earMUSIC/Edel Records has set a March 2 European release date for "Still The Orchestra Plays: Greatest Hits Vol. 1 & 2", the official anthology from the legendary U.S. metal act SAVATAGE. The collection contains remastered classics plus three new, previously unreleased acoustic recordings. The limited edition of the anthology comes with the complete "Japan Live" show from 1994, which appears here for the first time on DVD.

"Still The Orchestra Plays" will be followed by the re-release of SAVATAGE's complete catalog — remastered and featuring bonus tracks as well as newly recorded audio commentary.

"Still The Orchestra Plays: Greatest Hits Vol. 1 & 2" track listing:

CD1: Greatest Hits Vol.1:

01. Power Of The Night
02. Hall Of The Mountain King
03. 24 Hours Ago
04. Legions
05. Gutter Ballet
06. Summers Rain
07. When The Crowds Are Gone
08. Ghost In The Ruins
09. If I Go Away
10. NYC Don't Mean Nothing
11. Edge Of Thorns
12. All That I Bleed

CD2: Greatest Hits Vol.2:

01. Handful Of Rain
02. Chance
03. One Child
04. I Am
05. Anymore
06. Hourglass
07. The Wake Of Magellan
08. Morphine Child

Bonus tracks (recorded by Jon Oliva in 2009):

09. Anymore (acoustic)
10. Not What You See (acoustic)
11. Out On The Streets (acoustic)

DVD - "Japan Live 94":

01. Taunting Cobras
02. Edge Of Thorns
03. Chance
04. Conversation Piece
05. Nothing Going On
06. He Carves His Stone
07. Jesus Saves
08. Watching You Fall
09. Castles Burning
10. All That I Bleed
11. Stare Into The Sun
12. Damien
13. Handful Of Rain
14. Sirens
15. Gutter Ballet
16. Hall Of The Mountain King

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh! Abaddon font! So lame.

You know I'll buy this. The sad part is that it looks like I have to re-buy the entire Savatage back catalogue, again! That's like the 4th time for me!

This already came up in the Savatage discography thread - it's a bit of a shame the DVD won't be available separately. I think I'll get the compilation anyway, but maybe I shouldn't bother with the back catalogue? I think it should be enough for me to have those few remastered 'greatest hits' tracks in the comp.

Nice. I'll try and get the version w/the DVD. Otherwise, I probably won't bother... don't need a pack of previously released tracks cuz I have all the albums already

It would be nice to have the Sava 80's albums remastered. Most of those sound like crap on a stick.

I am going to buy this package. Sound just great, specialy the dvd.

Aw shoot, waitaminnit. This is a European only release? Dang. That probably means it'll be a Region 2 DVD. I don't have a region-free DVD player.

(ala Gilda Radner) Nevermind.

Well I can show you where to get that Japan DVD if you're feelin' froggy.

computers can play any region dvd right? As usual I could be wrong haha

I'm getting this and the remasters who cares If I have all this already. The extras alone will be worth it and just to have them sound better will be all worth it.

I'll probably pick this up for the dvd.

I wonder how much better the sound will be on the new wave of re-masters.

I have both the initial releases and some Savatage remasters (from 1997 and 2002) and I can't tell the difference between them. The only real difference is of course the bonus tracks but not much else.

Because those re-releases were just that. They weren't remastered.

Will definitely be interested to see if any new bonus tracks crop up. I will forever live in hope that they find all the lost recordings from Streets. That Japan '94 gig is a bit weird though. It's a good watch and indeed, fantastic to hear the vocal trade off between Jon and Zak in 'Gutter Ballet' and hearing Zak do 'Hall of the Mountain King'. But it's weird that the camera actively seems to make sure there's very few shots of Jon himself - he comes out to play guitar for 'Hall of the Mountain King', but he's barely visible. Furthermore, if I remember correctly, Chris Caffery overdubbed all of Alex Skolnick's guitar parts and as such the guitars sound a bit... off in places. Not because Caffery's a bad player or anything because he's fantastic, but because it sometimes seems the image doesn't match up to the sound.

If those remasters on the compilation sound SPECTACULAR, I think I will have to reconsider upgrading all my Savatage albums.

Maybe if you wait a little they'll release in the US too.

Savatage has a reasonably good fanbase in Europe and Japan, but they are quite marginal in North America. Which is kind of sad, considering the origin of the band. I guess it's no different to Iced Earth.

It was funny though, I was just watching a Blackhawks game the other night and during the commercial break all of a sudden Chris Caffery was on my screen, shredding. But of course, they were promoting the new Trans-Siberian Orchestra album and tour...

This will be great! I've had their Live In Japan CD for years now. The DVD will kick ass!

Chris Caffery wore the Blackhawks jersey during his introduction spiel during the TSO show the day after Christmas.

I can't wait for this release. I will be getting it as well.

Can't wait for the spring tour of TSO either. Having seen them twice now, I will never miss another show again when they come to the Chicago area. Only need to find out when and when I can get tickets now. May have to take someone other than my wife for this show though, as I suspect it will be mostly metal, and she is not a big fan of metal. Even at the TSO concert, but still the lights, the drum solo just wow her.

What do you guys think of the track list for the best of? I thought it's a great selection of songs for a new fan, but where's Sirens? And there should be at least one track off of Dungeons Are Calling (Midas Knight!!!). Does it have something to do with rights to the songs, or they just chose not to pick anything off the first two albums? I think Hounds could fit in as well... but hell, it's only two discs. If I listed all the deserving Savatage tracks, it'd be a box set already.

The second disc seems very heavy on huge, epic tracks, especially songs with those trademark Savatage counterpoint vocals. Good luck listening through that in one go.