Jon Oliva’s Pain

The Savatage mastermind brings his fourth album into the world carrying the banner of his latest band Jon Oliva’s Pain. The cd carries a dark artwork where people are invited to come and play in a wicked festival. It is an album that is inspired by dreams Jon Oliva had, just like more of his latest work. What will this new album bring for us?

The album starts very melodic and catchy with a nice heavy metal intro which is followed up by a hard guitar riff that is just as catchy. Lies is a great song that opens with diverse riffs. In Death Rides A Black Horse Jon has put a very catchy chorus, well just the same words as the title. This would be a great song to play live for sure. The songs are pretty heavy and it becomes dark with the title track Festival. In the intro of the song you will hear the very known sound of an amusement park.

After the intro there comes in a heavy guitar riff that later plays a catchy melodic riff over it. Of course the whole is supported by some nice steady drum work. The drums do have an important role in the music, because without it, it would loose power for sure. It seems to be all straight forward, right in your face, but that is not entirely true. Afterglow is the most suitable example for that, because this song contains in the end a piece of jazz music. More of these surprises can be found through the entire album. Each time you will put it up, you can discover something else, just like a good movie.

With the song Living On The Edge the band turns down a bit and he will show that calm music is great as well. The intro has clean vocals, but after a minute and a half Jon returns to his rough voice again. The song has a switch between clean and rough vocals. Looking For Nothing is a break of the album. It is a ballad, fully with clean vocals and after the song the album starts getting rough again, with a few steps to get calmer, like the first half of the album.

The most special song is the last one, which is a song Jon wrote together with his brother Chris. I can hear you think, didn’t his brother die in a car accident, how can they write a song together? It is an old song, so simple, but the song is full emotion, set by the instruments, piano (violins?) and by Jon’s voice. It is not just words being sung, but it’s a whole happening.

The album is a surprise full of surprises. It contains a good balance between every song and it is noticeable that this was made with emotion, experience and talent. It might not speak to everybody, because it is always a matter of taste. But the diversity of the album, within and between the songs, makes this album worth having.

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