Power of the night

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Power of the night
Studio album by Savatage

Publication
(s)

1985

Label (s) Atlantic Records

Format (s)

CD, LP

Genre (s)

Power metal

Title (number)

10

running time

38 min 43 s

occupation
  • Keith Collins - bass

production

Max Norman

chronology
The Dungeons Are Calling
(EP, 1984) 		Power of the night Fight for the Rock
(album, 1986)

Power of the Night is the second studio album by the metal band Savatage . It was released on May 20, 1985 via Atlantic Records and was the final album with bassist Keith Collins.

Emergence

Before the album was recorded, the band switched to Atlantic Records . The production was taken care of by none other than Max Norman , who became known through his collaboration with Ozzy Osbourne and Megadeth , among others . A lot has changed for the young band: They recorded an album outside of Florida for the first time . The album was recorded at Todd Rundgren's Bearsville Studios in Bearsville, New York , west of Woodstock in Ulster County . The studio was isolated on a mountain. The album was recorded live and later completed with solo passages and vocal tracks. Ken Lonas was also there as an assistant technician.

All in all, the recordings, including preproduction, took three months. The musicians enjoyed taking their time and experimented. For example, a burning plastic bag, whose dissolving noises were reproduced backwards for the opening sequence by Warriors , managed to be immortalized on a sound carrier. In January 1985, Max Norman put the finishing touches to the recordings. The “aggressive mix” of Normans, who got the most out of guitars and vocals, was joined by a tragic, but fortunate circumstance for the sound of the drums. Steve Wacholz had lost his father shortly before and was emotionally charged, which was expressed in tears on the one hand in In the Dream and on the other hand as anger in most of the pieces. The band was not satisfied with the bass recordings, so Criss Oliva had done almost half of it herself and the days for Keith Collins were numbered. Power of the Night was already available in the USA at the end of March 1985.

Track list

  1. Power of the Night - 5:12
  2. Unusual - 4:23
  3. Warriors - 4:00
  4. Necrophilia - 3:35
  5. Washed Out - 2:13
  6. Hard for Love - 3:57
  7. Fountain of Youth - 4:28
  8. Skull Session - 3:18
  9. Stuck on You - 3:06
  10. In the Dream - 4:10

There are now four versions of the CD to buy. In 1997 Edel SE released a new edition of the album with a bonus song . In 2002 there was also a release of SPV with two bonus songs and in 2011 a new release of earMusic with two other bonus songs.

1997 Edel SE bonus:

  1. Sleep (Piano Version) - 4:16

2002 SPV bonus:

  1. Power of the Night (live) - 4:51
  2. Sirens (live) - 3:02

2011 earMusic Bonus:

  1. City beneath the Surface (live) - 5:01 (recorded April 22, 1990 in Dallas )
  2. Hounds (live) - 7:20 am (recorded June 29, 1990 at Hollywood Palace (now Avalon Hollywood))

Song info

Power of the Night : It's about the heavy metal lifestyle.

Unusual : This song had been invented by Criss and Jon Oliva for a long time. It's about a dream that Jon Oliva had about witches.

Warriors : The theme of the song is the film The Warriors (1979) by Walter Hill . Since the song is suitable for a pit, it was originally planned under the title The Pit .

Washed Out : The band wanted a fast song on every album and that was why Criss Oliva completed it. Jon Oliva had written the song but couldn't finish writing it. It's about going out in New York, going crazy and feeling worn out afterwards.

Hard for Love : It's about sex. According to Jon Olivas, an attempt to create a radio song. The record company wanted the song title and some phrases to be swapped to make it suitable for the radio. The band refused and the song never got big on the radio.

In The Dream : Jon Oliva wrote this song for his wife, Kathy.

Cover

On the cover you can see a hand in silver-gold armor that has just broken through a solid glass. The photograph was taken by Andy Unangst. The original CD design comes from Bob Defrin.

Reception history

Timely reception

In the Metal Hammer "10 power songs" were written, of which Power of the Night , Washed Out , Skull Session and Stuck on You are particularly suitable for testing. Despite the catchiness and combination of Judas Priest , Dio and Manowar recipes for success, they are above any commercial reproach.

Later reception

In the blast off! from January 1990 Power of the Night was regarded as a good, but measured against Sirens or Hall of the Mountain King recognizable to the expectations of the major label Atlantic oriented album. Matthias Breusch, on the other hand, wrote in the ranking “Record Mania. The 300 best Hard'n'Heavy records of all time "( Rock Hard , January 2002) about the album, which ended up at number 47 and thus behind Gutter Ballet and Hall of the Mountain King :" Power of the Night is that for my taste By far the strongest Heavy Metal work of the Mittachtiger. ”It was“ raw and unvarnished ”, wise“ loud bass drums, crazy vocals with crazy screeching edges, fantastic riffs and guitar leads with an incomparably milling, heavy sound ”, the song structures were inventive and melodious. Andreas Schöwe ​​described the album in March 2001 in the Metal Hammer as original. It has sometimes been mentioned in the same breath as Gutter Ballet , Hall of the Mountain King (and partly Streets ). But this equality was denied to him.

A retrospective appreciation can also be found in the book US Metal Vol. 1 published by the Iron Pages editorial team in 1996 . There it is said that the major deal did not result in a reduction in severity; on the contrary, the company "rather picked up the pace and nothing that Savatage had made before" has been lost. The ingredients listed are Jon Oliva's voice color, the typical guitar playing style with its "original [n] riffs" and the nickname "Dr. Killdrum "" Killdrums "called drum presence, which together would result in" the set to music Power Metal paradise ", consisting of" ten Power Metal classics ", including the prominent Power of the Night , Warriors and Skull Session .

For Matthias Breusch, who worked for Metal Hammer at the time, the title song stood in the first February 1990 issue on an equal footing with the other hymn-like title pieces such as Sirens , Hall of the Mountain King and Gutter Ballet . One issue later he put it on top of the others. Rock-Hard boss Holger Stratmann called the same song in January 1992 "brilliant".

Today's reception

In the booklet of the 2011 issue of earMusic, Jon Oliva says: “Power of the Night was a very important album for us. It made us known around the world and is still one of my favorites. ”Quoted.

Jim Gordon published reviews of all albums on the Savatage homepage. Commenting on Power of the Night , he wrote: “It's strange that all Savatage fans have a strong opinion or connection with all of the group's albums. For example, everyone would say: The Dungeons Are Calling is the hard album, Hall of the Mountain King is the breakthrough album, Fight for the Rock is the sell out album, Dead Winter Dead is the orchestral album, and so on. Well, what does that make of Power of the Night ? Not an easy question. Although it's a solid album, it's hard to tell in what context of the band's history the first Savatage album for Atlantic Records is. Although the album doesn't contain any of the well-known 'real classics' that are wanted at concerts, it is a solid metal album. "

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Matthias Breusch: Savatage. ... and still the Orchestra plays . In: Rock Hard (=  Rock Hard Legends ). No. 108 , May 1996, Un-Olivable !, p. I ff . (Booklet in booklet).
  2. ↑ a b c d Charly Rinne: SAvatage. Power of the night . In: Metal Hammer . October 1985, p. 22nd f .
  3. ^ Metal Harry: Savatage. "Power of the Night" . In: Metal Hammer . June 1985, p. 66 .
  4. ↑ Savatage. From the gutter to the throne! In: Blast Off! January 1990, Pix'n'News, p. 9 .
  5. ^ Matthias Breusch: 74th Savatage. Power of the night . In: Rock Hard . No. 176 , Jan 2002, Record Mania. The 300 best Hard'n'Heavy discs of all time, p. 54 .
  6. ^ Andreas Schöwe: Savatage. Poets and Madmen . In: Metal Hammer . March 2001, album of the month, p. 84 .
  7. ^ Matthias Breusch: Savatage. Poets and Madmen . In: Rock Hard . No. 166 , March 2001, plusminus, p. 93 .
  8. ^ Tim [Hoffmann]: Savatage. Celestial underground . In: Iron Pages . The World City Mag. No. 30 May 1994, pp. 38 f .
  9. ^ Andreas Schöwe: Savatage. Far from the end! In: Metal Hammer . February 2002, let's be honest ..., p. 30th ff .
  10. ↑ Chris Glaub: Savatage. The streets of New York . In: Break Out . The Heavy Rock Magazine. November 1991, p. 26th f .
  11. ^ Matthias Mader, Otger Jeske, Arno Hofmann et al .: US Metal Vol. 1 (=  Iron Pages ). 1st edition. IP Verlag, Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-931624-01-3 , Savatage / Avatar, p. 140 ff .
  12. ^ Matthias Breusch: Savatage. Gutter Ballet . In: Metal Hammer / Crash . No. 3/1990 , February 2, 1990, Best of All, pp. 26 .
  13. ^ Matthias Breusch: Savatage. Heart & Soul of Power Metal . In: Metal Hammer / Crash . No. 4/1990 , February 16, 1990, pp. 12 f .
  14. ↑ Holger Stratmann: Savatage, Vicious Rumors. Herford, Rock Heaven . In: Rock Hard . No. 57 , Jan 1992, Live Reviews, pp. 96 .
  15. ↑ CD Design earMusic version from 2011
  16. ↑ Power of the Night on the band's website (Engl.)

Web links