HALL OF THE MOUNTAIN KING

After the very disappointing "Fight for the Rock" album the band at last is properly established. At this point Savatage has become one of the best melodic heavy metal bands from the US along with Queensrÿche and Crimson Glory. The songwriting has become very adventurous for a heavy metal band and very symphonic as was the case for the instrumental "Prelude to Madness" based on the piece "Hall of the Mountain King" by Edward Grieg, this track served as introduction for the title track itself which was one of the signature tracks of the first decade of Savatage and a live favourite through the 90's. Other stand-out tracks are the fantastic opener "24 Hours ago" and the powerful closer "Devastation". I must also note that Jon Oliva's lyrics has a lot of improvement and stepped a little far from your average heavy metal lyrics about hell, death and blood, and focusing towards social and political issues.

But.. (I guess I may sound a little strict..) they weren't a prog metal band YET, but they already were very close to that! So 3 stars for a progressive record and 5 stars for a heavy metal record. A masterpiece of American heavy metal.

Share this SAVATAGE review

Social review comments () BETA

---

---

Review related links

• Send comments to Prosciutto
• Report this review (#44949)
• Buy SAVATAGE music online with PA partners
• Show all SAVATAGE MP3/Stream
• Go to SAVATAGE page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to Hall of the Mountain King page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for SAVATAGE related discussions