SATAVAGE – Madness Reigns From The Gutter (Album Review)

Savatage is one of those rare bands that has had more than one classic lineup, and in their case, the first of them was mostly in place by the time 1986’s misguided Fight For the Rock dropped. While their previous album, Power of the Night, was a far more commercial and radio-friendly affair than the two albums that preceded it, their debut with powerhouse bassist Johnny Lee Middleton was a poorly thought-out and poorly executed continuation in that direction.

The album also performed poorly, so Savatage decided to confer with veteran producer Paul O’Neill, under whose guidance the band reinvented themselves as a quasi-progressive – and quite aggressive – metal band on the following year’s excellent Hall of the Mountain King. The songwriting was both epic and concise, the performances absolute fire, and the response rabid. A muddy mix and an embarrassing music video for the title track notwithstanding, it was clear that Savatage had found their voice. All they needed to do next was hit the gas, which they began doing by bringing Jersey kid Chris Caffery into the fold for the following tour.

What followed was nothing short of Savatage’s creative peak. Under O’Neill’s guidance, the band began exploring their more theatrical tendencies without betraying their metal roots, and Gutter Ballet strikes the perfect balance between heaviness and opulence. It certainly didn’t hurt that the band effortlessly infused epics like “Gutter Ballet” and ballads like “When the Crowds Are Gone” into their infamously crushing concerts without sacrificing an ounce of that heaviness. Savatage’s 1989-1990 era would come to be regarded by diehards as the band’s live and creative peak, and later live albums from this era stand as compelling evidence in support of this argument even all these decades later.

This is why Madness Reigns From the Gutter is such a welcome album. Not only does it do a damn fine job capturing a band my inner teenager still regards as fucking magical, it also offers a rare glimpse into the band during that curious transitional period between their shamelessly metallic roots and the dive into Broadway metal that would define much of their later output.

Disclosure: Savatage was my favorite band by a significant margin for most of my teenage years, and while with the benefit of hindsight I have many criticisms, my adoration for this band – and this era in particular – has never wavered. I must also confess to a fascination with bands in their transitional phases, Damaged Justice-era Metallica and Marillion’s early Hogarth years, for example.

Madness Reigns From the Gutter could only outdo its outstanding peek into a phase I was too young to enjoy in the moment (I was an eleven-year old synthpop kid when this tour took place) with an accompanying DVD, for which I’m damn near certain the video footage simply does not exist. What a damn shame. I’ve previously written – and I stand by this a good quarter-century later – that Ghost in the Ruins/ Final Bell ranks right up there with Iron Maiden’s legendary Live After Death, and full concert footage of either of these Savatage live albums are among the very few things I’d sit down and watch today.

The time: June 29, 1990. The place: The Palace, near the corner of Vine and Hollywood in sunny El Lay. The tour: in support of Gutter Ballet. And the reason for recording the show: a live radio broadcast of the set, presumably on Z-Rock or KNAC. The band wastes no time in getting things nice and heavy – set opener “City Beneath the Surface” allows madman Jon Oliva to greet his adoring fans with a jovial “Hi! Welcome to hell!” only to follow with a song about freaking cocaine, another about terrorism and nuclear annihilation, and still another about a really horny young woman.

As expected, the band is fucking lit throughout – the Elder Oliva screeches like a damn banshee and dominates the audience with the humor and aplomb only the most charismatic front-men command, while Middleton holds down the fort in conjunction with the inimitable Dr Killdrums (whose performances must be seen to be believed – I only learned that by seeing him play at Progpower USA in 2004). The addition of Caffery on both rhythm guitar and the occasional keyboard allows the Younger Oliva, the irreplaceable Criss, to really let loose on lead guitar. The man possessed a flair for the dramatic that matched the dynamics his band flaunted, and to this day I remain unconvinced that even the most advanced guitarists of the current neo-shred era would have been able to carry Savatage to the heights they attained during their time with him.

Criss was of a rare breed, a shredder who wasn’t showy, a blistering soloist who remained humble enough to allow the song dictate to him. The Younger Oliva didn’t merely play guitar – he sang with it, and his playing shines through as a singular, intangible voice that no other player before or since has been able to approach, regardless of their proficiency. To hear the Younger Oliva solo is to hear a soul baring itself. There’s no feeling like it, and being able to hear it on Madness Reigns From the Gutter is a goddamn privilege.

Which raises my one complaint about the mix: why isn’t the Younger Oliva’s guitar just a hair louder in the mix? It goes without saying that the target demographic for this release regards Criss as one of the finest of his craft. While the mix is outstanding in every other way – Middleton’s bass is especially prominent but by no means overpowering – the latent guitarist in me aches to hear the Oliva I’ll never see perform wail away in all his glory. At several moments during this absolutely stellar performance – during “Crowds,” for example, where Criss is absolutely weeping with his fingertips, or “Hounds,” where he’s running for dear life – I find myself absolutely bleeding to more clearly be reminded why Criss is still my favorite guitarist of all time, over thirty-three years after first hearing him.

I must state, though, that despite this single but considerable gripe, it is not only refreshing to hear classics like “24 Hours Ago” and “Strange Wings”  presented with production worthy of the material, it’s also an absolute delight to hear a band at their creative and performative apex captured with such formidable fidelity. If this is the closest I’ll ever come to witnessing this iteration of Savatage at this particular stage in their career, I’ll f*cking take it.

Side note: “Crowds” is also noteworthy for the additional work Criss lays down over Jon’s final, inconsolable verse (“I wasted my time until time wasted me”), where what surely started as licks improvised in the rehearsal room meant to heighten the tension of that famously despondent lament are heard evolving into what would become the harmony solo on “Believe,” the closing cut of the following year’s Streets. I’ll never forget Jon’s surprise when I asked him about that when I interviewed him in advance of the US release of Ghost in the Ruins. “Holy sh*t!” he exclaimed. “I can’t believe you noticed that!”

Another highlight is the aforementioned “Hounds,” which I regard as one of the finest moments in Savatage’s storied career, where the final lick of one of Criss’s finest solos is extended for what seems like an unnerving eternity in order to simulate the terror of said hounds actually hunting you down. “Strange Wings,” which in a just world would have propelled Savatage to stadium status, and the absolutely essential “Gutter Ballet” are both duly served with the fervor they demand, the latter in a mostly unbroken spate of all but one (you already know which one) of their title tracks up to that point, after which we are treated to an unexpected performance of “Thorazine Shuffle,” where Middleton transposes to his instrument what on the studio recording had been a subtly eerie acoustic guitar melody to disquieting effect. Backing tracks? Pfft. Not for these dudes.

Madness Reigns From the Gutter then wraps up with Mountain King’s closing cut,“Devastation,” which turns out to be not just an apt conclusion for this set, but for this era. Caffery would soon leave the band as they proceeded to go full Broadway for Streets, which turned out to be laudable effort and a fitting capstone to the Jon Oliva era of the band, though in retrospect I personally think they went a bit too far. But I digress. What matters is that as excellent a document of this era as Ghost in the Ruins was, Madness Reigns From the Gutter exceeds it in all regards.

Release Date: June 19th, 2026
Record Label: earMUSIC
Genre: Heavy Metal

Musicians:

• Jon Oliva / Vocals, keyboards
• Criss Oliva / Guitars
• Steve Wacholz / Drums
• Johnny Lee Middleton / Bass
• Chris Caffery / Guitars

Madness Reigns From The Gutter Track-list:

1. City Beneath the Surface
2. White Witch
3. Of Rage and War
4. She’s in Love
5. Mentally Yours
6. 24 Hours Ago
7. Legions
8. Strange Wings
9. Hounds
10. Temptation Revelation
11. When the Crowds Are Gone
12. The Dungeons Are Calling
13. Holocaust
14. Sirens
15. Power of the Night
16. Hall of the Mountain King
17. Gutter Ballet
18. Thorazine Shuffle
19. Devastation

Order the album here.