Chris Caffery
Your Heaven is Real

A well-known man in the metal business, having been in and out of Savatage a lot before really settling in that band. It is also a man who have been in some other bands but also been appearing as a guest on several other band’s/musicians’ albums – most notably at fellow Savatagers Jon Oliva and Zak Stevens. Caffery has however also been doing work under his own name, this is his third album under his own name, it is called Your Heaven is Real and has a fairly dull cover artwork but the name Caffery should be a warrant for quality, or is it?

Musically I think that one who is familiar with the works of the great Savatage or their vocalists other projects should feel quite familiar with the style of this album as it follows in the vein of Savatage. Heavy metal with some touches of the progressive, it is quite powerful but still melodic. Good variation over thirteen tracks, quite long playing time but the variation should keep fans of the genre listening for the entire duration. Great vocal performance and excellent production, the soundscape goes in the lighter mood – I would say that this is an album with a very positive disposition and it is easy to become a little bit happier when listening to it. I would describe this album as a quality production and the songs aren’t too shabby either.

To say the least, I really like this album and would describe it as great with an exclamation mark behind – great! All the songs hold a high quality; some of them are even brilliant. This thanks to great depth and variation over the songs, you will hear new things each time you listen to the album. One might complain that it is too close to Savatage, it sounds like a spinoff from Savatage rather than something different – the lack of novelty can be described as somewhat problematic. If you like the genre you will not be bothered with that and frankly that is a very small thing in the grand scheme of things, as this album is great in every regard – bar perhaps the lack of novelty I feel when listening to this otherwise brilliant album.

The songs are all high quality and the title track, Damned if You Do, Dead if You Don’t and Death by Design are the highlights of the album. These are excellent songs that crown a great album, the only downside I can see is that all the solo albums by Savatage-related musicians sounds more or less the same and this album is no exception to that. Still, this is an album fans of Savatage should find very enjoyable and none who takes a closer look at it should be that disappointed with it. Caffery makes a very likeable album with this one and I recommend that you take a closer look at it.

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