Gutter Ballet

A turning point for the band: Savatage's 1989 studio album exploring the more progressive sound.Even the album's regal front cover demonstrated the band's continued musical evolution.To quote producer Paul O'Neill: "Savatage was graduating from being a heavy metal band to becoming more than a heavy metal band. On Mountain King, we had toyed with a little bit of more symphonic, progressive side, but we hadn't taken it as deep as we did on Gutter." Mastered for vinyl and reissued with the original cover design, enhanced artwork including a 12pages LP booklet with extensive liner notes by Clay Marshall, the album will become available as a 180g Black Vinyl Gatefold Edition and as a Strictly Limited Heavyweight Collector's LP Edition on Silver Vinyl which includes an exclusive '89 poster replica and an exclusive 10" Vinyl Single featuring the songs "Thorazine Shuffle" (Side A) and a 1990 live version of "When The Crowds Are Gone" (Side B)."It's a very versatile album. It shows all sides of the band, and where we were going with our songwriting. Working with Paul there were no limitations, we were no longer just a heavy metal band, we now were a band ready to explore and grow, as the follow up album "Streets" clearly shows. "Gutter Ballet" remains in my top 3 favorite Savatage LP's." (Jon Oliva)