Oakland, Calif.-based metal band the Saviours' road schedule is grueling on their music. Coming off the January release of their album "Into Abandon," the Saviours are currently in the first leg of their "Iced Earth" tour, headlined by the legendary and enduring group of the same name. The bands will stop at the 9:30 club today.
Saviours drummer Scott Batiste said touring with Iced Earth has been "really cool."
"They have super loyal fans and all; it's killer so far," he said. "[The] tour is really a departure for us. They have a lot of older fans, and you know, just a lot of diehard power-metal guys. We've done more of a different circuit."
While Iced Earth may hold the top title, the Saviours, since their formation in 2004, have already consolidated a sizable catalog of their own. Three of the Saviours' members - Mag Dalena, Austin Barber and Batiste - previously played together in a punk band called Yaphet Kotto but went on to explore new boundaries under the name Saviours. They are steadily drawing their own fan base from the traditionally devoted metal-head pool, with two EPs, two albums and another one in the works. Their latest album, "Into Abandon," has clear ties to the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, whose influential groups range from Black Sabbath to Deep Purple.
With such a discography and such a devoted following, it is no wonder the Saviours have been on the road for eight months already with more dates to come.
"We love touring so, we're always anxious to do it, you know," Batiste said. "We don't want to just sit around at home. We all just go crazy. We're not writing songs about being on the road or anything in that way, but there's inspiring people we come across and all, and there's reason to get amped about stuff, but I wouldn't say the road forms our music."
While the Saviours' new album was greeted with favorable reviews, the group is still playing it safe. At the moment they are minding their metal ancestry and working to find their voice as a group. And the Saviours have a lot to live up to.
"I don't think we're reinventing anything by any means, but we are trying to do our own thing, as far as what we write," Batiste said.
The band's consistent and ongoing production of material and its daunting road schedule mean the Saviours is in many ways an embodiment of the inexhaustible soul of metal itself. While many of rock's derivative forms have come and gone in a matter of years, metal continues on.
"Probably because of the fans," Batiste said. "There's just diehards that are always going to be into it, you know, no matter if it's cool or not."
Batiste, the group's leading drummer, should know that metal, more so than its predecessors, headbangs to its own rhythm. With the release of "Into Abandon," the Saviours aimed to convey the unique metal sound in its purest form, opting out of mechanical alteration.
"I just wanted it to be a really punishing record," he said. "We wanted it to be super heavy. We wanted to sound sort of how we sound live. There's no analog, there's no digital, no studio trickery. We just wanted to make, like, an honest rendition of what we're doing in these songs."
While metal is sometimes described as a "phase" that music aficionados have a tendency to go though, Batiste said there is no wrong time to dive headfirst into the genre.
"When I was in fifth grade, Columbia House sent two Metallica tapes to my mom by mistake, so I got them from her, and that was the beginning of the end right there."
You can reach this staff writer at thescene@theeagleonline.com.
