Customer Reviews

Doctor Butcher

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I agree with the other reviewers -- especially the one that said this sounds like "angry" Savatage. Take the most blazing tracks that Savatage ever did and imagine an album of nothing but those songs. Chris Caffery is the MAN! This is full of great guitar work with tons of solos. And the bonus disc is not any weaker than the main disc. Both discs are 100% blow-your-face-off metal. If you're interested enough to be reading this, trust me--you need to get it.

Doctor Butcher was the side project of Savatage members Jon Oliva and Chris Caffery. If you split the essential elements of Savatage's unique sound into two separate entities, the progressive, theatrical, epic elements would all go into Trans-Siberian Orchestra, while the old school straightforward (angry) heavy metal elements would go into Doctor Butcher. This is about as close to the Sirens/Dungeons Are Calling-era Savatage sound as you are going to get.

I discovered Savatage late in the game (circa Dead Winter Dead), so my preference is for their later, rock opera-type albums. Still, there's no denying that Oliva and Caffery can "bring the metal" quite well, which is what this collection is all about. Jon Oliva's screaming vocals keep pace with Caffery's guitar riffs, and the duo channel some serious anger into these straightforward metal tracks.

Doctor Butcher isn't for everyone, and probably isn't even a must-have for all Savatage fans, but if you prefer the earlier Savatage albums or the Chris Caffery solo material, you'll definitely want to check this one out.

Edition Notes: The 2005 2-disc Doctor Butcher collection from Black Lotus is the total Doctor Butcher experience. You get the self-titled 1994 album plus the demos that were released in 1996, all digitally remastered, in a nice digipack package with plenty of liner notes and photos.

DOCTOR BUTCHER - Same - BLACK LOTUS 50
Doctor Butcher was probably conceived by Savatage singer Jon Oliva (and guitarist Chris Caffery) to play metal again following the drift of their main band into rock territory. Indeed, Doctor Butcher hacks like a real metal blade reminiscent of the earlier Savatage sound with Oliva screaming with abandon. Now and more than ten years after its original release by Gun Records Greece's Black Lotus has picked up the album for re-release, albeit with a complete booklet and a few demo songs tagged onto disc number two.
As said, the creation of Doctor Butcher was a reaction to the decline of Savatage and given its style a cut above the mother ship, but fact is that the album sounds half-baked. While the screaming vocals and the copious amount of solos and guitar rhythms is literary music to the ears several songs sound half finished. In particular, Don't Talk To Me, Season Of The Witch, I Hate, You Hate, We All Hate!!! And All For One... None For All are especially weak and lacking force. Counteracting these are the opener The Altar, The Chair with its excellent guitar work, The Picture's Wild with its crunchy sound and the slow and creepy Lost In The Dark which manage to impress. Were there a choice between Savatage as it had become and Doctor Butcher the metal fan's vote would be with the latter act. Having said that, this good doctor does not quite garner much confidence either given the lack of outright winners. - http://www.metallian.com (the heavy metal encyclopedia)

Jon Oliva was one pissed off guy. His brother, Criss Oliva, had just died in a car accident. His full-time band, Savatage, was actually getting less and less popular even though they came out with two back-to-back masterpieces. There must have been some trauma from childhood added in as well as general pissed-offedness at the world. The result? Doctor Butcher. A side project where Oliva didn't have to worry about the theatrics of Savatage, but could empty out all of the ideas floating in his head. He teamed up with another man filled with ideas; the incredibly underrated Chris Caffery, who had toured with Savatage in 1989. Together they created one of the best pure heavy metal albums of the 90's.

Oliva uses more of an aggressive style of singing, although not a death growl, as opposed to his power metal singing of early Savatage albums. This, coupled with Caffery's crushing riffs and powerful soloing makes the listener want to punch a hole in the wall. The Altar, The Chair, and Don't Talk To Me are chock full of air guitar-worthy solos and pure headbanging bliss. Yet Oliva allows some melody to seep in "Lost in the Dark," "Innocent Victim," and "Season of the Witch," although those have incredible solos and riffs as well. "Juice" serves as a perfect intro for "The Chair." While "The Chair" is heavy, "Juice" uses clean guitar to create lush melody while near the end Oliva includes his trademark evil laugh.

That being said, while the Oliva/Caffery songwriting team had enough great ideas to fill two albums, they had trouble connecting those ideas on some places, and it certainly shows. Some parts of songs seem disoriented. Although "I Hate, You Hate, We All Hate," has a great solo and riffing, the song is hurt by its awkard chorus, as well as the poor verse/chorus/verse transition. "The Picture's Wild" makes no sense at all and should have been left off the album. "All for One...None for All" isn't really bad, just unremarkable. But the ideas are there. One wonders how much better this album could have been had they spent some more time on it.

The re-release is a must have because it has been remastered, and there is a bonus disc with four songs from "The Demos" CD as well as an epic new song in "Inspector Highway." "Bridges" is built similar to Savatage's album ending ballads like "Believe" and "Alone You Breathe" which are pretty much love 'em or hate 'em affairs. Other than that, the other four are worthwhile, although no where near as good as some of the stuff on the first disc. Caffery talks on his website about a new Butcher album coming out soon, so that is something to look forward to. If you like what you hear here and want more, Caffery's solo albums are in a similar vein as Doctor Butcher and his 2005 "W.A.R.P.E.D." contains a Butcher outtake called "Iraq Attack."

A must-have for fans of straight ahead metal.

This album is truly awesome. Take everything you loved about 80's Savatage with all the great riffs and solo's and make it angrier. Chris Caffery plays his ass off on this recording you can hear the emotion behind the note bending and inspired soloing. Jon Oliva as always is awesome. Truly one of the best American contributers to metal worldwide the Mountain King sounds like he's having fun on this one. Pick this up if you're a Savatage/Oliva/Caffery fan or even if you're not.

...then you will love this! Classic Sava-metal. Those who prefer the more recent prog-metal stylings of Savatage may or may not appreciate this as it's really a nod to the "olden days" when Savatage was a simple loud, and in your face, hard metal group. More like 'Sirens' and 'Dungeons' than 'PotN' and 'Mountian King' as it leans toward attitude instead of production values (not that Dr. Butcher doesn't have 21st cent. production values. It does.) It's just that this album is a raw, tough, hard recording; guitar, bass, drums, and best of all Jon all wound up and heavy as heck. It fits in very well with the four aforementioned albums, especially the first track: 'The Altar' - effin' classic!!! Criss would be damn proud.
My rating is 4.5: totally smokin' but just a half-step from all-time perfect.
Oh yeah; cannot comment on this version of the album with bonus tracks. Haven't heard the "bonus tracks" nor can I comment on if it has been remastered at all.