On This Date (October 17, 1993) Criss Oliva / Savatage
themusicsover Criss Oliva
April 3, 1963 – October 17, 1993
Criss Oliva was the lead guitarist of Savatage, the progressive metal band he co-founded with his brother, Jon Oliva. The Clearwater, Florida band formed in the early ’80s and by the release of their second album in 1985, they were starting to make some noise outside of the region. Enough so to get the chance to tour with Megadeth and a multi-album deal with Atlantic Records. Savatage’s 1991 release, Streets: A Rock Opera was a tremendous succes, selling in excess of 1 million copies. Criss Oliva was killed instantly in the early hours of October 17, 1993 when an oncoming car reportedly driven by a drunk driver swerved into his lane and hit his car head on. He was 30 years old.
What You Should Own
Mike Alexander was the founding bassist for English thrash metal band, Evile. The group originally formed in 2000 as a cover band called Metal Militia, and then morphed into Evile in 2004. They soon signed to Earache Records and are now considered the spark of the current thrash metal revival. Over the years they’ve shared the stage with the likes of Machine Head and Megadeth. They released their debut album for Earache in 2007 and their second in September of 2009. While touring to promote the new album, Mike Alexander collapsed the morning after a show in Sweden. He was taken to a local hospital where he died of a pulmonary embolism at the age of 32.