Story

In the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo, there is a town square surrounded
by buildings that were constructed during the Middle Ages. The
square has a beautiful stone fountain at its center and at one
corner there is a thousand year old church with a gargoyle carved
into its belfry. Now this gargoyle, for the last thousand years, has
spent all his time trying to comprehend the human emotions of laughter
and sorrow. But even after a millennium of contemplation, these most
curious of human attributes remain a total mystery to our stone friend.

Our story begins in the year of 1990; the Berlin Wall has just fallen,
communism has collapsed and for the first time since the Roman
Empire, Yugoslavia finds itself a free nation. Serdjan Aleskovic cannot
believe his good fortune to be alive and young at such a moment. The
future and the happiness of all seem assured in what must surely be
"the best of times".

However, even as Serdjan celebrates with his fellow countrymen, there
are little men with little minds who are already busy sowing the seeds
of hate between neighbors. Young and impressionable Serdjan joins
some of his friends in a Serbian Militia Unit and eventually finds himself
in the hills outside of Sarajevo firing mortar shells nightly in the city.
Meanwhile in Sarajevo itself, Katrina Brasic, a young Muslim girl, finds
herself buying weapons from a group of arms merchants and then
joining her comrades firing in the hills around the city.

The years pass by and it is now late November 1994. An old man who
had left Yugoslavia many decades before, has now returned to the city
of his birth, only to find it in ruins. As the season's first snowfall
begins,
he stands in the town square, looks toward the heavens and explains
that when the Yugoslavians prayed for change, this is not what they
intended.

As the old man finishes his prayer, the sun begins to set and the first
shells of the evening's artillery barrage are starting to arc overhead. But
instead of heading for the shelters with the rest of the civilians, he climbs
atop the rubble that used to be the fountain and taking out his cello,
starts to play Mozart as the shells explode around him. From this night
forward he would repeat this ritual every evening. And every evening
Serdjan and Katrina each find themselves listening to the thoughts of
Mozart and Beethoven as the drift between the explosions across no
man's land.

Though the winter does its best to cover the landscape with a blanket
of temporary innocence, the war only escalates in violence and brutality.
One day in late December, Serdjan on a patrol in Sarajevo, comes
across a schoolyard where a recent exploding shell has left the ground
littered with the bodies of young children. It is one thing to drop shells
into a mortar and quite another to see where they land. Long after
Serdjan returns to his own lines, he cannot get the faces of the
children out of his mind. Realizing that what he has been participating
in is not the glorious nation building that their leaders had described,
but rather a path to mutual oblivion, he decides right then and there
that he can no longer be a part of this, that you cannot build a future
on the bodies of others. At the first opportunity, he resolves that he
will desert.

Sitting in his bunker on December 24, he listens to the sounds of
Christmas carols from the old cello player mingling with the sounds
of war. Katrina, on the other side of the battlefield, is also listening.
It had just stopped snowing and the clouds had given way to reveal a
beautiful star-filled sky when suddenly the cellos player's music
abruptly ceases. Fearing the worst, Serdjan and Katrina both do
something quite foolish and from their respectives sides, start to
make their ways across no man's land toward the town square.
Arriving at exactly the same moment, they see one another. Instinctively
realizing that they are both there for the same reason, they do not
start to fight, but instead, together walk slowly to the fountain. There
they find the old man lying dead in the snow, his face covered with
blood, his cello lying smashed and broken at his side.

Then without warning, a single drop liquid falls from the cloudless
sky, wiping some of the blood off the old man's cheek. Serdjan looks
up, but he can see nothing except the stone gargoyle high up on the
church belfry. Overcome by what he has seen this night, he decides
that he must leave this war immediately. Turning to the Muslim girl
he asks her to come with him, but now all she sees is his Serbian
uniform. Pouring out his feelings, he explains that he is not what she
thinks that he is. Eventually winning her to his side, they leave the
night together.

Personnel

• Zachary Stevens
  Zachary Stevens
  Zachary "Zak" Stevens , is best known as the former lead vocalist of the band Savatage. He is also a drummer and has a degree in psychology but is not, as is often reported, a licensed, practicing psychologist....
  
   - lead vocals
  Human voice
  The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal folds for talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, etc. Its frequency ranges from about 60 to 7000 Hz. The human voice is specifically that part of human sound production in which the vocal folds are the primary...
  
  
• Jon Oliva
  Jon Oliva
  John Nicholas Oliva is best known simply as Jon Oliva and as founder of and lead vocalist for Savatage. He is the third of four children...
  
   – keyboards
  Electronic keyboard
  An electronic keyboard is an electronic or digital keyboard instrument.The major components of a typical modern electronic keyboard are:...
  
  , lead vocals (featured on "I Am" and "Doesn't Matter Anyway"), backing vocals (on "Starlight")
• Chris Caffery
  Chris Caffery
  Chris Caffery is a heavy metal guitarist who is best known for his work as a member of Savatage and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra...
  
   – guitar
  Guitar
  The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
  
  s, backing vocals
• Al Pitrelli
  Al Pitrelli
  Al Pitrelli is a guitarist, best known for his work with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Megadeth, Alice Cooper, Joe Lynn Turner, Asia and Savatage.-Early career :...
  
   - guitars, backing vocals
• Johnny Lee Middleton
  Johnny Lee Middleton
  Johnny Lee Middleton is an American musician and songwriter, best known as the bass guitar player for Savatage and Trans-Siberian Orchestra.-Musical beginnings:...
  
   – bass guitar
  Bass guitar
  The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
  
  , backing vocals
• Jeff Plate
  Jeff Plate
  Jeff Plate is a professional drummer and percussionist. He currently plays with the progressive rock group Trans-Siberian Orchestra and with thrash metal band Metal Church until their 2009 disbanding, although he is most remembered for his drumming for the band, Savatage on their albums since...
  
    – drums
  Drum kit
  A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....