And just like that, we got what might be the best Heavy Metal live album of the last decade. I love SAVATAGE, but I somehow missed the announcements and ads, and I found out that this album is coming out literally few days before its official premiere. I’m guessing a lot of people and even die hard SAVATAGE fans might get surprised the same way, but to be honest, it’s more than okay. I’m not a big fan of all those super early pre-orders which almost never arrive on the actual release date and which sometimes made fans forget about even very major releases of their favorite bands. Here it was like “hey, the new SAVATAGE (live) album is coming out, go and buy it!” – and that is cool. A bit of background info: “Madness Reigns From The Gutter (1990)”, as the subtitle suggests, was recorded back in the day, so by the legendary SAVATAGE line-up, featuring the Oliva brothers, Chris Caffery, Johnny Lee Middleton and Doc, during the “Rulin’ Gutter Tour”. I listened to it like four times in a row, and I can’t really find right words to describe its atmosphere and quality. SAVATAGE present here super rare combination of huge talent, absolutely phenomenal songwriting, and out-of-this-world performance. The album also sadly reminded me why I’m not such a big fan of the current Power Metal scene and new releases, with polished, synthetic, almost artificial production, flat and emotion-free ctrl+c/ctrl+v songwriting, and bands who have a problem with performing their own songs live on stage, and need to use all those backing tracks, do half playbacks and so on. Just listen to this album and you will know what I mean: you can hear all the emotions, you can hear that these five guys gave their 100%, their energy here is unbeatable. You don’t hear here orchestrations played from a laptop, you don’t hear here layers of pre-recorded vocals that pretend to be a choir. You hear the talent, the skills, the emotions and the magic of real, honest music. So, dear young Power and Heavy Metal bands: listen to this album and learn how it should be done! The selection of songs deserves a standing ovation as well, as except usual big SAVA’ hits we get here couple of excellent deep cuts. So a shout out to the smart guy or gal at earMusic, who decided to release it on triple vinyl. Not the most economical solution, of course, but I’m guessing no songs were left out, and while I haven’t heard the vinyl version yet, I’m guessing it will simply sound good – not like one of those super compressed vinyls, where labels squeeze 60 minutes of music, and sacrifice the quality of the sound for the sake of making the album cheaper. So yeah, SAVATAGE. One of the best American Power Metal bands. Live album, recorded more than 35 years ago. Outstanding songs, outstanding performance, outstanding quality and a throwback to better times. Go and buy it, you won’t regret! More info: www.facebook.com/savatage, www.facebook.com/earmusicofficial