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Trollheart · 06-02-2011, 05:54 PM

The wake of Magellan --- Savatage --- 1997 (Atlantic)

Savatage started life as a standard metal band, but after vocalist Jon Oliva saw “The Phantom of the Opera” he decided to change the band's direction towards a more progressive feel, and albums like “Gutter ballet” and “Streets: A Rock Opera” reflect this. Recorded in 1997, “The wake of Magellan” turned out to be their penultimate album, as a few years previous they had formed the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, which has proved so popular and successful that they are now concentrating on that project, and no new Savatage albums have been released since 2001's “Poets and madmen”.

A concept album, TWoM is based on two real-life events, and basically follows the journey of a Spanish sailor who has decided to end his life by sailing out to sea and sinking his ship. On the way though he encounters a man adrift in the ocean, this being apparently a reference to the three castaways thrown overboard by the captain of the Maersk Dubai in 1996. Doing his utmost to save the man and take him back to shore, the sailor is left with a new appreciation for life. The album also loosely includes the tragic story of Irish journalist Veronica Guerin, who battled to expose the criminal drug lords in Irish society and was killed by them as a consequence, but whose work opened the floodgates for these people to be brought to justice and properly tackled by the authorities.

Opening with a piano instrumental, “The ocean”, the power soon kicks in as the band launch into “Welcome”, virtually a second intro in its own right, with its almost “Pinball Wizard”-esque intro, guitars crashing like breakers on the shore as the song takes wing. It's a short song, just over two minutes, and thunders into “Turns to me”, which starts slowly but builds into a monster of a track, six minutes long and the first “epic” on the album. The vocal power of Zachary Stevens, who would leave the band after this album, are given full vent on this song, and the keyboards of Jon Oliva squeal and keep pace while the pounding drums of Jeff Plate paint a background against which the song gallops along. The central theme of the album surfaces in “Turns to me”, and will return in other tracks, subtly altered, giving the true “concept album” feel. The track goes through changes itself, moving from power rocker to introspective passages, through guitar solos and back into power mode as it thunders towards its conclusion. The solo by Chris Caffrey/ Al Pitrelli on axe duties takes the song to its end, as it fades and “Morning sun” begins.

This too is a song shaped by changes, as it begins easily, with acoustic guitar and a calm vocal suddenly grabbed by the throat as Plate's drums hammer out the beat and the guitars rev up and Stevens growls “I can't wait for the morning sun/ As I stand with the sea/ And the ocean she understands/ Just the man I could be.” This is another long song, just short of six minutes, with again another great guitar solo halfway through, and something of an axe duel between the two guitarists; indeed it ends on a guitar solo, kicking into “Another way”, recalling Metallica at their best, as Jon Oliva takes over lead vocals, on perhaps one of the heaviest tracks on the album, heavy in a Led Zep/Dio way: crunching, grinding, Oliva growling the vocals in sharp contrast to the more melodic voice of Stevens. Definite echoes of Jimmy Page's “Come with me” in part of the melody.

Things continue heavy, and turn sort of Thin Lizzy-ish (circa “Thunder and lightning”) for “Blackjack Guillotine”, before Oliva again takes over on vocals for one of the standout tracks, “Paragons of innocence”, which begins with a “Tubular Bells” intro on the piano, which keeps up behind the grinding guitars and thumping drums, with Oliva singing “Paragons of innocence/ Questioning of your intent/ Never quite sure what you meant/ From the other side / Moments on the carousel/ Must admit we ride it well/ And the horses never tell/ That no-one leaves alive.” Apparently the new Pendragon album features (gasp!) a rap, but here Savatage do it so much better, and almost 15 years earlier as Oliva rattles off without taking a breath: “There always comes a time/ When you do what you want to do/ You know you shouldn't do it/ But you do it anyway/ And when he had that time/ When he knew what he wanted to/Hequickly placed his order/ Though he never thought he'd pay/ But the lines turned to lies/ And the lies turned to tangles/ And you're pale as a cadaver/ Though you think it doesn't show/ So you live with the lies/ And the friends that it gathers /But somewhere in your heart you know you/ Got to let it /Got to let it go.”

The instrumental “Underture” recalls the central theme of the album begun on “Welcome” and “Turns to me”, with at times Queen-esque guitar, while the last instrumental passage, “The Storm”, is quite amazing in its versatility, but it's the title track that steals pride of place on the album, another six-minute monster, tracing the evolution of the theme of the album, essentially covering the whole journey of the central character in one track, as Stevens cries “I believe what the prophets said/ That the oceans hold their dead/ But at night when the waves are near/ They whisper and I hear.”

The longest track on the album is also the last. Clocking in at a massive eight minutes and five seconds, it brings everything back full circle as the sailor, having rescued the drowning stowaway, leaves his ship and walks along the shoreline, contemplating life and no longer thinking of suicide. He recalls his journey: “The wind touched the sail/ And the ship moved the ocean/ The wind from the storm set the course she would take/ From a journey to nowhere towards a soul on the ocean/ From the wake of Magellan/ To Magellan's wake.” --- to his sudden realisation that he wants to live: MUST live, in order to save this man, and his desperate plea to God --- “Could you keep our lives together/ Safely back onto the shore/ Could you grant this last ilusion/ Only this and nothing more?” --- till he is safely back on land with his rescued friend --- and so to the closing lines of the song, and the album, and the resolution of the story.

“Standing once more by a boat on the river/ He pushes it off while he stays on the land/ And seeing the hourglass now so much clearer/ Which someone had refilled by hand/ And somewhere that boat's now adrift on the ocean/ The mast at full sail and there's no-one on board/ The hourglass no longer sits by the ocean/ Only his footprints all alone on the shore/ And soon they're no more.”

It's a rare and difficult thing for an established heavy metal band to make the transition to progressive metal, or rock, though some claim the quintessential metal band, Iron Maiden, are doing just that. However, here I believe Savatage got it just right. The album is still heavy, with great melodies, vocal harmonies and screeching guitar solos, yet deep, thoughtful lyrics and contemplative piano work which all goes together to make this a truly excellent effort, and well worth listening to. At some point, I'll review an album by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, to compare the two as it were incarnations of the band, but for now, this stands as a testament to their expertise.

TRACKLISTING

1. The ocean
2. Welcome
3. Turns to me
4. Morning sun
5. Another way
6. Blackjack guillotine
7. Paragons of innocence
8. Complaint in the system (Veronica Guerin)
9. Underture
10. The wake of Magellan
11. Anymore
12. The storm
13. The hourglass

06-02-2011, 05:54 PM	#21 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,970	The wake of Magellan --- Savatage --- 1997 (Atlantic) Savatage started life as a standard metal band, but after vocalist Jon Oliva saw “The Phantom of the Opera” he decided to change the band's direction towards a more progressive feel, and albums like “Gutter ballet” and “Streets: A Rock Opera” reflect this. Recorded in 1997, “The wake of Magellan” turned out to be their penultimate album, as a few years previous they had formed the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, which has proved so popular and successful that they are now concentrating on that project, and no new Savatage albums have been released since 2001's “Poets and madmen”. A concept album, TWoM is based on two real-life events, and basically follows the journey of a Spanish sailor who has decided to end his life by sailing out to sea and sinking his ship. On the way though he encounters a man adrift in the ocean, this being apparently a reference to the three castaways thrown overboard by the captain of the Maersk Dubai in 1996. Doing his utmost to save the man and take him back to shore, the sailor is left with a new appreciation for life. The album also loosely includes the tragic story of Irish journalist Veronica Guerin, who battled to expose the criminal drug lords in Irish society and was killed by them as a consequence, but whose work opened the floodgates for these people to be brought to justice and properly tackled by the authorities. Opening with a piano instrumental, “The ocean”, the power soon kicks in as the band launch into “Welcome”, virtually a second intro in its own right, with its almost “Pinball Wizard”-esque intro, guitars crashing like breakers on the shore as the song takes wing. It's a short song, just over two minutes, and thunders into “Turns to me”, which starts slowly but builds into a monster of a track, six minutes long and the first “epic” on the album. The vocal power of Zachary Stevens, who would leave the band after this album, are given full vent on this song, and the keyboards of Jon Oliva squeal and keep pace while the pounding drums of Jeff Plate paint a background against which the song gallops along. The central theme of the album surfaces in “Turns to me”, and will return in other tracks, subtly altered, giving the true “concept album” feel. The track goes through changes itself, moving from power rocker to introspective passages, through guitar solos and back into power mode as it thunders towards its conclusion. The solo by Chris Caffrey/ Al Pitrelli on axe duties takes the song to its end, as it fades and “Morning sun” begins. This too is a song shaped by changes, as it begins easily, with acoustic guitar and a calm vocal suddenly grabbed by the throat as Plate's drums hammer out the beat and the guitars rev up and Stevens growls “I can't wait for the morning sun/ As I stand with the sea/ And the ocean she understands/ Just the man I could be.” This is another long song, just short of six minutes, with again another great guitar solo halfway through, and something of an axe duel between the two guitarists; indeed it ends on a guitar solo, kicking into “Another way”, recalling Metallica at their best, as Jon Oliva takes over lead vocals, on perhaps one of the heaviest tracks on the album, heavy in a Led Zep/Dio way: crunching, grinding, Oliva growling the vocals in sharp contrast to the more melodic voice of Stevens. Definite echoes of Jimmy Page's “Come with me” in part of the melody. Things continue heavy, and turn sort of Thin Lizzy-ish (circa “Thunder and lightning”) for “Blackjack Guillotine”, before Oliva again takes over on vocals for one of the standout tracks, “Paragons of innocence”, which begins with a “Tubular Bells” intro on the piano, which keeps up behind the grinding guitars and thumping drums, with Oliva singing “Paragons of innocence/ Questioning of your intent/ Never quite sure what you meant/ From the other side / Moments on the carousel/ Must admit we ride it well/ And the horses never tell/ That no-one leaves alive.” Apparently the new Pendragon album features (gasp!) a rap, but here Savatage do it so much better, and almost 15 years earlier as Oliva rattles off without taking a breath: “There always comes a time/ When you do what you want to do/ You know you shouldn't do it/ But you do it anyway/ And when he had that time/ When he knew what he wanted to/Hequickly placed his order/ Though he never thought he'd pay/ But the lines turned to lies/ And the lies turned to tangles/ And you're pale as a cadaver/ Though you think it doesn't show/ So you live with the lies/ And the friends that it gathers /But somewhere in your heart you know you/ Got to let it /Got to let it go.” The instrumental “Underture” recalls the central theme of the album begun on “Welcome” and “Turns to me”, with at times Queen-esque guitar, while the last instrumental passage, “The Storm”, is quite amazing in its versatility, but it's the title track that steals pride of place on the album, another six-minute monster, tracing the evolution of the theme of the album, essentially covering the whole journey of the central character in one track, as Stevens cries “I believe what the prophets said/ That the oceans hold their dead/ But at night when the waves are near/ They whisper and I hear.” The longest track on the album is also the last. Clocking in at a massive eight minutes and five seconds, it brings everything back full circle as the sailor, having rescued the drowning stowaway, leaves his ship and walks along the shoreline, contemplating life and no longer thinking of suicide. He recalls his journey: “The wind touched the sail/ And the ship moved the ocean/ The wind from the storm set the course she would take/ From a journey to nowhere towards a soul on the ocean/ From the wake of Magellan/ To Magellan's wake.” --- to his sudden realisation that he wants to live: MUST live, in order to save this man, and his desperate plea to God --- “Could you keep our lives together/ Safely back onto the shore/ Could you grant this last ilusion/ Only this and nothing more?” --- till he is safely back on land with his rescued friend --- and so to the closing lines of the song, and the album, and the resolution of the story. “Standing once more by a boat on the river/ He pushes it off while he stays on the land/ And seeing the hourglass now so much clearer/ Which someone had refilled by hand/ And somewhere that boat's now adrift on the ocean/ The mast at full sail and there's no-one on board/ The hourglass no longer sits by the ocean/ Only his footprints all alone on the shore/ And soon they're no more.” It's a rare and difficult thing for an established heavy metal band to make the transition to progressive metal, or rock, though some claim the quintessential metal band, Iron Maiden, are doing just that. However, here I believe Savatage got it just right. The album is still heavy, with great melodies, vocal harmonies and screeching guitar solos, yet deep, thoughtful lyrics and contemplative piano work which all goes together to make this a truly excellent effort, and well worth listening to. At some point, I'll review an album by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, to compare the two as it were incarnations of the band, but for now, this stands as a testament to their expertise. TRACKLISTING 1. The ocean 2. Welcome 3. Turns to me 4. Morning sun 5. Another way 6. Blackjack guillotine 7. Paragons of innocence 8. Complaint in the system (Veronica Guerin) 9. Underture 10. The wake of Magellan 11. Anymore 12. The storm 13. The hourglass __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018 Last edited by Trollheart; 11-04-2011 at 10:29 AM.