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I hadn't checked out Savatage's Power of the Night or Fight for the Rock until recent times. Ok, I'm not new to the scene, but yours truly humbly has his downs (after all, I'm just a reviewer… what did you expect?). They were not albums with a relevant fame, and since most of the fans speak the shit out of them, I stayed away, safe and clean in my true metal tower. But I somewhat felt curious about this godforsaken stuff, so I decided to give them a try. Well, Power of the Night has been the first one to be dissected and the first impression was not awful. The opener is endowed with smooth guitar work and a nice verse, and the pounding chorus crowns the song. I realized a cleaner sound in comparison with the rawer previous material of the band, so the too friendly sound of drums does nothing to strengthen the heavy side of the music (hmmm... perhaps intentionally?). Also the guitars have lost a huge presence in the mix, sounding too dry. Well, all in all the music itself meant a promising start, but then the rest of this album falls into a meandering bout where we can find fast short songs where the aggressive side of Savatage shines more or less competently, mid tempos close to be shameful and even a pseudo-glam number, “Hard for Your Love,” a brilliantly clumsy and cheesy exercise that fits 0% in the style of the band. Anyone into Mötley Crue, Ratt or 80's Kiss could enjoy that tune, sure. The band seems with no heading at all throughout the recording. “Unusual” can clearly stand as one of the worst Savatage songs ever with no discussion, with a tremendously MTV third division lame chorus . “She's unusual… so unusual…”… argh, it sticks into your brain like a hungry leech so you make a mental note to push the “skip” button the next time the second track of this album starts. Lyrics seem to be out of place, as you may have wondered. There is no depth in the songmaking, there is no will to make something really astonishing, songs flow and flow without reaching the listener's soul, from the void to the void. Here and there, yes, of course, some interesting things happen, the quality arises, a note, a guitar lick, a vocal line. However, the overall sensations left are below expectations after their two previous releases. The band jumped on the wagon of cheesy keyboards to appeal to the masses, while the hard guitar oriented passages were uninspired and boring most of the time. Anyone into good heavy metal could miss this one with no remorse. [This review is of the 2002 re-release.]
| Tracklist |
| 1. Power Of The Night |
| 2. Unusual |
| 3. Warriors |
| 4. Necrophilia |
| 5. Washed Out |
| 6. Hard For Love |
| 7. Fountain Of Youth |
| 8. Skull Session |
| 9. Stuck On You |
| 10. In The Dream |
| 11. Power Of The Night (Live) |
| 12. Sirens (Live) |
: 46:48
| Buy other Savatage albums |
