Savatage: Workaholic Madmen! Page 2
by Martin Popoff

Some clues as to the direction of the new album perhaps? "Well, we're winding down here. We've got just about everything done but the problem is we keep writing songs in the studio and they keep ending up replacing songs that we've already recorded (laughs). We've kind of lost a little bit of time but it's better for the record anyway. Right now we're getting ready to do the guitar and finish the vocals and then we should be going into mix down. The advance single will be out in October and will have two songs, one for metal radio and one for rock radio. We don't know which songs yet though."

Some songs slated to be included are entitled 'Man in The Mirror', 'Cantations', 'Power', 'The Rumor', 'Deliver The Silence', 'Awaken', and the title track 'Poets And Madmen'. The band is looking to include a total of 12 songs. The cover art will likely include a shot of wrought iron gates, in front of an insane asylum-type set up, creepy trees, one lone light, name of the album inscribed into the wall. Or something like that. Two roughs are being considered as we speak.

Are we looking at another concept album? "We're really not sure," says Jon, "because that's the last thing we do, place all the lyrics and stuff and we're constantly changing lyrics. So I don't know if Paul (O'Neill, producer, lyrics) is going to tie everything together in the end or not. I mean, Paul is weird like that (laughs). You never really know. But we haven't been planning it that way. We just keep writing. Like I say, we started with 15 songs, and since we've been in the studio we've come up with another ten. So we're trying to whittle it down from 25 songs. But we're really really psyched about this record. It's coming out really good. I've seen tinges of stuff where songs could possibly be tied together. His lyric writing for this is a lot darker than the last couple of albums and I think it's because the music is a lot darker and more moody and heavy. The stuff he's got so far is really, really intense (laughs). And I'm singing a lot more on this album."

Savatage: Workaholic Madmen! Page 3