Whats the best Savatage album to start off with?

Gotta go with "Edge of Thorns" Criss Oliva goes out on top with an awesome album and Zak Stevens' singing is wonderful.

Other than that go with "Hall of the Mountain King."

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

Hall Of The Mountain King

You'll be hooked after hearing this.

Mountain King all the way. Then go with Gutter Ballet. Once you get into em, give Streets a spin.

Jesusandmetal23 wrote:

Mountain King all the way. Then go with Gutter Ballet. Once you get into em, give Streets a spin.

My three favorite Jon albums in reverse order!

A lot of people give Streets a lot of flack, but Criss' guitar work is so passionate on that album. I can replay every song note for note (including the guitar solos) in my head on that album (and on many more Savatage albums).

i started mu edge of thorns, power of the night is another great album to start off. Start off with 3 albums
power of the night
hall of the king
edge of thorns

My intro to the band was Handful of Rain followed by Edge of Thorns. I am one of those blasphemous folks that prefers Zak Stevens vocal style to Jon's singing. Gutter Ballet is pretty good, I also happen to like Dead Winter Dead quite a bit.

jettafiend wrote:

My intro to the band was Handful of Rain followed by Edge of Thorns. I am one of those blasphemous folks that prefers Zak Stevens vocal style to Jon's singing. Gutter Ballet is pretty good, I also happen to like Dead Winter Dead quite a bit.

You're not alone fellow blasphemer! Zak is my favorite vocalist. I really like Jon though, just not as much. What do you think of Circle II Circle?

Gutter Ballet as it has the perfect mix of the old and the later Savatage, it was the album i still like the most, it was the album that even introduced my mother to Savatage and later she liked most other albums. It has the ballads, the instrumentals (temptation revelations kicks ass) and the more aggressive sonds (of rage and war)
Otherwise Hall of the Mountain King is awesome too with Strange Wings, White Witch and Hall of the Mountain King but Gutter Ballet is a lot more diverse

ShadowAngel wrote:

Gutter Ballet as it has the perfect mix of the old and the later Savatage, it was the album i still like the most, it was the album that even introduced my mother to Savatage and later she liked most other albums. It has the ballads, the instrumentals (temptation revelations kicks ass) and the more aggressive sonds (of rage and war)
Otherwise Hall of the Mountain King is awesome too with Strange Wings, White Witch and Hall of the Mountain King but Gutter Ballet is a lot more diverse

Gutter Ballet is a great album and still probably the Savatage album I revisit the most frequently. It had elements they would explore further with Streets, but here they still SOUND like Savatage and not "The Paul O'Neill Experience" like they ended up becoming.

DallasBlack wrote:

jettafiend wrote:

My intro to the band was Handful of Rain followed by Edge of Thorns. I am one of those blasphemous folks that prefers Zak Stevens vocal style to Jon's singing. Gutter Ballet is pretty good, I also happen to like Dead Winter Dead quite a bit.

You're not alone fellow blasphemer! Zak is my favorite vocalist. I really like Jon though, just not as much. What do you think of Circle II Circle?

I have very limited experience with Circle II Circle, but I like what I have heard quite a bit. Basically what I have been able to find on youtube or spotify. I am a big fan of the traditional blended with prog overtones style of metal.

jettafiend wrote:

DallasBlack wrote:

jettafiend wrote:

My intro to the band was Handful of Rain followed by Edge of Thorns. I am one of those blasphemous folks that prefers Zak Stevens vocal style to Jon's singing. Gutter Ballet is pretty good, I also happen to like Dead Winter Dead quite a bit.

You're not alone fellow blasphemer! Zak is my favorite vocalist. I really like Jon though, just not as much. What do you think of Circle II Circle?

I have very limited experience with Circle II Circle, but I like what I have heard quite a bit. Basically what I have been able to find on youtube or spotify. I am a big fan of the traditional blended with prog overtones style of metal.

I highly recommend Watching In Silence, Burden Of Truth, and Consequence Of Power. A MUST have for any Zak fan IMO. The other two are good, but those 3 are the strongest.

DallasBlack wrote:

jettafiend wrote:

DallasBlack wrote:

jettafiend wrote:

My intro to the band was Handful of Rain followed by Edge of Thorns. I am one of those blasphemous folks that prefers Zak Stevens vocal style to Jon's singing. Gutter Ballet is pretty good, I also happen to like Dead Winter Dead quite a bit.

You're not alone fellow blasphemer! Zak is my favorite vocalist. I really like Jon though, just not as much. What do you think of Circle II Circle?

I have very limited experience with Circle II Circle, but I like what I have heard quite a bit. Basically what I have been able to find on youtube or spotify. I am a big fan of the traditional blended with prog overtones style of metal.

I highly recommend Watching In Silence, Burden Of Truth, and Consequence Of Power. A MUST have for any Zak fan IMO. The other two are good, but those 3 are the strongest.

On it, thanks for the heads up. Circle II Circle is not a band that would have been on the front edge of my search. Now it is.

Sirens, Dungeons Are Calling, and Hall of the Mountain King are the ones I return to. I also own Gutter Ballet and Streets, but haven't had the urge to listen to them in ages...

Gutter Ballet is really good.

I did not however enjoy poets and madmen.

Hall Of The Mountain King and anything before that except that crappy 1986 cd they did.

Fight for the Rock isn't crap!

Well not the entire cd.I guess i should of said some of it is crap.

TheGreatDuck wrote:

Fight for the Rock isn't crap!

It's at least 50% pure crap. The other 50% is pure greatness though.

Like Hyde, The Edge Of Midnight, and Red Light Paradise.

side note - A Handful of Rain featured Alex Skolnick (sp?) of Testament fame on guitar. Hearing him play a completely different style of metal is really cool, and he does it very well. Not so many leads on this album but a ton of riffage and some nice choice licks. The playing on this album made me take a second look at testament.

The main problem with Fight For The Rock is it's utterly boring, even the "good" songs like Hyde sound like they are sleep-walking in comparison to Power Of The Night. It's really only worthwhile for completists.

jettafiend wrote:

side note - A Handful of Rain featured Alex Skolnick (sp?) of Testament fame on guitar. Hearing him play a completely different style of metal is really cool, and he does it very well. Not so many leads on this album but a ton of riffage and some nice choice licks. The playing on this album made me take a second look at testament.

From what I have learned, Alex played very little on the album, save for some solos. Jon Oliva did most of the guitar work himself!

S.D. wrote:

The main problem with Fight For The Rock is it's utterly boring, even the "good" songs like Hyde sound like they are sleep-walking in comparison to Power Of The Night. It's really only worthwhile for completists.

That's what happens when the record label forces you to release an album that you wrote for another band under the name Savatage. They could only do so much to save it. Power of the Night does smash FFTR into smithereens for sure.

The last Savatage album I consider worth listening to is Gutter Ballet. I have ZERO interest in them as a pomp band like on Streets or the Zak Stevens albums. I am still baffled as to why they changed directions so drastically. Doctor Butcher is better than anything Savatage did post HOTMK. That album crushes.

Witchfinder wrote:

The last Savatage album I consider worth listening to is Gutter Ballet. I have ZERO interest in them as a pomp band like on Streets or the Zak Stevens albums. I am still baffled as to why they changed directions so drastically. Doctor Butcher is better than anything Savatage did post HOTMK. That album crushes.

I feel the same way, the last Savatage album I thoroughly enjoyed was Gutter Ballet. Paul O'Neill just became too involved after that and it ceased to be Savatage.

kmorg wrote:

jettafiend wrote:

side note - A Handful of Rain featured Alex Skolnick (sp?) of Testament fame on guitar. Hearing him play a completely different style of metal is really cool, and he does it very well. Not so many leads on this album but a ton of riffage and some nice choice licks. The playing on this album made me take a second look at testament.

From what I have learned, Alex played very little on the album, save for some solos. Jon Oliva did most of the guitar work himself!

Bummer!! Oh well. Still a solid album from start to finish.