Savatage-Lite
Review by Metallattorney. He is the law.
A couple of bands have formed over the last couple of decades from former members of Savatage. Of course there is the big one, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, featuring Jon Oliva, Al Pitrelli, and Chris Caffery, all of whom were major parts of the band. Then there is Circle II Circle and Jon Oliva's Pain. Circle II Circle was created when Zak Stevens, Savatage's singer that took over when Jon Oliva stepped away after the death of his brother, left the band. Stevens was the vocalist for most of the 1990's and was in the band when they started drifting toward the TSO sound.Stevens was not really my favorite singer that Savatage has had. Part of that is perhaps due to the fact that I generally liked the music better on the albums with Jon Oliva as vocalist. Stevens is a decent vocalist, he just never really clicked with me on the later era Savatage material. On this album though he sounds great. He has a powerful voice with a lot of character in it. He is definitely the best part of this album.
Doomsday: Doomsday
I discovered 
around 2006, when they were still a little-known band with a growing cult following. They had released 
of sci-fi themed progressive death metal in 1993, and disappeared for over a decade. They reunited and released the massively well-received 
. I would definitely change one of the albums that I put on my list of 
), stripped of any resemblance to metal whatsoever. And, let's not sugar-coat it, it sucked. When I heard that new EP Carbon-Based Anatomy wasn't particularly metal either, I was leery. But the cool album art made me optimistic. I can't say I'm disappointed.
I am pretty much the only metalhead who didn't like 
At the time of its release, nobody knew what to make of 
's 
. Highly technical, progressive death metal? Yes, that had been done before, but it was misunderstood when 
Sweden absolutely stormed the death metal scene in 1990, with the likes of 
is the quintessential Swe-death album: riffs over atmosphere, a crushingly heavy production, hoarse death growls, and that trademark buzzsaw guitar tone. There's a reason bands are still copying the sound today. The songs on the album are great enough to live up to the legendary sound as well, with memorable riffs and engaging skin-work. Plus, each track has a distinct solo style, from the more traditional to the 
Florida is usually cited as the birthplace of death metal. But California's 
. To be fair, they would have been dismissed as merely a very dark thrash metal band had the genre not expanded. Seven Churches sounds, essentially, like a thrash band who listened to a whole lot of 
(the band's fifth full-length) has the band performing death with intensity and ferocity equalled by few others. In terms of the clean production, the death grunts, the incessantly machinegunning drums, and the massively grooving riffs, they sound more like 
by accident, after seeing it and thinking, "I know there was a band with 'witch' in their name with a new album I wanted to check out." Call it a happy accident.
Black Witchery is a Floridian band that's sometimes been called "war metal", an ill-defined tag that generally means thrashy, ugly, unrelentingly aggressive black metal. The tag is appropriate. Every track on here is fast and aggressive; the title track is the slowest one on here, but even it couldn't be considered mid-paced. And the music is definitely ugly. Think early Norwegian black metal heard coming up from a crypt, with all the echo and deeper register you'd expect from the depths of the tomb. The vocals are a deeper version of a black metal rasp, along with the occasional inhuman gurgle, and all the instruments play a whole lot of notes, real fast.
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