Savatage (support: Vision Divine)
Tuesday, July 28, 2026
Este (Padua) / Castello Carrarese / Italy
“Zoran Stevanović on vocals”
A fine little crew gathered south of the Ikea in Padua: two old hands from this very online rock-metal mag, the gray musical eminence of state media, and a longtime gig buddy from a rival portal. The mission? The remains of the second most underrated band in rock/metal of all time. But let’s take it nice and slow.
So you’re a neoclassical metal guitarist named Carlo Andrea, you’re in the new sensation of the power metal scene, you’ve got an album out that redefined that very scene, a bright future awaits, the new record is about to drop, and then you realize your artistic soul is one of a kind. So you poach a few members of the existing band, add the former singer of that same band, put out a record with identical music to the old band, and run a parallel career. And you end up as the support act for Savatage in the Carrarese castle on a hot summer night in the year of our Lord 2026.
Vision Divine played and sang their set at the highest possible level, considering the lopsided sound, the light of the late afternoon hours and the (dis)interest of the crowd on hand. The otherworldly vocals of Michele Luppi, the neoclassical runs of the crazy guitarist with the oh-so-original stage name Olaf Thoersen (the aforementioned Carlo Andrea), and the confident musical foundation laid down by the rest of the axe-wielders and the canned choirs kept us glued in front of the stage of a still half-empty pit. We got to witness first-rate melodic power metal exhibitionism, which sadly got lost in the oversized venue, the overheated pit and the relative blandness of the compositions. Technical execution 10, overall impression 6. Setlist below, bravo to Vision Divine.
Vision Divine – setlist:
1. A Clockwork Reverie
2. The Secret of Life
3. 18 (It Feels like Heaven)
4. God Is Dead
5. Versions of the Same
7. Identities
8. La vita fugge
Savatage. One of “those” bands from my metal upbringing. The unlucky Oliva brothers. Ups and downs, then the restructuring into Trans Siberian Orchestra, which gives all of today’s members and associated people from Savatage more than a comfortable living. How much today’s lineup is still Savatage is a question that needs no answer.
I’m one of those people for whom the real Savatage ended with the album Edge of Thorns (1993) and the death of guitar wizard Criss Oliva. That’s why I always resisted the idea of going to gigs in the early 2000s, when all sorts of characters were walking through the band’s revolving door and the group was pushing, for reasons unknown to me, the celebrated albums Dead Winter Dead (1995) and the insanely boring The Wake of Magellan (1997).
Anyway, I followed the setlists from the first tour after more than 20 years of live inactivity (apart from the Wacken appearance in 2015) and noticed a move away from the pattern mentioned above. There was no dilemma: the grounds of the little Carrarese castle in the small town of Este and a standalone Savatage show would happen with me in the crowd. And thank the metal gods for that!
You can check the song list below, and first up we got a performance of Warriors from the album Power of the Night (1985) with Chris Caffery on vocals. The biggest treat came a bit later with All That I Bleed from the aforementioned Edge of Thorns. They played that track only once on the current tour.
My biggest worry before the gig was the Speaker of the National Assembly, Zoran Stevanović … oh wait, Zak Stevens, who always annoyed me on the albums with half-tone fumbling and too much imitating of Jon’s vocal style. But the years have done those vocal cords good. The tenor has slid into baritone, and I have absolutely nothing to reproach in the performance in Este. The whole band works in perfect harmony, backed by two keyboardists who also handle backing vocals, which adds to the quality of the live delivery.
The rhythmic foundation is the work of drummer Jeff Plate, who’s been officially with the band since the album Dead Winter Dead , and Johnny Lee Middleton on bass, the longest-serving member. On guitars we have the master Al Pitrelli and Chris Caffery, who’s been around since the album Hall of the Mountain King (1987), but with Criss Oliva dominating the guitars never got the chance to be an official member.
Chris tries their hardest to keep Criss’s atypical riffing and tone alive, and consequently also takes the lion’s share of the solos on stage, which somewhat surprisingly pushes Pitrelli into the role of rhythm guitarist. The setlist was excellent, though it’s a bit odd that from the album Gutter Ballet (1990) only the title track got a spot.
For the first time in my long gig-going career I experienced the combination of a mid-sized metal band and the megalomaniac production of the big acts. The sound was insanely massive, the animations on the big screens high-quality and meaningful, the lights and the band’s tightness truly first-rate stuff. I have to praise singer Zak once more, who ruled the stage and the crowd with confident stage presence and rock-solid vocals. Of course, like all gentlemen of a certain age, the back gives a bit of trouble, so at times I got the feeling I was watching Ozzy. Communication with the crowd was kept to the bare minimum, but when the music is doing the talking, that stuff is unnecessary.
A touching video clip of original singer and main songwriter Jon Oliva, singing the emotional opening part of the ballad Believe to piano accompaniment, warmed up the crowd even more. Jon is, due to countless health problems, not in a condition suitable for the strain of touring.
Crazy band, crazy atmosphere, crazy sound, crazy venue.
Personal highlights: the animations during Chance, All That I Bleed, Sirens, Strange Wings, Believe and of course the composition that defines the very core of Savatage – Hall of the Mountain King!!!
Savatage – setlist:
1. Morphine Child (instrumental intro)
2. Dead Winter Dead
3. Jesus Saves
4. Taunting Cobras
5. Tonight He Grins Again
6. Lights Out
7. Handful of Rain
8. Chance
9. Temptation Revelation
10. Prelude to Madness
11. Warriors
12. Sirens
13. Miles Away
14. Strange Wings
15. This Is the Time (1990)
16. Power of the Night
17. All That I Bleed
18. Unusual
19. The Hourglass
20. Believe
21. Gutter Ballet
22. Edge of Thorns
—encore—
23. Hall of the Mountain King
Author: Igorac
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
