Jon Oliva's Pain and Savatage mastermind Jon Oliva will release his first-ever solo album on June 5 via AFM Records [to be entitled Raise The Curtain]. The 11-song CD, which contains ideas collected over the course of the last four or five years, was tracked this past winter at Morrisound Studios in Tampa, Florida with producer Tom Morris, with Jon handling laying down nearly all the instrument tracks and vocals himself as well as playing drums on three songs.

Commented Jon Oliva Pain's drummer/producer Christopher Kinder: "Oliva will be the first to admit that it took one hell of a challenge writing, performing 90% of all the tracks himself and vocals... he is exhausted, for sure."

He added: "It's a very interesting and powerful offering. Diverse, emotional, and varying styles of writing and music everywhere. A truly great accomplishment for the mountain king, indeed."

Oliva previously stated about his decision to record a solo album: "I've got some weird ideas that I wanna try and I've got some time to do it. I don't want do just 'another' Jon Oliva's Pain record. I've done four of those already. I wanna do something different. I have some material that I've wanted to put out for a while, that I'll talk with the record company about, maybe putting something out quickly, like in the next four or five months, to give me more time to do this Jon Oliva's Pain record. I want the next Jon Oliva's Pain CD to be very special. I've got some great friends from other bands that are going to be a significant part of the next Jon Oliva's Pain release. We are going to do a killer Jon Oliva's Pain record and then an additional bonus CD with guest stars... kind of like the Avantasia thing, but not in a story line. [Edguy and Avantasia mastermind] Tobias Sammet does a magnificent job with it, but I don't have that much time to write a whole story, so I'll just have some powerhouse friends from various bands come in and take it over the top."

Last summer, Jon Oliva's Pain toured Europe where it celebrated the 25th anniversary of one of heavy metal's most iconic records, Hall Of The Mountain King by Savatage. The band performed the entire album as a special one-time-only treat for the still massive amount of loyal fans, along with songs from the Doctor Butcher album (by Jon Oliva and Chris Caffery, released in 1995), Savatage and Jon Oliva's Pain.

Raise The Curtain tracklist:

01. Raise The Curtain
02. Soul Chaser
03. Ten Years
04. Father Time
05. I Know
06. Big Brother
07. Armageddon
08. Soldier
09. Stalker
10. The Witch
11. Can't Get Away
12. The Truth [bonus track]

[Source: Blabbermouth.net, Metal Storm]