It took a while: more than 30 years after founding the legendary Savatage, Jon Oliva presents his first ever solo album. Having released albums with Savatage first and Jon Oliva’s Pain later, this first Oliva solo album was about to become different: Raise The Curtain combines Jon’s early music influences of Prog Rock/70’s with the sound he cultivated with Savatage and Jon Oliva’s Pain. The result is a high-class, thrilling musical journey, something all lovers from (Prog) Rock to Metal shouldn’t miss.
“After the passing of my dear friend Matt LaPorte I felt very confused about the future of Jon Oliva’s Pain”, Oliva speaks out.“A week or so after Matt’s service, I was speaking to my friend Dan Fasciano about what I wanted to do. He suggested that I come by his home where he has a full studio and we just hang out and record whatever I had that I wanted to demo. Unknown to me at the time, Dan also had tons of unfinished music that he wanted to do something with. It was very strange because he had tons of stuff and so did I. I don’t remember how we actually started writing together but it just happened.
Then it became almost like a competition. I would show up at his house at 9am and we just started combining what we both had and somehow it was magic. He would say on the phone I hope you got something because I do. We recorded over 60 songs in a very short period of time. I was amazed at the fact that his music and mine were very similar and easy to join together. I knew that this CD was going to be different and I wanted to play as much of it myself as I could. This was something I had to do for me and for Criss.
Dan and Chris Kinder’s (Jon Oliva’s Pain drummer) help was crucial to this CD coming out the way it did. The work of Tom and Jim Morris and Wayne Le’fleur, was also crucial.
The fact that this is the last of Criss’s music (who died 20 years ago in a car accident), makes me sad but I’m also happy that I got all his music out to the fans because that’s what he would have wanted. Everyone who pushed me to do this album: I thank you, your support is crucial to me. I so much loved recording this CD and I got to fulfill my deepest musical fantasy. At the same time I got the rest of the Criss’s music out. It was a labor of love, I’m very proud of thank you all for listening.”
Raise The Curtain will be released as a CD (first edition comes as Digipak) and strictly limited double-vinyl edition in gatefold sleeve (800 copies worldwide only).
9 Responses
Jon oliva and savatage is my UFO Eddie! I literally just got thru listening to raise the curtain (entire album) like 10 straight times!! Absolutely unbelievable!! He is the John Lennon of opera metal! I’m surprised this format of music isn’t copied by 1000’s of bands! Only thing is I hope Jon does something done about his physique. My father had Lapband surgery 10 years ago and he claims easily the best thing he ever did. Did John by chance mention any plans to you about that . He’s so talented it would be a huge bummer if his health failed. Rock on
Had Jon on my SiriusXM show a couple weeks ago, seemed to be doing well but have not seen him in a long time
Thanks Eddie for giving some attention to the great Oliva brothers, so many of us Metalheads loved thrashing, but Savatage was the soul of metal world, even their harshest critics were impacted by their powerful lyrics, haunting melodies, and of course the presence of loss and pain in life…
Jon wrote it best, “In the dark, it’s easier to see.”