Savatage - Hall of the Mountain King

There are probably only very few bands in music history that fate has treated as badly as Savatage. The fact that the guys around Jon and Criss Oliva nevertheless left the world one of the most brilliant back catalogues of all time is all the more remarkable in this context. This special will mention it several times - this spoiler may be forgiven.

With Hall of the Mountain King, the classic phase, in which mostly pure heavy/power metal in the US style formed the core, ended in 1987, so to speak – I'll leave out the outlier Fight for the Rock (1986).

For me, the glory days of Savatage began with Hall of the Mountain King and lasted until 1993. The fourth studio album is, of course, characterised primarily by the magnificent vocals of Jon, who, as always, was balancing on the edge of madness. In combination with the phenomenal guitar playing of his brother Criss, a magic is created here that other bands probably don't even dare to dream of.

Hall of the Mountain King is an album without a weak track – every single one of them is a winner from start to finish. The mighty title song is, of course, the star of the show, but I also adore the highly melodic “Strange Wings“ and the straight-forward “White Witch“.

You could say that with this opus, Savatage had said everything there was to say in the stylistic genre mentioned above. It couldn't get any better than this. From my point of view, it is therefore understandable that they took a different path in the following years.

Note: As part of this special, I am posting my 100 favorite records. Full-length albums, compilations and EPs are all included. Live albums will be considered in another special. The first 75 records will be posted in no particular order. The top 25 will be ranked.