By Carl Begai

One of the big metal events of 2015 was the highly anticipated Savatage reunion show at the world renowned Wacken Open Air. Many fans were sceptical of the band’s return to the stage when the buzz first started, however, as Savatage’s sister-act the Trans-SiberianOrchestra had absorbed the band members on its rise to arena rock mega-fame following Savatage’s Poets And Madmen tour in 2002. It was TSO’s continuing success as one of the highest grossing annual tours in North America that had presumably stalled any further output from the Savatage camp and effectively put them on hiatus. The press discovered over the course of 2015 that a Savatage reunion at Wacken was very much a reality in the making, with band members sworn to secrecy by management during press engagements for their own projects; it affected guitarist Chris Caffery and Circle II Circle vocalist Zak Stevens in particular, as they both had new albums come out in 2015.

“That was right up to the day of the show,” says Stevens. “You know how management is; everything has to be top secret (laughs). We really felt is was that way right up until we hit the stage. It was crazy, yeah, but everyone did a pretty good job. The consensus among some people is that we could have done better, we could have taken it more seriously. I think we had a little bit of a chip on our shoulder because we’re older, we did the rehearsals and figured out that we’re a lot better now than we were back in ’97 when we played the main stage at Wacken. And everybody in the band fell in love again. That was fantastic because it was clear that everybody missed it.”

“We had this really aggressive plan to hit the two stages at once, using fiber optic technology so we wouldn’t have any signal loss, and we brought all the pyro that we use in a season with two companies in TSO and blow it all off on one night… without trying to blow anybody up (laughs). We had one pyro meeting before the show and you would have loved that. You would have laughed your ass off because it was like ‘Okay everybody, gather round. We’ve got all this pyro from the TSO tours, we’re going to blow it all up tonight, these are the places you don’t want to stand…’ They asked how many people on stage were new to pyro and about 40% raised their hands. I raised my hand because I’ve never been involved with that kind of pyro (laughs). Because I’m a frontman and one of the elder statesman they pulled me aside and said ‘Look, definitely don’t stand here, here, here and here…’ (laughs).”

In the end nobody was maimed or killed, and whether fans liked it or loathed it, the fact Savatage put an end to 13 years of nothing quite naturally fuelled the burning question as to whether the band will record or play live again.

“Jon (Oliva/vocalist, founder) worked really hard on getting in shape – he’s still working at it – and his voice sounded the best it’s been in probably 15 years. I started concentrating more on staying in shape about three months before the show, and for a lot of us that hasn’t stopped because it seems like there’s this shared mentality that there might be more here. We’re going to be prepared for that. I don’t know exactly what that might be or when, but we’re definitely prepared for it and that’s the important thing. You might see more coming from the Savatage camp.”

“It’s cool because we got together and everybody liked the experience so much. We could have had that comeback where everybody got along fine, no problem, but instead it exceeded all expectations on all fronts. Even Jon was very excited after the show to talk to the press and when they asked the question of whether there would ever be anything from Savatage ever again, this time it wasn’t the same old thing. Jon said ‘Well, sure, I believe there will be something new at some point…’ and I was sitting there going ‘D’OH!’ (laughs).”

“We don’t have any kind of plan, but the good thing is that the vibe is really great so if something were to come up we could tackle it. Wacken was a great springboard and it fired us up.”

A certain amount of dust has settled since Wacken, giving Stevens some perspective on officially reuniting with his bandmates under the Savatage banner.

“That was just… it was really important to me because I had to exit the band (in 2000) due to all the things that were going on in my life. You figure you know what you’re doing in life and then you have a kid, and suddenly you don’t have a clue what you’re doing (laughs). I wanted to have that closure, to be able to come back and play with that group of guys again, and it was exactly the same group which was very important to me. After 13 or 14 years we came back, and this is the music business so nobody was going to take it easy on us. Nobody was going to give us a reason to relax. It was like ‘Oh, you’ve been away for 13 or 14 years? Well, you’re about to do the biggest show of your life….’ and that’s what I treated it as.”

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Photo by F. Schwichtenberg