upright
Then placed sand from the beach inside
And placed the lid on tight
Then examining his handiwork
He left it in the sand
And then he quickly ran back home
Thinking god would understand
Everything I ever had for one more tomorrow
Everything I ever had for just one more night
And if this is not to be I pray could I borrow
Just another final hour onto my life
Did you ever really want to
Did you ever really want to
Lord, tell me how it will be
Lord, tell me how it will be
Standing once more by a boat on a river
He pushes it off while he stays on the land
And seeing the hourglass now so much clearer
Which someone had refilled by hand
And somewhere that boat's now adrift on the
Ocean
The mast at full sail and there's no one on board
The hourglass no longer sits by the ocean
Only his footprints all alone on the shore
And soon they're no more
No more
No more
Now our story's nearly over
And we've reached the final scene
But we're sure that some have wondered
What had happened in-between
From the moment when the boy was saved
And their boat had reached the shore
Well, they talked about life and death
And perhaps a little more
The boy said he'd been a stowaway
Aboard the "maersk dubai"
When the captain had him thrown to the sea
And left him there to die
At this the old sailor had stood up
His face now filled with rage
And swore that he would never rest
Until that captain had been caged
But the boy implored the sailor
That he not say a word
Because he was an illegal immigrant
And as of recently he'd heard
That going to the authorities
Could often be unwise
When one's paper were illegal
The police just might not sympathize
So when they reached the harbor
With their journey at an end
He left the boy on another ship
Whose captain was a friend
And when he saw it pull to sea
And was once more all alone
He leaned against the tiller
And turned his ship back home
Eventually he reached that beach
He'd left the night before
Then stepped a last time from the boat
And waded to the shore
Then the old man picked the glass up
That he had left behind
And headed for the small cafe
For it was nearly time
And the ocean watched him leaving
To find his lady fair
And as he left he heard her last words
Drifting in the air
That every man
Is born you see
Beneath the sword
Damocles
For young and old
Are all alive
On that next beat
On which we ride
And that beat is such
A fragile thing
In both old men
Or youthful king
And that beat
Stands all alone you see
Between us
And black eternity
And until that time
When death won't wait
Let each man rage
Against his fate
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