Savatage - Chance
Jun. 21st, 2009 10:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ellyssianNo real video here, just the album cover and the song...
Chance
is from the 1994 album Handful of Rain
, a couple of years ago before the band recorded their first Trans-Siberian Orchestra
side-project album.
Although I've heard of a few references to Jon Oliva, who founded the band with his brother Criss (Wikipedia), as the "Jim Steinman of metal", that could equally apply to then-manager Paul O'Neill, who took on more of a songwriting role as the band went on, and, with TSO, became a driving force of the band itself. In any case, this tune bears a heavy debt to Jim.
The highlight of the tune is the layered vocals towards the end... several different vocal melodies begin independently, and then are stacked one on another to reach the climax of the tune. This technique ~ used in many throughout TSO's recordings ~ featured prominently on at least one tune from every Savatage album that followed this, including One Child
from the 1995 concept album about the Bosnian War, Dead Winter Dead
(the album that really kick-started TSO: Christmas Eve (Sarajevo 12/24)
became a hit from them, and was lifted directly from the Savatage album about love and war and dropped into a Kissmas disc about love and redemption) and the title track
from 1998's The Wake of Magellan
.
Sang this withaequitaslevitas yesterday evening on the road to Philadelphia, and thought it would make a good Father's Day soundtrack...
Chance
is from the 1994 album Handful of Rain, a couple of years ago before the band recorded their first Trans-Siberian Orchestra side-project album.Although I've heard of a few references to Jon Oliva, who founded the band with his brother Criss (Wikipedia), as the "Jim Steinman of metal", that could equally apply to then-manager Paul O'Neill, who took on more of a songwriting role as the band went on, and, with TSO, became a driving force of the band itself. In any case, this tune bears a heavy debt to Jim.
The highlight of the tune is the layered vocals towards the end... several different vocal melodies begin independently, and then are stacked one on another to reach the climax of the tune. This technique ~ used in many throughout TSO's recordings ~ featured prominently on at least one tune from every Savatage album that followed this, including One Child
from the 1995 concept album about the Bosnian War, Dead Winter Dead (the album that really kick-started TSO: Christmas Eve (Sarajevo 12/24) became a hit from them, and was lifted directly from the Savatage album about love and war and dropped into a Kissmas disc about love and redemption) and the title track from 1998's The Wake of Magellan.Sang this with
aequitaslevitas yesterday evening on the road to Philadelphia, and thought it would make a good Father's Day soundtrack...