The Classic Metal Show, heard weekly from 9p-3a EST on Saturdays at www.theclassicmetalshow.com, recently spoke with SAVATAGE/TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA/JON OLIVA'S PAIN vocalist Jon Oliva about their new album entitled Maniacal Renderings. During the discussion, Oliva revealed that many pieces of the songs that make up Maniacal Renderings feature musical compositions written by his brother, the late Savatage guitarist Criss Oliva. During the discussion, Oliva revealed how he recently stumbled across more than 40 cassette tapes of musical compositions from his brother, and how they were (and will be in the future) incorporated into his work. Here is an excerpt from that discussion.

The Classic Metal Show: You mentioned that some of the songs on Maniacal Renderings feature some unreleased music from your brother Criss (Oliva – late of Savatage). Which songs?

Oliva: "Well, the title track, 'Maniacal Renderings'. There’s a couple riffs of his in there. The main song that he’s got the most music in is a song called 'Timeless Flight', which happens to be my favorite on the album. The whole middle section of that song, when it comes in from this piano thing, is something that I found on an old cassette that he had recorded on an acoustic guitar. On the record, I transposed it and played it on the piano. The whole middle section of that song, the solo section and the whole tinkly stuff on piano was stuff that he had done on an acoustic guitar and that we had never used before for Savatage for some reason. I don’t know why. So I found it, and I just had to change the key. I just, kind of, inserted it into the song in the middle, and it just worked. It was like magic. It was really strange, and kind of creepy, but in a good way. It was like it was just meant to be. That also happened on another song, called 'The Evil Beside You', where there’s a chorus riff that was a riff of Criss’ that was just stuck in between pieces of a song called 'Skraggy’s Tomb' that he wrote for the Edge Of Thorns album. There was just something else, and this little riff was in the middle. He just played it one time, like he was just messing around. I found it, and I was like, 'wow, we never used that.' So I grabbed that, and I tried to figure out…you know…I’m just trying to keep him a part of what I do and stuff. It was kind of cool because he was kind of like an invisible band member. He contributed parts on five or six songs, and there’s many more to come because I’ve got about 40 cassette tapes that I found in an old shoebox that my wife had packed away. In a big box when moving, we pulled this box out and she brought it into me. She goes, 'is this important?' It was a shoebox taped closed, and it was full of writing cassettes. That’s how Criss and I used to write. We would trade cassettes. He would finish my songs, and I would finish his. These were just a whole collection of things that I’ve had since 1983, all the way up until the year he passed away. It was very magical how they just kind of appeared, but it really brought a great vibe to the record. The excitement level was really, like, 'Wow! We really have Criss Oliva music to add into this, and it’s amazing!' The fans are going to love this, and it’s very exciting.

To hear the interview in it’s entirety, visit this location.

The Classic Metal Show for Saturday, February 3rd will be hosted by the members of METAL CHURCH.