Savatage

About

Also known as: Avatar, Metropolis

Few bands have cast a longer shadow relative to their commercial profile than Savatage. The group formed in Tarpon Springs, Florida, with brothers Jon and Criss Oliva at the core, and through the 1980s and beyond they forged a sound that blended power metal and progressive metal with classical hard rock and symphonic textures. Albums like Hall of the Mountain King from 1987 and Streets: A Rock Opera from 1991 are now considered cornerstones of metal history, theatrical and emotionally dense in ways that influenced a whole generation of bands. The death of guitarist Criss Oliva in 1993 was a turning point the band somehow survived and transcended. Dead Winter Dead from 1995, a concept record that pushed their rock theatre vision to its furthest point, is regarded as one of their finest hours. That album's ambitions fed directly into the creation of Trans Siberian Orchestra, a project grown from Savatage's own ranks. After years of silence, Savatage returned in 2015 with a joint show alongside TSO at Wacken Open Air, playing to a crowd of 80,000.