Savatage – Poets & Men

Was nervous putting this on due to poor reviews comparing the pressing to a picture disc.

The good news: my copy is dead quiet and the pressing is fundamentally fine!

The bad: the album wasn’t recorded particularly well and the remastering isn’t great. It’s wild how inconsistent this reissue series has been overall. So it only sounds ok, but it’s not the fault of the manufacturing, just another poor sounding remaster in this series. Ranks down with Streets sadly.

Wanted to write this to let you know that there is slight hope...

I purchased this recently and both records had little black specks of dirt throughout that were just part of the vinyl.

Side A & B had a static surface noise which was not noticeable during the songs but also had these loud, annoying pops throughout.

Side C & D was way worse The static surface noise was much louder and could be heard during the songs and also had those loud annoying pops as well. In addition to that, the last song on side D had this weird whooshing surface noise that was different than the other static surface noise I had been experiencing and made it unbearable to listen to.

The 7 inch single was no better. It sounded muddy.

I returned it and got another copy.

First off the vinyl was super clean compared to the last copy. No little black specks of dirt.

All 4 sides had surface noise but it was considerably lower and not noticeable during the songs. Also no loud pops at all!

That weird whooshing surface noise I experienced with my first copy on the last song of side D was still there but it was lower and only evident in the quiet parts of the song. Still annoying but not as bad.

The single sounded a little better but not much.

Maybe I got lucky and my second copy was pressed when the facilities and machines were cleaner early in the morning or they had slightly better quality control on the day it was pressed. lol.

I'm not saying this is a great pressing by any means but I'm just happy that it's somewhat decent compared to what I experienced with my first copy!

Purchased all of the coloured releases and this glow in the dark version is by far the worst. Even recieved another copy from the seller and it was exactly the same. The surface noise increases dramatically as you get closer to the end of each lp. Cleaning didn't help.

Original picture disc sounds much better. Just wanted a perfect copy of a great album and unfortunately another Savatage reissue that sounds terrible.

Out of all the reissues Sirens, Dungeons, Fight for the rock and Handfull of Rain play perfect. 3 copies of Edge of Thorns and they all have several pops and clicks.

Save some money and purchase the black copies. Much better sound with minimal clicks.

This sounds pretty bad...
The audio is cut very low and is noticeably compressed. Beyond that though, the "glow in the dark" is VERY noisy. I did an ultrasonic clean just to see if I could reduce some of the surface noise, with no luck. A shame this is such a bad pressing, as the music is awesome. Perhaps the black vinyl pressing is better? Although judging from the comments, that one is quite noisy as well.

I've got a great noise on the last trak of D side, The same noise is earing at the end of all sides, but only in the empty space, od D side it stars with the last track. Ican reduce it turning down the highs on the equalizer.
In the end...the record are not glowing in the dark at all.

My listening experience with the glow in the dark vinyl version is the following: one click on 7" (plus a superficial mark on side B of the same 7", luckily without music on it, bought sealed, this is an evident lack of quality control process), noise on start of A1 (from the non-playing zone to the really first seconds of A1), two hard clicks on B1 plus light background noise between tracks B2 and B3 (both the clicks on B1 were disappeared after two cycles of ultrasonic cleaning and the noise between tracks partially reduced if not removed), a click at the end of track C1, luckily no evident background noise on this side, probably the best sounding one of the four, one hard click on start of side D (at the end every side starts with noise and clicks, maybe a third ultrasonic cycle is required). In my copy at home the second record plays way better than the first, side C and D are definitively less noisy than side A and B.
Not the best quality expected from a "mastered for vinyl" release, but less worse than what I was expecting reading the messages about the experiences reported by other s here. Considering the price of this release, it could have been done a better job for sure! Anyway, I'm happy to have completed the whole cycle of Savatage's deluxe/special releases on vinyl. Probably my most beloved heavy metal band of all times!

I'm listening to the new black pressing right now and it sucks too. Noisy, click pop tick. The OG pic disc, which I have too, has that scraping sound during entire playback. The black pressing will be best bet at a cleaner listen, but beware.

Surface noise across all four sides is atrocious. By far the most disappointing pressing of the entire run for me. May try to track down the black wax.

The static kind of rattle throughout the record was so bad I had to return the first one I got. Thought there was something wrong with it. But when I got the replacement with the exact same scratchy noise I had no other alternative but to go for the regular black vinyl without the bonus 7". As a matter of fact the 7" was the only one that played quite O.K. so it seems to be an issue with producing these glow in the dark discs. I tried the new Celtic Frost Dance Macabre boxset as a glow in the dark and it was all the same. I was tempted to go for it since it was some 100€:s cheaper than the other version but again it turned out to be more of a collector's artifact. You still could somewhat enjoy these things if the noise was only between the songs but it is noticeable throughout the disc. Less in the louder sections but it's still there and it gets really annoying when the more quiet parts kick in. And by no means I'm an audiophile or anything like that but it's just not O.K. to get a product for such a high price tag with totally compromised product quality. I buy my records with an intention to listening to them.

I wouldn't call it a crackling sound but there's not dead silence either at the beginning of each side or in between tracks. But once the music starts it is unnoticeable and not a factor to me. Such are the issues with gimmick records like glow in the dark, colored vinyl or worse yet picture discs. Black vinyl usually yields better results. That being said, I've had good luck with all the Savatage colored vinyl reissues. This album is a great finish to an overlooked career that many aren't aware of. I would listen to Savatage over Metallica any day of the week.