Monday 21 April 2008

Savatage - Hall Of The Mountain King (1987)


A great time for metal, a great time for Savatage, this is real metal up your arse, from the fantasy cover which looks like one of the book covers from Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone's 'Fighting Fantasy' series, the music engulfs you like a jewel throne and stokes the fires like all classy metal records should. Metallers back then thrived on titles such as 'Beyond The Doors Of The Dark', this track made all the more atmospheric by the sweeping keys and vocal delivery, and the gothic creep of 'Prelude To Madness' is genius dungeon calling metal. The musicianship is fantastic, reaching even farther into the metallic aeons than say Dio, 'White Witch' has a Maiden-esque simplicity, but there's an underlying magic here that brings back those glory days when skulls sat in every teenagers bedroom and candles lit up the gloomy confines of one's bedroom as the majestic sounds of records like this swept the listener away to another void, and that readers, is what a true metal album should do.

8.5/10

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