Power of the Night 1985

"Savatage have always explored the three-way transition zone between traditional metal, progressive metal and power metal and helped define the latter two types of metal.

This particular release belongs mostly to the traditional metal category, although there are a couple if signs of things to come every now and then. I think it's a pretty good traditional metal album, which does seem a quite inspired by the likes of Judas Priest, but with a heavier twist due to Criss Oliva's somewhat aggressive and heavy riffs and Jon Oliva's raspy singing and, of course, his trademark screams.

While firmly placed in the realms of traditional heavy metal without really taking in elements from any of the other metal subgenres that were developing at the time, this album is still quite varied and contains both ballady tracks like 'In the Dream', aggressive uptempo tracks like 'Washed Out' and quasi-sleazy hardrock tracks like 'Hard for for Love' as well as heavier tracks like 'Unusual'.

If you love guitar riffage, this album is definitely worth checking out, as every track is teeming with solid Criss Olive riffs - just check out the opening riffs of 'Power of the Night' and 'Necrophilia', the verse and pre-chorus riffs of 'Unusual', and the intro and verse riffs of 'Skull Session', as well as the darkly groovy main riff of 'Stuck on You'.

There a no weak tracks as such on this release, but some are, of course, better than others, and any fan of traditional metal should certainly check this album out - it is a very enjoyable listen with a slightly dark take on good old heavy metal.

(review originally posted at metalmusicarchives.com)"