Legendary American progressive metal band Savatage commenced its 2025 European tour yesterday, Friday, June 13, at the Into The Grave festival in Leeuwarden, Netherlands. Ahead of the tour, Germany’s EMP gained exclusive access to the band’s rehearsals, providing behind-the-scenes footage, interviews, and an initial look at the band’s return to touring.
Savatage‘s lineup for these 2025 dates features Johnny Lee Middleton on bass, Chris Caffery on guitar, Al Pitrelli on guitar, Jeff Plate on drums, and Zak Stevens on lead vocals. Touring keyboardists Paulo Cuevas and Shawn McNair have also joined the group.
Zak Stevens commented on the experience of playing both festivals and headlining shows, drawing from recent experiences. “Well, I like to start out with festivals. Personally, I feel pretty comfortable on the festival stage. But there’s really nothing like the other stages. We just got a taste of this in South America [in April]. We started out, the first show — bang — straight out with [Brazil’s] Monsters Of Rock, at a festival, and then the next day we’re in a big, I guess, theater-sized event that was our headlining show, which I really found to be fantastic. So I really like both of ’em. I like it to be a little bit more — I like the closeness of the crowd on the smaller stages too, the more intimate setting. So I’m looking forward to both of it. We’ve got a good mix of both of those settings on this tour. So I’m looking really forward to both of them.”
Drummer Jeff Plate spoke about the band’s motivation for the European tour. “The fact that the fans have stuck with us and have wanted this and asked for it for all of these years really kept this whole thing kind of — the possibility was always there, but when word came out about the band actually doing this, and then the response… I mean, I can’t believe these shows in Germany that we’re playing, they’re sold out. It’s amazing. We haven’t been here in 23 years. The lineup is different, but the fans have hung on to this band. And hey, credit to the music. Paul [O’Neill, Savatage producer and Trans-Siberian Orchestra founder], Jon [Oliva, Savatage‘s founding vocalist and keyboardist], Criss Oliva [Savatage’s late guitarist], everything these guys created, it’s really an honor for us to be able to still continue this. But this is just the beginning. I think things are gonna look really good for the future for us.”
Prior to their 10 European dates scheduled for June—which also include appearances at France’s Hellfest and Belgium’s Graspop Metal Meeting festivals—Savatage completed a four-show run in South America in April. This included their first non-festival headlining concert in over 20 years on April 21 at Espaço Unimed in São Paulo, Brazil, following their performance at the Monsters Of Rock festival in the same city two days earlier.
Remaining European Tour Dates include:
- Jun 14, 2025 – Turbinhalle, Oberhausen, Germany
- Jun 16, 2025 – Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London, UK
- Jun 18, 2025 – Komplex 457, Zürich, Switzerland
- Jun 19, 2025 – Zenith Die Kulturhalle, Munich, Germany
- Jun 21, 2025 – Hellfest, Clisson, France
- Jun 22, 2025 – Graspop Metal Meeting, Dessel, Belgium
- Jun 24, 2025 – Alcatraz, Milan, Italy
- Jun 26, 2025 – Barcelona Rock Fest, Barcelona, Spain
- Jun 28, 2025 – Rockwave Festival, Thessaloniki, Greece
