cris oliva was nothing more than an EVH clone up until hall of the mountain king when savatage turned to progressive-oriented heavy metal. suddenly he became a heavy metal Slash, with epic solos oozing of melody and emotion. dont like his tone though. albums to listen to are streets:a rock opera and edge of thorns. songs to listen to are somewhere in time, believeand all that i bleed.
after cris oliva's unfortunate death, fortunately he was replaced by another great guitarist, al pitrelli. listen to the albums dead winter dead and wake of magellan, with the songs this is the time(killer), this isnt what we meant and morning sun.