Best Savatage Album

After falling in love with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and having a passion for a little bit heavy-er metal, (ok, black Metal's a whole lot heavy-er, but that's not the point) I wonder which savatage album I should try to get, because I've heard a few songs off dead winter dead and poets and madmen.

we did a poll sometime back...
https://heartofmetal.niceboard.com/heart-of-metal-f1/favorite-savatage-album-t2384.htm?highlight=savatage

Hall of the Mountain King!

Dead Winter Dead and Wake of Magellen are probably the twoi I would recommend if you are looking for something similar to TSO.
My top 5 (no order) is:

Hall of the Mountain King
Gutter Ballet
Edge of Thorns
Handful of Rain
Dead Winter Dead

I'd say the best start for Savatage would be either the live compilation, Ghost in the Ruins as it has a good spread of the first few albums worth of material, all performed spectacularly (a lot of them being better than the originals) or Gutter Ballet as it serves as a good mid-point of an album.

But that's just my opinion. They're all good though, you can't really go wrong.

What do you think about Poets And Madmen? I saw it cheap and think about purchasing it. But I'm also not familiar with them.

The entire Savatage catalog (with the possible exception of FIGHT FOR THE ROCK) is absolutely golden! You can't go wrong with any of 'em !!!

Edge of Thorns,Gutter Ballet,and Hall of the Mountain King are all my faves.

Hall of the Mountain King is my favorite.

I'm partial to SIRENS. I also love EDGE OF THORNS and HALL OF THE MOUNTAIN KING.

thrasher73 wrote:

Edge of Thorns,Gutter Ballet,and Hall of the Mountain King are all my faves.

Same here. I got almost the entire Savatage CD catalog for $30 at the flea market last summer. It was quite the find.

mc666 wrote:

we did a poll sometime back...
https://heartofmetal.niceboard.com/heart-of-metal-f1/favorite-savatage-album-t2384.htm?highlight=savatage

It never works. I'm gonna start limiting my posts to two sentences, so I can post them every week in the new thread without getting annoyed.

DallasBlack wrote:

Yep, but I'll take all the ones with Criss.

HALL OF THE MOUNTAIN KING must also be my fave by SAVATAGE.
Just the other day i was listening to FIGHT FOR THE ROCK, a album very much underrated and i completly forgot about two songs:THE EDGE OF MIDNIGHT and RED LIGHT PARADISE. Great songs.

ghost wrote:

What do you think about Poets And Madmen? I saw it cheap and think about purchasing it. But I'm also not familiar with them.

Poets and Madmen was the last Savatage album, and had Jon Oliva doing all the vocals for the first time since Streets. It did not make my list, but it's a great album. Really, you can't go wrong with any album, IMO.

Gutter Ballet and Sirens

Damien Solta wrote:

After falling in love with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and having a passion for a little bit heavy-er metal, (ok, black Metal's a whole lot heavy-er, but that's not the point) I wonder which savatage album I should try to get, because I've heard a few songs off dead winter dead and poets and madmen.

The best album by Savatage to headbang to would be Sirens and the best melodic Savatage album would undoubtly be Gutter Ballet. For starters I would get Ghost in Ruins its Savatage at its best Live and they play songs from every Criss Oliva album except Rock Opera and Fight 4 the Rock.
For the post Criss Oliva I am not all familiar with

Tall Tyrion wrote:

ghost wrote:

What do you think about Poets And Madmen? I saw it cheap and think about purchasing it. But I'm also not familiar with them.

Poets and Madmen was the last Savatage album, and had Jon Oliva doing all the vocals for the first time since Streets. It did not make my list, but it's a great album. Really, you can't go wrong with any album, IMO.

Yes, I bought it and it is really great. I'll have to get other albums from the band.

So many metalheads love this band, and most outside the metal community have no clue who they are. more people know TSO is, that's for sure.

SoldierUnderCommand wrote:

So many metalheads love this band, and most outside the metal community have no clue who they are. more people know TSO is, that's for sure.

Yep, but that gives us an opportunity to talk up Savatage. I just recently recommended them to a lady who told me she and her family went to see TSO.

I'm going with Hall of the Mountain King here because of sheer sentimentality. It was my first intro to them and I just fell in love with Chris Oliva's opening riff to the title song.

I have a sentimental attachment to "Hall of the Mountain King" too, so it's good to see it mentioned so much.
But "Power of the Night" has so much rockin' attitude that I'll list that as my fave just because it hasn't been mentioned yet. It's a nasty album!

I like everything this band has done. However, my cream of the crop albums are:

1. Hall of the Mountain King
2. Gutter Ballet