Description

Savatage guitarist Chris Caffery fifth solo album, Your Heaven Is Real, was released in August of 2015. As with his previous records, Caffery handles most of the instrumentation (guitars, bass and keys) with Whitesnake/Ozzy Osbourne drummer Brian Tichy keeping him company. Also on board is keyboardist/composer Lonnie Park and a guest appearance by violinist Abigail Stahlschmidt on the 7:54 saga Over And Over. Park assisted with the production and the team recorded Your Heaven is Real at Tichy's Big Timers Studio. Opening the album with a weird awakening sequence on the title track as an angel summons Caffery from a dream state, the song drops the hammer and rumbles along for nearly six minutes. Keeping things within four minutes on Damned If You Do, Dead If You Don't, Caffery reserves some of his meatiest riffs and mangier vocals on a song intended to be ugly, but it catches fire as one of the album's best cuts. Like before Caffery travels into different territories and it puts Your Heaven Is Real into a precarious place, leaving the listener wondering where it's going next. Chris Caffery shines on the guitar instrumental 2-26-15, a much appreciated breather after the dense smothering of Death by Design with its domineering sirens matching Caffery's peeling guitar wails and an agonizing plod. The shorter the songs are on this album, the better and crisper they are. It's never easy working in the widespread forums Chris Caffery does and coming up with solo material that opts for brevity versus longevity. Of course, Caffery's solo albums have always come packed, so come committed or don't come at all. That being said, songs like Damned If You Do, Dead If You Don't, Sick and Tired, Hot Wheelz, Just Fine, Come Home and Too Soon To Be Too Late are not only prudent, they're succinct and moreover, they better exhibit Caffery's considerable chops. Track listing: 1. Your Heaven Is Real 2. Arm And A Leg 3. Just Fine 4. Why 5. Damned If You Do, Dead If You Don't 6. Hot Wheelz-instrumental 7. I Never Knew 8. Sick And Tired 9. Death By Design 10. 2-26-15-instrumental 11. Too Soon To Be Too Late 12. Over And Over 13. Come Home