CHRISTMAS EVE & OTHER STORIES

OK, "Christmas Eve & Other Stories" is a good album... But a good "christmas music" album. So this is not an album for everyone, and of course, not vor every moment... But if you enjoy the best christmas music, surely you will find excellent moments here.

Trans-Siberian Orchestra is the parallel band of Savatage. All the Savatage members are palying here, but with a lot of collaborators too. But the mastermind of this project is Paul O'Neill, the Savatage's producer... He and Jon Oliva are the main composers of the music here, along with Bob Kinkell, a very important man in Savatage too. The lyrics and the story, of course, are written by O'Neill.

So this album is mainly Christmas music... But this is not all that you will find here, because like every Trans-Siberian Orchestra record, there's a lot of classical music adaptations too. The Silent Nutcracker, for example, is a fine Tchaikovsky's adaptation. Another tracks, like First Snow and A Mad Russian's Christmas, are in more Savatage vein, more rocker and with good electric guitars works... And this album is full of sweet ballads too, with the typical Jon Oliva's piano playing and structure. If you like the Savatage's ballads, maybe you will also find some good moments with the ballads of this album too... But in my opinion, the quality never reaches de Savatage's high levels. Except, of course, Christmas Eve-Savajevo 12/24, wich is exactly the same song included in the Savatage album from 1995 "Dead Winter Dead".

The great problem with this album, is its difficulty to be enjoyed everytime you listen to... Maybe in Christmas time this is the best musical support you can expect, but in the rest of the year, is a little anoying to hear this album, it sounds totally out of place, except some tracks... But this is something that happens with every Christmas album, I think.

Conclusion: very original mixture between hard rock/metal and Christmas music. But like every Christmas album, it's only to be enjoyed in some moments, this is not the kind of music you can hear everyday without feeling a little annoyed... With some great exceptions like First Snow, A Mad Russian's Christmas and Christmas Eve. And of course, I think the Savatage's die-hard fans will also find enough good moments here to not feeling sorry of purchasing this album...