| Hall of the Mountain King | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | September 28, 1987 | |||
| Studio | Record Plant (New York City) | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 40:07 | |||
| Label | Atlantic | |||
| Producer |
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| Savatage chronology | ||||
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| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [1] |
| Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal | 9/10[2] |
| Metal Hammer (GER) | 7/7[3] |
| Rock Hard | 8.5/10[4] |
Hall of the Mountain King is the fourth studio album by the American heavy metal band Savatage, released in 1987 under the direction of producer Paul O'Neill. It is their first album produced by O'Neill, who was assigned to the band after the tour in support of Fight for the Rock. O'Neill's influence pushed Savatage to adopt a conceptual progressive metal style beginning with this album.
"Prelude to Madness" is an arrangement of Grieg's "In the Hall of the Mountain King" from the Peer Gynt suite. Oddly, Grieg is not credited for this song, but for the following title track - which is an original song. The intro of "Prelude to Madness" features keyboards and guitar playing "Mars, the Bringer of War" from Gustav Holst's suite, The Planets. The song would be re-recorded by Trans-Siberian Orchestra in 2009 under the title of "The Mountain", appearing on that group's fifth studio album, Night Castle.
"This Is Where You Should Be", recorded during the studio sessions for this album, was not included; years later it was released on compilations and album reissues.
This was the first album to feature the album cover drawn by artist Gary Smith, who was responsible for lead guitarist Criss Oliva's airbrushed guitars at the time. Hall of the Mountain King reached position No. 116 in the US Billboard 200 albums chart.[5]
In 2017 and 2019, respectively, Loudwire and Metal Hammer ranked it as the 22nd and 8th best power metal album of all time.[6][7]
- ^ Orens, Geoff. "Savatage - Hall of the Mountain King review". AllMusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 2013-05-11.
- ^ Popoff, Martin (1 November 2005). The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal: Volume 2: The Eighties. Burlington, Ontario, Canada: Collector's Guide Publishing. p. 313. ISBN 978-1894959315.
- ^ Kühnemund, Götz (October 1987). "Savatage - Hall of the Mountain King LP-Tip des Monats". Metal Hammer (in German). Retrieved 2018-05-08.
- ^ Trojan, Frank (1987). "Review Album: Savatage - Hall of the Mountain King". Rock Hard (in German). No. 23. Retrieved 2018-04-03.
- ^ "Savatage Chart History: Billboard 200". Billboard.com. Billboard. Retrieved 2018-04-03.
- ^ Divita, Joe (5 July 2017). "Top 25 Power Metal Albums of All Time". Loudwire. Townsquare Media. Retrieved 3 March 2021.
- ^ Chantler, Chris (14 November 2019). "The 25 greatest power metal albums". Metal Hammer. Future plc. Retrieved 2 March 2021.