Chris Caffrey, best known as ‘guitar section’ for most things Jon Oliva is currently engaged in, has graced the music world with the release of his solo album, ‘Faces’. This is a very interesting, complicated album – you may start off with the feeling that this is ‘Savatage gone wrong’, but I urge you to continue listening, as Chris has managed to make an impressive contribution to the music scene by using his main influences to create the foundations for his solo career.
The album starts off with ‘Alas’ which might make you want to re-check the cover. No disrespect intended, merely a coincidence I’ve spotted: you know how pets are generally said to resemble their masters? Well, it seems that guitarists taking off on solo careers start sounding like the leaders of the bands in which they have spent their formative years. Zakk Wylde is one such example: in places on his Black Label Society albums, he sounds positively like Ozzy and Chris has continued this tradition by sounding uncannily like Jon Oliva. This is by no means a bad thing, but, of course, it does mean that it makes it a bit difficult to accept them as vocalists in their own right (we’re not talking about the ability to play guitar here, as in both cases the genius cannot be contested). That being said, though, Chris has chosen a very interesting style of singing – in places he uses the hoarseness of his voice to convey emotion, in places we hear him almost ‘rapping’ and, in others, adding a feeling of paranoia and even humour to some songs.
The grandiose opening track provides a feeling of concept to the album, which is represented by a variety of different tempos and moods – from the epic ‘Alas’ to the strange and disturbing ‘Jealousy’, from the very Power Metal ‘Faces’ to the ballad-like ‘Remember’. The album is full of groovy riffs, like on ‘Fade into the X’, which is also representative of the very powerful, emotional feeling that is woven throughout. Chris uses the traditional way of expressing annoyance and hatred – rap-like vocals - on the not overly politically correct ‘Pisses me off’, in which everyone can have a rant against their favourite pet-hate (who said rock was PC anyway???). The album also contains some great rock’n roll tracks, such as ‘Evil is as Evil does’.
I assume all Savatage fans will love this album, as long as they don’t expect it to sound exactly the same as Savatage, but if they don’t, it would only be because of the ‘annoying’ tendency of the band’s members to keep going off on their own and developing their own projects. I can’t see how one could complain, though, as everything that the current or former members of this fantastic band touch turns to gold. The same can be said for Chris’ new album – almost top marks for a first effort is no bad thing!
Rating: ****
