Basically everything up to "Edge of Thorns" is pretty good (at best) or listenable (at worst). After that, everything I've heard by them sucks.

Hi, no body mentioned Handful of Rain? It's really a great one. It was the one that made me love Savatage. I don't really like heavy metal it sucks compared to Death m/ But Savatage is the one of the few Heavy metal bands I do listen time over time. After Handful of Rain, I would recommend Streets and the Symphonic-Metal-defining album - Gutter Ballet. And of course we cannot miss out Dead Winter Dead

"I have seen you on the edge of dawn" edge of thorns rules:maniac:

It's gutter ballet...when the crowds are gone.criss we will miss you...

Hall of the Mountain King. I loved the sound and the vibe of the entire record. I especially loved the title track, 24 Hours Ago and Beyond the Doors of the Dark.

Best Album: Hall Of The Mountain King
Best Song: When The Crowds Are Gone ( from the album Gutter Ballet)

R.I.P. Criss Oliva

Streets is the only album I love. The ballads are the strongest songs.

Dead Winter Dead

Wow, Streets has a lot less votes than I thought.

Other because Sirens is the best Savatage album IMO. I prefer their older, darker works. Sirens has so much raw energy with a unique feel of it's own. It's been awhile since I've listened to that album so I'll break it out later today. The Dungeons Are Calling and Hall of the Mountain King are also great but that's all I have from them. I could never get into the later Savatage. I did like what I heard from Gutter Ballet though.

Oh man...This is really hard. It's between Gutter Ballet, Streets, Edge of Thorns and Dead Winter Dead. Very difficult.

This is a difficult one but I ultimately went with Hall Of The Mountain King. I don't like post-Criss Savatage at all but I think every album featuring Criss save Fight For The Rock is excellent in its own right. If it weren't for Hall Of The Mountain King then I think my vote would have went for Edge Of Thorns which is quite a beautiful, melancholic heavy metal album with some incredible, emotive guitar-work; all the same, Hall Of The Mountain King wins out as being one of the best traditional/heavy/power/whatever albums of the glorious 1980s.

Hi, I love Jon Oliva's singing and I don't care at all for Zak Stevens' - just to state what might be obvious to many. If you're new to Savatage be sure to listen before buying (for some people it might be just the other way around).

Sounds really cliché, but I really think Hall is their best work

Written by [user id=25758] on 06.10.2008 at 17:19

Hi, no body mentioned Handful of Rain? It's really a great one. It was the one that made me love Savatage. I don't really like heavy metal it sucks compared to Death m/ But Savatage is the one of the few Heavy metal bands I do listen time over time. After Handful of Rain, I would recommend Streets and the Symphonic-Metal-defining album - Gutter Ballet. And of course we cannot miss out Dead Winter Dead

Handful of Rain the only album of theirs I've listened to in full, and I absolutely love it.

Hall of the Mountain King gets my vote. Streets and Sirens could easily gotten it on a different day..

For me it's Sirens. I remember I quite enjoyed Power of the Night when I was pretty young, but it's probably been 20 years since I've listened to it so it's a bit fuzzy for me. I've got Poets and Madmen around somewhere too, about half of that album is quite good.

My mother really likes Edge of Thorns and Gutter Ballet, and I heard those a lot as a kid but something about them just never really clicked with me.

Written by -Morbid- on 14.08.2014 at 12:59

For me it's Sirens. I remember I quite enjoyed Power of the Night when I was pretty young, but it's probably been 20 years since I've listened to it so it's a bit fuzzy for me.

So you last listened to it when you were 7? Yeah right...

Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 14.08.2014 at 13:31

So you last listened to it when you were 7? Yeah right...

Well I should have rounded down I guess instead, as 16 or 17 years is probably more like it, because around that age my mom was listening almost exclusively to Savatage and Tony Martin-era Black Sabbath while I was home with her after school and my dad was working. When he got home there was better variety with Metal Church, Malice, Pretty Maids, and Piledriver being ones I can remember off the top of my head. When Edge of Thorns and later Cross Purposes came out, the variety took a hit and my mom overplayed the hell out of them to the point that Savatage and Black Sabbath albums we had were buried in boxes in storage (by my dad ).

Aside from Sirens (which I only "rediscovered" maybe 2 years ago) and Poets and Madmen, I haven't really listened to any Savatage stuff since then (or Tony Martin-era Sabbath for that matter).

I suppose the fact that I haven't listened to them since I was a kid, and never listened to anything between Edge of Thorns and Poets and Madmen maybe means I'm not qualified to vote though. Nonetheless, Sirens always shined through the others for me.

/small picture of the early part of my musical "journey" that no one asked for or cares about

Written by -Morbid- on 15.08.2014 at 03:08

/small picture of the early part of my musical "journey" that no one asked for or cares about

I care..... I care

PS: My votes are total BS on these things, apparently I have voted on this poll cause I can't anymore and I have only heard 2 Savatage albums.

Written by -Morbid- on 15.08.2014 at 03:08

Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 14.08.2014 at 13:31

So you last listened to it when you were 7? Yeah right...

Well I should have rounded down I guess instead, as 16 or 17 years is probably more like it, because around that age my mom was listening almost exclusively to Savatage and Tony Martin-era Black Sabbath while I was home with her after school and my dad was working. When he got home there was better variety with Metal Church, Malice, Pretty Maids, and Piledriver being ones I can remember off the top of my head. When Edge of Thorns and later Cross Purposes came out, the variety took a hit and my mom overplayed the hell out of them to the point that Savatage and Black Sabbath albums we had were buried in boxes in storage (by my dad ).

Aside from Sirens (which I only "rediscovered" maybe 2 years ago) and Poets and Madmen, I haven't really listened to any Savatage stuff since then (or Tony Martin-era Sabbath for that matter).

I suppose the fact that I haven't listened to them since I was a kid, and never listened to anything between Edge of Thorns and Poets and Madmen maybe means I'm not qualified to vote though. Nonetheless, Sirens always shined through the others for me.

/small picture of the early part of my musical "journey" that no one asked for or cares about

I like this mom metal, I could enjoy listening to those two bands for a little while, though I don't think I could last through just Edge of Thorns that long.

Written by -Morbid- on 15.08.2014 at 03:08

Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 14.08.2014 at 13:31

So you last listened to it when you were 7? Yeah right...

Well I should have rounded down I guess instead, as 16 or 17 years is probably more like it, because around that age my mom was listening almost exclusively to Savatage and Tony Martin-era Black Sabbath while I was home with her after school and my dad was working. When he got home there was better variety with Metal Church, Malice, Pretty Maids, and Piledriver being ones I can remember off the top of my head. When Edge of Thorns and later Cross Purposes came out, the variety took a hit and my mom overplayed the hell out of them to the point that Savatage and Black Sabbath albums we had were buried in boxes in storage (by my dad ).

Aside from Sirens (which I only "rediscovered" maybe 2 years ago) and Poets and Madmen, I haven't really listened to any Savatage stuff since then (or Tony Martin-era Sabbath for that matter).

I suppose the fact that I haven't listened to them since I was a kid, and never listened to anything between Edge of Thorns and Poets and Madmen maybe means I'm not qualified to vote though. Nonetheless, Sirens always shined through the others for me.

/small picture of the early part of my musical "journey" that no one asked for or cares about

Aha, I see, that explains the age thing

Well check out Hall Of The Mountaind King, which is still easily their best.
And I would say forget about anything after Edge Of Thorns because that to me isn't Savatage anymore due to the lack of Criss Oliva and Jon Oliva (although he already didn't sing on Edge Of Thorns)

Oh yeah and certainly KEEP away from Fight For The Rock (even though it features Criss and Jon) because that one truly is a crapfest.

Written by Ganondox on 15.08.2014 at 10:07

I like this mom metal, I could enjoy listening to those two bands for a little while, though I don't think I could last through just Edge of Thorns that long.

Well both of my parents are at 62 now, my mom mostly plays Judas Priest/Halford and Dio stuff all the time alongside Gardenian's Soulburner and a few other melodic death metal and thrash things, while my dad has been blasting Benighted, Calm Hatchery and the first Fleshgod Apocalypse album... It's kinda convenient to have family that is generally into the same music, even if they are a little out of place at shows and stuff lol.

/off topic

Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 15.08.2014 at 11:26

Aha, I see, that explains the age thing

Well check out Hall Of The Mountaind King, which is still easily their best.
And I would say forget about anything after Edge Of Thorns because that to me isn't Savatage anymore due to the lack of Criss Oliva and Jon Oliva (although he already didn't sing on Edge Of Thorns)

Oh yeah and certainly KEEP away from Fight For The Rock (even though it features Criss and Jon) because that one truly is a crapfest.

Alright I'll dig around, I'm sure we have a copy of Hall of the Mountain King around somewhere.

I can see that about the post Edge of Thorns stuff as that was sort of how I felt about that album at the time. While I thought Stevens was a fine vocalist on that album, I didn't like his style as much and it just didn't feel the same as the earlier stuff I had been used to. I sorta enjoyed Poets and Madmen though as there were at least a few good tracks on it I thought, particularly Morphine Child (despite its obnoxious chant thing at the end), but in many ways it didn't really feel like a Savatage album either really.

I snagged a copy of Power of the Night from my parents and gave it a spin, it's funny how familiar it seems even after so long. Even though I didn't remember the songs by name, every track on the album was met by an "ah yeah, this one."

I looked at Fight for the Rock to see if it seemed familiar, and the only one I recognize by song name is Out on the Streets, so I might have heard it before...

Written by -Morbid- on 15.08.2014 at 12:41



I can see that about the post Edge of Thorns stuff as that was sort of how I felt about that album at the time. While I thought Stevens was a fine vocalist on that album, I didn't like his style as much and it just didn't feel the same as the earlier stuff I had been used to.

Zak is technically a better vocalist than Jon but he misses a characteristic vooice of hiw own whereas Jon does ppossess thaat and has way more feeling and soul in his singing.

Quote:

I sorta enjoyed Poets and Madmen though as there were at least a few good tracks on it I thought, particularly Morphine Child (despite its obnoxious chant thing at the end), but in many ways it didn't really feel like a Savatage album either really.

the good thing about that album is that it has Jon back on vocal duty. Problem with the album is the guitaaring, Chris Caffery is a good guitarist but lacks individualism, whch Criss possessed loads of. So it is more or less like Edge Of Thorns for me, not really Saavatage but more Savatage than the albums in between.

I suppose SAVATAGE fans will like this band. I don't know where to add this band anyhow
http://promiselandx.com/

Streets for sentimental reasons. Similar theme with Crimson Idol, which came out a little later and was also great.

Oh common, Hall of the Mountain King is FAR from their best album. It's mainly just overrated due to the popularity of the music video.

Written by Ganondox on 18.04.2017 at 09:12

Oh common, Hall of the Mountain King is FAR from their best album. It's mainly just overrated due to the popularity of the music video.

Hall Of The Mountain King is their best, closely followed by Sirens and Gutter Ballet, although quite a few people will argue that those two are better. Those three are far removed from the quality of their other albums. Even though Streets and Power Of The Night are also very good.

Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 18.04.2017 at 11:16

Written by Ganondox on 18.04.2017 at 09:12

Oh common, Hall of the Mountain King is FAR from their best album. It's mainly just overrated due to the popularity of the music video.

Hall Of The Mountain King is their best, closely followed by Sirens and Gutter Ballet, although quite a few people will argue that those two are better. Those three are far removed from the quality of their other albums. Even though Streets and Power Of The Night are also very good.

No it is not, but it's not like I ever cared for your tastes anyway. While it's a solid album, it lacks Gutter Ballet's symphonic innovations, or the emotional depth of Streets and onward. Doesn't even have the unique stuff about Sirens. It's really just another early power metal metal album. Sure, it's far from their worst album as well, but focusing on it overshadows what is actually significant about Savatage.

Written by Ganondox on 19.04.2017 at 04:30

Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 18.04.2017 at 11:16

Written by Ganondox on 18.04.2017 at 09:12

Oh common, Hall of the Mountain King is FAR from their best album. It's mainly just overrated due to the popularity of the music video.

Hall Of The Mountain King is their best, closely followed by Sirens and Gutter Ballet, although quite a few people will argue that those two are better. Those three are far removed from the quality of their other albums. Even though Streets and Power Of The Night are also very good.

No it is not, but it's not like I ever cared for your tastes anyway. While it's a solid album, it lacks Gutter Ballet's symphonic innovations, or the emotional depth of Streets and onward. Doesn't even have the unique stuff about Sirens. It's really just another early power metal metal album. Sure, it's far from their worst album as well, but focusing on it overshadows what is actually significant about Savatage.

The video wasn't popular at the time at all. But of course you wouldn't know that. Their music at the time was o forwward thinking in the power metal scene kids like you can't even imagine that nowadays. Hall Of The Mountain King was much more forward thinkning than most of their stuff afterwards (except Guttaer Ballet).