martindavey87 Released in 1994, 'Handful of Rain' was Savatage's first studio recording after the tragic death of guitarist and founding member Criss Oliva. Replaced by Alex Skolnick of Testament fame, this album catches the essence of Savatage's sound, but being released in the mid-90's, a time when most metal bands were desperately trying to adapt to suit the more grunge-inspired sound of the day, while still maintaining their own identity, it's easy to hear Savatage shift their own sound to a more groove-laden, grungy style. Imagine Alice in Chains mixed with Queen, and you're halfway there.

With heavy, crunchy guitar riffs, massive orchestrations and the trademark vocal counterpoint sections, 'Handful of Rain' incorporates a lot of the "epic" elements that the band would go on to use in later releases and with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra project. Standout performance goes to vocalist Zak Stevens, who's powerful voice truly carries the music on this album.

While things do tend to lag at times, 'Handful of Rain' is generally a solid release, and contains some of the bands most memorable songs. For example 'Chance', 'Taunting Cobras', 'Castles Burning', 'Watching You Fall' and the title track are all Savatage classics.

Whether it was the mid-90's lulling metal scene in general, or the band still mourning the loss of their brother, or maybe just a transitional period as they made tweaks to their sound, in comparison to the rest of Savatage's discography, 'Handful of Rain' comes across as mostly forgettable and irrelevant, and just sits between their power metal days and their more progressive, rock opera days.

Ultimately, it's a three-star album with five-star songs.

Warthur Handful of Rain is the first Savatage release after the death of Criss Oliva, and as might be expected of a piece recorded hot on the heels of such a tragedy it's rather overshadowed by it.

The supposed lineup of Zak Stevens, Alex Skolnick, Johnny Lee Middleton and Steve Wacholz that is promoted as appearing on the album does not tell the whole story; in fact, Wacholz was so shaken by Criss' death that he left the band entirely and didn't take part in the recording process, and whilst Johnny Lee would stick around he was far too upset to face going into the studio to play Savatage music so soon.

As a result, much of the album ended up resting on the shoulders of Jon Oliva, who at this point in time wasn't even supposed to be a full member of the band, having worked on Edge of Thorns solely as a co-producer and guest musician. With Jon doing most of the instruments and composing most of the music (along with a brief snippet cowritten with Criss and several tracks cowritten with Paul O'Neill, who was coproducing), all that was left was for a fresh-out-of-Testament Skolnick to come in to do the guitar solos and Zak to get coaxed back into the studio to deliver the vocals.

These difficult circumstances are reflected in the final product; it's a bit more of a muddled production and less strong and distinctive than preceding Savatage albums, since the production process seems to have been mostly undertaken by Jon and Paul as part of the grieving process. You're effectively listening to Jon step into the main songwriter role solo, whereas previously he'd been largely contributing to songs in collaboration with Criss, and it's to Jon's credit that the album ends up sounding as good as it does, but it's no classic and very much a transitional piece.

UMUR "Handful Of Rain" is the 8th full-length studio album by US, Florida based heavy/power metal act Savatage. The album was released through Atlantic Records in August 1994. There´s been one lineup change since the release of "Edge Of Thorns (1993)" as guitarist/composer Criss Oliva died in a tragic car accident (involving a drunk driver behind the wheel of the other car) in October 1993. Older brother and lead vocalist Jon Oliva had already jumped ship before the recording sessions for "Edge Of Thorns (1993)" (he was replaced by Zachary Stevens), so "Handful Of Rain" is the first Savatage release not to feature at least one of the Oliva brothers in the lineup (although Jon remained the primary composer along with producer Paul O´Neill, and also performs session piano on the album). Criss Oliva is replaced here by former Testament guitarist Alex Skolnick.

So how does Savatage sound with none of the two Oliva brothers in the lineup? Well it sounds unmistakably like Savatage. While Skolnick could never replace Criss Oliva (no one could have...), he is a very capable guitarist and his contributions to the album suits the compositions perfectly. As far as the material goes, there hasn´t been much change since "Edge Of Thorns (1993)". The tracks maybe lean a bit more toward musical territory and they are maybe slightly less heavy tracks than on the predessecor, but it´s details, and overall "Handful Of Rain" is through and through the sound of Savatage.

As the case has been on the last couple of albums, the material on "Handful Of Rain" is relatively diverse, and there are both really heavy tracks like "Taunting Cobras" and "Nothing's Going On" and more epic (though still heavy tracks) like the title track and "Castles Burning", featured on the album. There are also more progressive oriented tracks on the album like "Chance", which is definitely one of the most progressive tracks in the band´s discography, heavily influenced by musicals and featuring a multi harmony counterpoint vocal section (not completely unlike what you hear on some Queen songs). The closing "Alone You Breathe" deserves a mention too. It´s a slow building power ballad type track, which in it´s long coda uses lyric lines from "When The Crowds Are Gone" (off "Gutter Ballet (1989)") and "Believe" (off "Streets: A Rock Opera (1991)"). As Frank Zappa would have put it: "Conceptual Continuity".

Overall the quality of the material is high throughout, and all tracks are instantly catchy and memorable. I would have prefered a few more rockers instead of the many epic tracks, but on the other hand it´s hard not to be impressed by how skillfully executed and well written the material is, and then it matters less that the really hard rocking and faster paced tracks are relatively few. "Handful Of Rain" features a powerful and well sounding production too, and upon conclusion it´s yet another high quality release by the band. A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.

Kingcrimsonprog Handful Of Rain is the eighth full-length studio album by the American Metal band Savatage. It was released in 1994, and like many of the band's albums it was produced by Paul O'Neil and Jon Olivia.

It was the band's second album with Zak Stevens on lead vocals and former lead singer Jon Olivia taking a back seat in a new slot covering the roles of composer, piano/keys and live backing vocals. Additionally, he performed bass and drums on this album as the band were in turmoil following founding member (and brother to Jon) Criss Olivia's untimely death.

The album also features Testament's Alex Scholnick on lead guitar now that Criss had passed away. His style is very different to Criss' style but nonetheless suits the album remarkably well. Savatage always managed to make all of their albums pretty different from the one before anyway, and Handful Of Rain was made in those aforementioned tragic circumstances. Here the change manifests itself in the form of the music being a lot darker and heavier than on the album that preceded it, 1993's Edge Of Thorns.

The year in which it was released also had an effect on its sound. Some of the tracks on it have a sort of groove metal sound, or at least that metalized rock sound which many Thrash, Power and Prog Metal bands who started in the 80s seemed to flirt with in the first half of the 90s. That is only a small part of the sound however, and other tracks such as `Chance,' `Visions' and `Alone You Breathe' contain progressive elements, which the band would take much further on their next three albums.

Regardless of direction, the musicianship on the album is first rate, as is the songwriting and both are complimented perfectly by Paul O'Neil's superb production job, which helps the whole thing come together and feel like a great flowing record and not just a schizophrenic collection of various styles. When the quieter tracks like `Watching You Fall' and `Staring Into The Sun' pick up the power, they have a real bite, and so can sit comfortably with ragers like `Nothing's Going On' without sounding out of place.

The absolute highlight of the album for me personally is `Castles Burning,' which is a slow dark number constantly building up and threatening to explode, then giving way to acoustic moments. Its full of great lead guitar work and boasts some of Zak's finest vocal performances on record.

Overall; Handful Of Rain is a great album that covers a lot of ground, it has touches of Prog, a bit of balladry and a bit of 90s-sounding metal in there too. The guitar work is brilliant, the tone is satisfying and the production is exemplary. Simply put, its' just a very good album and I highly recommend this album. Definitely check it out if you are a fan of the band, but then again its also even worth a listen if you just like Metal in general.

Stooge Handful of Rain was the first Savatage album I ever purchased, and I did so for one reason: Alex Skolnick. I had learned it was the only Savatage studio album he played on, but I did not know of the circumstances that brought him into the group. The tragic loss of guitarist Criss Oliva was a crushing blow to the group, leaving the status of Savatage up in the air.

Jon Oliva couldn’t just let the band fade away so easily. As a result, he puts on several hats by playing everything on this album aside from the lead guitar and vocals (uncredited in the liner notes). For Handful of Rain, he basically plays the role of Savatage, a natural fit for their founder and main songwriter.

Another thing made more evident from the circumstances of the time is the heavy emotions that flow through this album. Sure, Savatage have been doing the piano ballad thing for a number of albums at this point, but this is definitely not as happy an album as Edge of Thorns. It can be a very uplifting album for me at times, but on other listens it can make me feel depressed. Go figure!

There are a couple of tracks that stand apart from the others on this album. “Chance”, which is one of my favorite Savatage songs of all time, is wonderfully arranged and truly puts the listener on a journey. Album closer “Alone You Breathe” is a well-done, heart-warming tribute to Criss Oliva.

I’d say this isn’t one of the bands most consistent albums, and I don’t find the more traditional rock/metal tracks within to be all that interesting, but Handful of Rain is still a good listen. If you like the Savatage style from Gutter Ballet and later, you should be reasonably pleased with this album.