Savatage opens tour with Blas Elias filling in for Jeff Plate

Savatage’s new touring chapter began with a real test of live execution, and Blas Elias passed straight into the pressure of a festival opening slot. The progressive metal veterans played their first concert with Elias on Thursday, June 4, at Sweden Rock Festival in Sölvesborg, Sweden, with Jeff Plate sidelined for the first two dates of the band’s Prelude To Madness European run because of health-related concerns.

That mattered immediately because this was not a loose warm-up in a club or a low-stakes one-off. Sweden Rock listed Savatage on the Festival Stage at 18:00 on Thursday, in front of a four-day bill of more than 95 bands, and the band was scheduled to follow that with Heavy Weekend Festival in Maxeville, France, on June 5. For a group moving through a packed summer itinerary, the drummer change was not symbolic. It affected the opening beat of the run.

Elias is a logical stand-in for Savatage’s circle, not an outside hire dropped in at the last minute. His background includes work with Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Slaughter, and Stephen Pearcy’s touring projects, which puts him in the same network that has long linked Savatage’s live and studio worlds. That connection matters when a veteran band has to protect continuity while adapting to a temporary absence.

Plate’s absence also comes with clear context. His earlier comments about recurring nosebleed issues and the need to avoid air travel while he gets treatment explain why Savatage had to make a short-term adjustment rather than forcing the full original lineup through the first leg of the trek. The move keeps the summer schedule intact while the band handles the practical realities of life on the road.

The rest of the tour makes that continuity even more important. Savatage’s 2026 European summer run stretches across Sweden, Germany, Poland, Belgium, Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Greece, the Netherlands, and the Czech Republic. The band’s official site describes Savatage as a group with eleven albums and hundreds of shows worldwide, and Sweden Rock’s lineup page points to landmark records like Sirens, Hall of the Mountain King, and Streets - A Rock Opera as proof of why this return still carries weight.

Savatage also has a new archival release coming on June 26, with Madness Reigns From The Gutter (1990) scheduled to arrive as the live dates continue. For now, though, the story starts with the first downbeat in Sölvesborg: Savatage opened the tour with Elias in the drum chair, and the first real-world answer to the lineup change was already onstage.