JAPAN LIVE '94

Very good live album by this great band, but with a problem: it has too much songs of the record Handful of Rain. It's undestandable, because they were presentating this album, but some songs of Edge Of Thorns and some classics are missed.

Nevertheless, the sound is very clear, and the guitar's sound perfect. Alex Skolnick made some variations from the Criss Oliva's guitar solos and it made the songs a little different and interesting, because he doesn't limit himself to repeat the other's work. And this is the first record where we can hear Jeff Plate on drums, and Jon Oliva on rythm guitars!!!

High point: the great duet by Jon Oliva and Zachary Stevens of the song Gutter Ballet.

Low point: the Chance's choirs are very missed here...

One of my favrite bands ever relesed in 1994 a live album called simply Japan Live'94. I have this album since he hits the market in mid '90's, till than i was listen constantly never get bored or something alike. With this live they present the newest album, then, Handful of rain. Obviously Savatage has a very big fan base in Japan, one of the most important markets of music in the world so was clear thet the music was well recived both by the public and critics from this country. This is a great album with pieces from all the periods of Savatage, but as The Crow mention earlier some classics are missed. So the majority of the pieces are from Handful of rain, the best from this album here is Chance. Some othe great tunes that sounds very good live are Gutter ballet and Jesus saves. Their is a piece who was dedicated to Chris Oliva memory All That I Bleed - simply superb - Zachary Stevens has a super voice that fits very well in this kind of music. Aswell this is the first album where we see Jeff Plate on drums. So overall this is a great live album and desearve without question 4 stars, among the best from the '90's and the best band ever made. Recommended. And do not forget, i have a VHS casette with the same concert filmed , there the concert ends with the piece Hall of the mountain king who sounds extremly good live, i see here on this live album is missing, i wonder why??