Handful of Rain
| Handful of Rain | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by Savatage | ||||
|
Publication |
1994 |
|||
| Label (s) |
Atlantic Records WEA Records (D) |
|||
|
Format (s) |
CD, LP |
|||
|
Title (number) |
10 |
|||
|
running time |
49 min 26 s |
|||
| occupation |
|
|||
|
Paul O'Neill , Jon Oliva |
||||
|
||||
Handful of Rain is a music album released in 1994 by the American band Savatage . It is the band's first album without their guitarist Criss Oliva, who died in a car accident in 1993 .
Emergence
After the tour for the album Edge of Thorns in 1993, guitarist Criss Oliva had a fatal accident on October 17, 1993 when his car collided head-on with the car of a ghost driver who was under alcohol . As a result of this accident, many contemporaries saw the end of the band, as Jon Oliva , the former singer, was not an official band member on the previous album and the band no longer included any original members. Manager Paul O'Neill and Jon Oliva decided to continue the band and write new songs in memory of the deceased. Oliva and O'Neill rented in Ashley Plaza Hotel in Tampa ( Florida ) one because it was Oliva important to be his brother near the death site, and worked there on new material, which in the local Morrisound was taken studios . The first song recorded was Alone You Breathe , which Jon Oliva dedicated to the memory of his brother.
In addition to piano and keyboard, Oliva played all the rhythm guitars, bass and drums, as the other band members were in the dark about the status of the band and no new guitarist was known. Alex Skolnick was brought to Savatage by the band Testament at relatively short notice , he recorded the lead guitar parts for the album and after the recordings went on tour with the band. Before the end of the recording, singer Zachary “Zak” Stevens returned and was available for vocal recordings. Curiously, the drummer Steve "Doc" Wacholz had already announced his departure from the band after the previous tour; on the album, however, he was named as a drummer. Only before the next tour did the band find a new musician in Jeff Plate.
The album was finally released in August 1994 via Atlantic Records . A longer tour with Plate and Skolnick followed; in addition, Jon Oliva returned to the band on rhythm guitar. The live album and video Japan Live '94 was created on the tour .
Track list
- Taunting Cobras - 3:21
- Handful of Rain - 5:25
- Chance - 7:50
- Stare Into the Sun - 4:43
- Castles Burning - 4:39
- Visions - 1:25
- Watching You Fall - 5:20 am
- Nothing's Going On - 4:09
- Symmetry - 5:04
- Alone You Breathe - 7:30
All songs were written by Paul O'Neill and Jon Oliva. The total playing time is 49 minutes and 26 seconds.
In 1995 Chance was also released as an EP ; The following sound carriers were included on this CD:
- Chance (Edit) - 4:50
- Nothing Going On - 4:07
- Sirens (rehearsal room recording) - 3:32
- Conversation Piece (rehearsal room recording) - 4:19
- Chance (full version) - 7:48
Tracks 3 and 4 were recorded live in the band's rehearsal room on September 29, 1994.
In 2002 SPV re- released the album; The bonuses included an acoustic version of Alone You Breathe , a radio edit by Chance and a booklet that went into detail about the background of the work and was written by Clay Marshall.
The re-release from 2011 includes bonus tracks Summer's Rain and Believe as acoustic versions.
Meaning of some songs
- Chance is a very expansive long song that is heavily dominated by the orchestral sounds created with keyboards. In its structure and arrangement with a polyphonic vocal part laid out as a canon , it is reminiscent of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody . Lyrically, the song is about the Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara , who in 1940 enabled thousands of Jews to leave Lithuania for Japan and thus saved them from being attacked by the Germans. According to Paul O'Neill, the title of the song came about because Sugihara saw the "chance" to do the right thing.
- Castles Burning is about Giovanni Falcone , who worked as a public prosecutor in Italy against the Mafia and was killed in a bomb attack in 1992.
- Stare Into the Sun is about the 1992 Los Angeles riots .
- Watching You Fall addresses - in anticipation of the follow-up album Dead Winter Dead - the media processing of the Bosnian War .
- Symmetry is inspired by Kurt Cobain 's suicide . The phrase Poets and Madmen used in the text later became the album title for the band.
- Visions is an instrumental that builds on chance . Curiously, it is already the second piece of music with this name that the band recorded. In 1984 a song on " The Dungeons Are Calling " had this title.
- Alone You Breathe , which as already mentioned is dedicated to Criss Oliva, quotes the refrain of the song "Believe" from the album Streets - A Rock Opera .
reception
The album was well received in the immediate record review, but quality losses compared to the previous works were identified, which is often attributed to the lack of Criss Oliva. In Rock Hard , the editor Matthias Breusch justified this with exaggerated expectations and praised the album:
“Certainly one or the other of the soundcheckers set the bar a bit high, even if the partially disappointed reactions are a little understandable, because the band has undoubtedly changed. Nevertheless, the new album could have sounded like this or similar, even with the influence of Criss, because it clearly represents a continuation of the course favored on “ Streets ” and “ Edge of Thorns ”. […] Despite all the criticism, a successful album, not least , because Alex Skolnick's high-quality game represents the immortal riff master Criss in a dignified manner. "
In retrospect, "Handful of Rain" was seen as a final tribute to the previously cultivated style of music:
“Amazingly, on their ninth studio album, Savatage moved further away from the proto-power metal of the fantastic ' Hall of the Mountain King ' of '86 through all the hardships and tribulations . The album also begins with the thunderous riffing of “Taunting Cobras”, which led many to suspect that the old [Savatage] would have returned. [...] Savatage's last metal album before the band got into concepts, theatrics and prog is still a remarkable album considering the circumstances of its recording. Worth to be heard from time to time. "
In the progressive rock webzine Baby Blue Pages , the album is stylistically brought closer to Dream Theater :
“Even by Savatage standards, the album“ Handful of Rain ”[…] turned out to be very hard. In some places the guitar is reminiscent of the Zakk Wylde contributions on Derek Sherinian's solo records . [...] the rather bombastic orchestral "Chance" and the short, heavily keyboard-heavy "Visions" could also interest dream theater hardliners. "
swell
- ↑ Savatage: The Albums, Part II , FAQ on the band's homepage, accessed on April 29, 2009
Web links
- Reviews of Handful of Rain on the Babyblauen Seiten
- Handful of Rain on the band's homepage (English)
- Review of Rock Hard (German)
- Review of the Metal Observer (German)