HALL OF THE MOUNTAIN KING

I remember how taken aback I was when I first heard this record. I had listened to 3 of their records (later ones), and was not prepared for the sheer power and heaviness that "Hall Of The Mountain King " would provide. Even Jon Oliva's vocals are the best i've ever heard them. As noted in other reviews, the previous album really bombed due to some bad managerial advice.They lost a lot of fans (temporarily) over that record, and at the end of the tour for it they were ready to call it quits. Then in comes Paul O'Neill who flew down to Florida to see them live as they were just finishing up the tour. Paul was so impressed with not only the chemistry of Jon and Criss, but their amazing talent, he knew he had to work with them. He convinced them to carry on and let him produce their next record. Paul also wrote many lyrics for this record. So what we have here is a band who is angry and desperate to win back their fans. And who also have someone who really believes in them and is on their side, in Paul O'Neill. So it's no wonder this record absolutely smokes.

Highlights for me are the opener "24 hrs.ago". This showed the world SAVATAGE were back. "Beyond The Doors Of The Dark" is one of Jon Oliva's favourite Savatage songs. It starts slow but really kicks into gear with powerful riffs. The bass playing on "Legions" is killer. "Strange Wings" has a definite SCORPIONS feel to it. The title song is my fav. It's also a bonus live track on the disc I have. Another highlight is the short instumental "Last Dawn" and the final song "Devastation" which is the second and last bonus track, also done live.

Lastly the song "Prelude To Madness" is kind of cool because here we really have the first example of what later would become TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA . Awesome record !