Best Metal Videos of All Time
Number 9: Hall of the Mountain King—Savatage
9: Hall of the Mountain King—Savatage (USA) Total score = 9.5
Scoring rationale: 9.5 points for the song plus one point for telling a story, but minus one point for the low production values of the video = 9.5.
This is more like it, metal with a riff so thunderous you want to bang your head right off your torso. It’s got everything that makes a metal song great: the massive riff, verses that drive the song forward, killer chorus with soaring vocals, guitar work in the solo section that maximises dynamics by effortlessly switching between melodic licks, the intense riffing and razor-sharp, soul-biting solo notes.
If you don’t like this song, you’re not a metal fan. No discussion.
Unfortunately, the video is not up to the song, right? One sure wishes it was. As it happened, by the time Jon Oliva had the funds for a truly spectacular video, Savatage was basically no more. The treasure in “The Hall of the Mountain King” was in the future, not at the time of shooting it.
And the only ‘treasure’ the dwarf manages to get out is a cassette of “Hall of the Mountian King”. Which just goes to show that great music is forever, while filthy lucre is only temprarily.
The same schtick Judas Priest pulled off in “Breaking the Law1”. Bad artists copy, great artists steal. Difference being that not the band themselves, but somebody else gets the booty.
Nice video, which did inadvertently predict the ‘Mountain King2’s future success. Indeed, and that without the preceding “Prelude to Madness3”, which indirectly foreshadowed the shape of things to come4.
Which wasn’t Savatage, unfortunately. No. After Criss Oliva died, 1995’s Dead Winter Dead—A Handful of Rain (1994) was basically a Jon Oliva solo album released under the Savatage moniker—contained a song “Christmas Eve Sarajevo 12/24” that received heavy rotation on many radio stations. Subsequently, the Trans-Siberian Orchestra (TSO) was formed to cash in on that success, and boy did that work out.
So TSO became more successful than Savatage ever was. TSO started touring with two different line-ups, one on the west and one on the east coast of the USA just to keep up with demand, and featured regularly in the top 10 of the highest grossing tours, as TSO accumulated 6 platinum albums.
And Savatage? Basically died after The Wake of Magellan (1997). No matter how much Jon Oliva claimed that Jon Oliva’s Pain was the closest thing to Savatage, truth is that Jon Oliva’s Pain never rose to Savatage’s level. Not even close.
Not even close? Back in the late eighties and early nineties, Savatage was the best live band in heavy metal, bar none5. And the very best shows were always played in Tilburg, which they considered their second home town.
Don’t say: Hey Jon Oliva, get off your fat ass and produce the final Savatage album6.
Do say: Remember the Savatage shows in Noorderligt and 013? Those were the best days in my metal life.
Where they ‘stole back’ the gold version of their own “British Steel” album, see number 10 of The Best Metal Videoa of All Time;
Jon Oliva’s nickname;
Which is Savatage’s interpretation of Edvard Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite (based on Hendrik Ibsen’s same-titled play), Act II “I Dovregubben hall” or “In the Hall of the Mountain King”. The circle is round, and completed!
On top of that, “Prelude to Madness” became a staple in the TSO setlist;
Even if a few did come close;
Because that’s just not going to happen;