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› Jon Oliva’s Pain – Global Warming
Out Now
Despite the recent news that Savatage has permanently been put on hold (read; disbanded), Jon Oliva has been spending most of his time with Trans-Siberian Orchestra, singing Christmas carols until you throw a very confused Al Pitrelli/Alex Skolnick into centre stage to play a solo. Aside from that, there’s Pain, his band for non-Christmas related shenanigans. It’s fair to say we weren’t exactly bowled over by ‘Tage Mahal’ (2002) and ‘Maniacal Renderings’ (2006), even though it was closer to the Savatage sound than TSO ever have been. Until this year, when ‘Global Warming’ pops along.
First and foremost, this is the best album that’s borne the Oliva name since ‘Handful Of Rain’ back in 1994. It sounds aggressively Savatage, and there’s probably a bunch of fanboys Photoshopping the ‘tage logo onto the album cover as I type this. The opener doesn’t do much to lead me to this conclusion, with the decidedly groovy Hammond organ floating over the song. It all gets down and dirty straight after that, however, with ‘Before I Hang’ and ‘Master’ all contributing to the classic sound that Oliva has trademarked for the last 25 years, with the bellowing chorus on ‘Stories’ adding more to the proceedings.
What do you call a ballad that isn’t about a girl? A dirge? In any case, ‘Firefly’ continues the album in a stirling manner, with a sad song sounding almost optimistic and triumphant, with ‘The Ride’ adding to this as well as supplying it’s own stilted guitar riff refrain that’s been part of Criss (posthumous writing credits) Oliva’s style of play since the very beginning. We just get hit with anthem after anthem, and I’m left wondering why Pain has taken a backseat to TSO, when it’s clear Oliva’s creativity is expressed so much more fervently when he’s not bound by the falling of snow.
Despite not liking the afore mentioned ‘Maniacal Renderings’ that much, ‘Global Warming’ is cracker, guaranteed to heat you up (sorry, a review without a pun is like a fat kid without a bucket of chicken).
8/10
Alex
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