| Dead Winter Dead | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | October 24, 1995 | |||
| Recorded | June–August 1995 | |||
| Studio | Soundtrack Studios and Studio 900, New York City | |||
| Genre | Progressive metal, symphonic metal | |||
| Length | 52:06 | |||
| Label | Atlantic (US) Concrete/Edel (Germany) Zero Corporation (Japan) | |||
| Producer | Paul O'Neill, Jon Oliva | |||
| Savatage chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Dead Winter Dead | ||||
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Dead Winter Dead is the ninth studio album by the American heavy metal band Savatage, released in 1995. It is a concept album, that tells a story from the perspectives of a Serb boy, a Bosniak girl and an old man. The story of the album is set during the Bosnian War, which was ongoing at the time.[2]
Dead Winter Dead marked the first Savatage album to feature guitarist Chris Caffery, who had been an occasional and touring member of the band since 1987, but had become an official permanent member by the time the album was recorded. Alex Skolnick, who had played guitars on Savatage's previous album Handful of Rain, opted not to stay around for the next album in order to concentrate on his solo band. Singer Jon Oliva took drummer Jeff Plate from the Handful of Rain tour, and brought in his old friend Caffery, former member and Doctor Butcher member to join the band. Atlantic Records also felt that the band needed a second, more well-known guitarist to complete the line-up. Al Pitrelli, formerly a member of Alice Cooper's touring band, became the co-lead guitarist for the band.[2]
This record gave the band an unexpected radio hit in "Christmas Eve (Sarajevo 12/24)", and the band decided they wanted to explore this kind of music in a different way. Around this time, Paul O'Neill, along with Robert Kinkel, was interested in starting up what became the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. It was later re-released by TSO as "Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 1994" on their first release, Christmas Eve and Other Stories.
The track "Mozart and Madness" quotes directly from the opening theme of Mozart's Symphony No. 25, and was re-recorded as "Mozart and Memories" as released on the later TSO album "Night Castle"; whilst "Memory" quotes directly from the fourth movement of Beethoven's 9th symphony ("Ode to Joy").
- ^ One Child (CD single sleeve). Savatage. Hamburg, Germany: Concrete Records. 1996. 0086715CTR.
{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link) - ^ a b "Savatage FAQ, Section 2 - The Albums, Part 2". Savatage.com. Archived from the original on October 29, 2013. Retrieved May 16, 2008.