Sirens

Sirens, Savatage's debut, came out on Florida's Par Records on 11 April 1983 as the LP PAR 1050; the date is the one given by the band's old official site and by Germany's Rock Hard. The band had been called Avatar until the record was about to be pressed, when the news that a European band already held that name made them change it to Savatage. It was recorded at Morrisound Recording in Tampa, produced by Par's Dan "The Kid" Johnson and engineered by Jim Morris. Jon Oliva has recalled cutting fifteen songs in two days on the $3,000 Johnson put up, and those songs were split between this album and the EP The Dungeons Are Calling; the old official FAQ says two days of recording and a third for the mix. Jon Oliva sang and played piano, his younger brother Criss Oliva played guitar, Keith Collins bass and Steve "Doc" Wacholz drums. The title song is about the island of the Sirens that lures sailors, "Holocaust" about nuclear war and its aftermath, and "I Believe" about people leaving a ruined Earth for the stars. The closing ballad, "Out on the Streets", was recorded again for Fight for the Rock in 1986. Par's first sleeve showed a woman's face fading into a sailing ship; the band disliked it, and when Combat Records reissued the album in 1985 it was replaced with an illustration by Terry Oakes, according to the old official FAQ. In a 2015 ebook Martin Popoff named Sirens with Metallica's Kill 'Em All and Mercyful Fate's Melissa as three of the greatest metal records of 1983. The Japanese edition followed on 16 January 1995 (PHCR-16151) with the two bonus tracks of the 1994 Metal Blade CD. The running order here is the original's as printed.