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CHRIS CAFFERY “20 Years of the Music Man”
CHRIS CAFFERY “20 Years of the Music Man”
By Colonel Angus
I can’t believe it has been twenty years since CHRIS CAFFERY released his first solo material. For those of you who have been living under a rock, CHRIS CAFFERY is a member of SAVATAGE and the hugely popular TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA. I have purchased some of his solo disks over the years and found them mostly enjoyable. Not everything hit the mark but even the tracks that didn’t work are still better than a lot of material some groups put out. When I read that there was going to be a double CD spanning his works, I was more than intrigued.
There is quite a lot here to sink your teeth into with some of the tunes being new and previously unreleased. But before we get into the new stuff, let’s take a gander at some of the songs that you may or may not have heard. Disk number one starts off with the title track off his last full length album and it kicks things off nicely. It naturally has a SAVATAGE feel but with a slightly updated sound. If you like that SAVATAGE vibe then you’ll love “May Day”, “Edge of Darkness”, and the awesome “Fright Knights”. Even the new track “Do You See What I See Now” has some SAVATAGE elements but not as much as the previous tracks I mentioned.
But this isn’t SAVATAGE, it’s CAFFERY as a solo artists so we are going to get material that is quite different. “Music Man” is an acoustic ballad that contains some sweeping piano to add additional color to the tune. There is a slight hint of country here and there which goes to show you that as an artist, CAFFERYis comfortable coloring outside the lines once in a while. Another ballad, “Forever We’ll Be”, shows a softer side of the metal guitarist but don’t be fooled, he can tear it up with the best of ‘em. Just grab a listen to “Pisses Me Off” and its sequel (sort of) “S.O.T.S.” (which stands for Sick Of This Shit). He spits out the lyrics like he really means it and both of them are full on take no prisoners heavy metal. There is even a nod to TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA with the Christmas classic “What Child Is This” giving the listener a very well rounded look at all the facets of CAFFERY.
The second CD follows the same sort of format with a mix of mellower pieces mixed with heavier tunes. The first track is a straight forward metal track that has a very 80s feel (in a good way). The chorus is super catchy and CAFFERY sings in a cleaner vocal style. About a decade ago, CAFFERY released a single called “My Light” (which is on this disk) and even back then it didn’t quite capture my attention. Now that I listen to it within the context of this career spanning retrospective, I dig this track, especially when I hear a section that reminds me of “Morphine Child” off “Poets and Madmen”. There is more SAVATAGE-ish material with the stomping “Why”, the brooding “Abandoned”, and the beginning of “Your Heaven is Real”. The latter does veer off into power metal territory but the beginning is pure SAVATAGE glory.
Of the new tunes, the two mellower tunes “I Miss You…Sometimes” and “Then She’s Gone” are good but are a stark contrast to the heavier material on this disk. I would have also ended the record on something other than “Then She’s Gone” just to keep the heart pumping with some heavier metal. The other new song “Last Time” would have been a better track to cap things off. It is a very cool slice of metal that would not feel out of place on a SAVATAGE record.
Career spanning retrospectives are probably difficult to put together because there will always be tracks that are left off but whoever curated this release did a great job. They picked a bunch of songs that represented CAFFERY’s solo material but also bringing together a number of stand-alone singles into the mix. Add in a bunch of new songs and you have a well-rounded release that shows off the other sides of this metal artist.
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