Gutter Ballet
| Gutter Ballet | ||||
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| Studio album by Savatage | ||||
| Released | December 1, 1989 | |||
| Recorded | Record Plant, New York City, February–July 1989 | |||
| Genre |
Progressive metal Power metal |
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| Length | 52:25 | |||
| Label | Atlantic | |||
| Producer | Paul O'Neill | |||
| Savatage chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Gutter Ballet | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   |
| Martin Popoff |   |
Gutter Ballet is the fifth full-length album produced by the American progressive metal band Savatage. This was the second album created under the direction of producer Paul O'Neill and was initially released in 1989.
This album was a true turning point for the band, for after Jon Oliva watched Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical The Phantom of the Opera in Toronto, he decided to change the sound of the band, from a heavy metal to a more progressive sound, which is reflected in songs such as "When the Crowds Are Gone" and "Gutter Ballet". Gutter Ballet is not a concept album, but the final three songs ("Mentally Yours", "Summer's Rain", "Thorazine Shuffle") are a conceptual suite dealing with a single character as revealed by the band in interviews.
The original title for the record was Temptation Revelation, but this was changed to Hounds of Zaroff which was a Steve Wacholz suggestion. As late as May 1989, the eventual title track of the album had not been written and the band was having doubts surrounding the album title. The title Gutter Ballet finally came from that of a play producer Paul O'Neill had written ten years earlier and which would later make-up the majority of the band's next work, Streets. The song "Gutter Ballet" was written with just O'Neill, Jon and Criss Oliva in the studio. Jon's drumming skill was competent enough to perform on the track and he also provided the bass guitar duties for the track. Had the band originally stuck with the story set-out in Paul O'Neill's original 1979 story, the song "When the Crowds Are Gone" would have followed Streets track "A Little Too Far".
On the original cassette and CD releases, "Thorazine Shuffle" was a bonus track.
Two videos from the album entered rotation on MTV, "Gutter Ballet" (filmed at the beginning of 1990 in New York) and "When the Crowds Are Gone". The former track became a staple of Headbangers Ball and as a result, both Jon Oliva and Chris Caffery were invited to join host Riki Rachtman for an interview in 1990.
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Wikipedia