The last album from his solo project started strong, then fizzled completely. While it was nice to see Oliva participate in his fourth recorded project, it would have been better if he hadn't have used it for just an archival dump. On this album, the band is finally playing together and musically, there are touches of Savatage, the abruptly-shortened Doctor Butcher and even bits of TSO, which is more or less what everyone was expecting all along. Oliva himself has said that this album is what the next Savatage album "would have sounded like" and that he clearly has no interest in resuming operations there. Even if this was a bad album, it would be all Sava-fans had.
However, it is anything but a bad album. The guitar work on this album comes to the front, reminiscent of much of Savatage's Hall Of The Mountain King album. In fact, if there is any one album from Savatage that this disc echoes, it is that one, from the leadoff song, Through The Eyes Of The King to yet another reference to the "white witch" in Push It To The Limit. Much of this is also reminiscent of Streets, with Oliva's innumerable references to Jesus and being saved. It is definitely not Christian metal – far too gritty for that – but there is a conscious effort by Oliva to push his belief agenda. In a way, this is inconsistent with much of the song material lyrically and certainly with the artwork, which features a haunted angel on the front cover, whose wings are caught on fire by the back cover. Oliva is seemingly obsessed with being haunted and/or possessed and this informs much, if not all, of what he does musically lately.
The production here is fine as ever and the band is clearly highly motivated in their playing. Seemingly, they are gifted with the knowledge that this band is their best shot in the music world and they are trying to bleed it for every ounce of opportunity it has. JOP really works well with Oliva, playing off of him in spots, yet always seeming like their own unit musically and not a clone of any of Oliva's previous bands. Oliva's voice is still, amazingly, in fine form, something that is near-astounding. Oddly, he seems to have largely given up playing an instrument, though, as there are now five supporting players.
As mentioned, the booklet cover art and back cover are nothing short of genius. The packaging is excellent, with full lyrics and most of the credits intact. There is also a lead-in story by Oliva himself for many of the songs, however, the exact same blurb is recycled for a few different songs, which is a bit annoying. More annoying is the idea of printing one booklet for both this release and the limited edition release. Seeing lyrics to songs that do not exist on the CD you have just purchased is ultra-irritating and quite frankly a dick move on the part of the band or label. It's all in the details and this mars an otherwise perfect booklet...
The 411: Time has seemingly passed Jon Oliva by and his window of stardom opportunity seemingly
closed. Savatage seems no more, TSO is now a viable commercial entity and little else, Doctor Butcher remains on the shelf and JOP, formerly a short-term project, is now his musical outlet. Oliva still continues to make great and inventive music, but unfortunately, the people who cared, few to begin with, are vanishing more and more. One of the greatest unsung musicians of a generation, doggedly marching forward, a full decade and a half out of step. If you're into quality, check here, even if you have to expend a bit of energy searching this out. It's worth it, particularly for the Sava-faithful.
