Going through a lot of personnel changes can make a band's output very erratic -- in the '80s and '90s, Deep Purple and Black Sabbath went through so many personnel changes that you never knew if a new album would be decent, mediocre or quite forgettable.
But personnel changes haven't prevented Savatage from being impressively consistent.
In 1993, Savatage suffered a cruel blow when guitarist and founding member Criss Oliva was killed in a car crash.
But the band bounced back nicely with Handful of Rain, which was the first album it recorded after Criss' death and found him being replaced by former Testament guitarist Alex Skolnick.
With a lineup consisting of Skolnick, singer Zachary Stevens, bassist Johnny Lee Middleton and drummer Steve Wacholz, Savatage delivers an album that is melodic, ambitious, often operatic and consistently absorbing.
Jon Oliva, who had co-founded Savatage with brother Criss back in 1978, is listed as a co-producer and a keyboardist, but not as an actual member.
The songs are dramatic, passionate and intense, but they're also quite melodic -- in fact, melody and aggression are equally important on this excellent album.
Appropriately, Savatage dedicated Handful of Rain to Criss' memory.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Taunting CobrasJon Oliva | Savatage | Play | 03:22 | 7 MB | 23 MB |
| 2 | Handful of RainJon Oliva | Savatage | Play | 05:24 | 12 MB | 33 MB |
| 3 | ChancePaul O'Neill, Jon Oliva | Savatage | Play | 07:49 | 17 MB | 48 MB |
| 4 | Stare into the SunJon Oliva | Savatage | Play | 04:42 | 10 MB | 30 MB |
| 5 | Castles BurningJon Oliva | Savatage | Play | 04:38 | 10 MB | 29 MB |
| 6 | VisionsCriss Oliva, Jon Oliva | Savatage | Play | 01:25 | 3 MB | 8 MB |
| 7 | Watching You FallJon Oliva | Savatage | Play | 05:20 | 12 MB | 32 MB |
| 8 | SymmetryJon Oliva | Savatage | Play | 05:03 | 11 MB | 34 MB |
| 9 | Alone You BreatheJon Oliva | Savatage | Play | 07:30 | 17 MB | 47 MB |
| 10 | Nothing's Going On | Savatage | Play | 04:08 | 9 MB | 30 MB |
| 11 | Alone You Breathe (Acoustic Version) | Savatage | Play | 04:39 | 10 MB | 18 MB |
| 54 mins | 123 MB | |||||
| 54 mins | 338 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eric Altenburger | Design |
| 2 | Brian Benscotter | Assistant, Assistant Engineer |
| 3 | Howard Helm | Engineer |
| 4 | Steve Heritage | Assistant Engineer |
| 5 | Bob Kinkel | Engineer |
| 6 | Jeff McDonald | Assistant Engineer |
| 7 | Johnny Lee Middleton | Bass |
| 8 | James Morris | Engineer |
| 9 | Tom Morris | Engineer |
| 10 | Criss Oliva | Composer |
| 11 | Jon Oliva | Composer, Keyboards, Producer |
| 12 | Paul O'Neill | Composer, Producer |
| 13 | Judd Packer | Engineer |
| 14 | Mark Prator | Engineer |
| 15 | Savatage | Primary Artist |
| 16 | Alex Skolnick | Guitar |
| 17 | Gary Smith | Cover Art |
| 18 | Zachary Stevens | Vocals |
| 19 | Andy VanDette | Mastering |
| 20 | Steve Wacholz | Drums |
| 21 | Dave Wehner | Assistant |
| 22 | Dave Weiner | Assistant Engineer |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| CD Quality | FLAC | 16bit 44.1kHz | FLAC is an audio coding format which uses lossless compression. Digital audio in FLAC format has a smaller size and retains the same quality of the original Compact Disc (CD). |