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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. Through Paul O'Neill's connections, he brought in Ray Gillen of Badlands fame (credited as Ray Gillian), then briefly fronting Black Sabbath, to perform a vocal duet at the end of "Strange Wings".

Hall of the Mountain King
Studio album by Savatage
Released	September 28, 1987
Studio	The Record Plant, New York City
Genre	Heavy metal power metal[1][2] progressive metal
Length	40:07
Label	Atlantic
Producer	Paul O'Neill Savatage
Savatage chronology
Fight for the Rock (1986) Hall of the Mountain King (1987) Gutter Ballet (1989)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[3]
Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal	9/10[4]
Metal Hammer (GER)	7/7[5]
Rock Hard	8.5/10[6]

"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.[7]

In 2017 and 2019, respectively, Loudwire and Metal Hammer ranked it as the 22nd[1] and 8th[2] best power metal album of all time.[1]

Track listing

Personnel

In the liner notes for the album, the band gave themselves roles instead of listing their instruments.

Savatage

• Jon Oliva – "The Grit" (lead vocals, piano)
• Criss Oliva – "The Crunch" (guitars)
• Johnny Lee Middleton – "The Thunder" (bass guitar, backing vocals)
• Steve Wacholz – "Doctor Killdrums" (drums, percussion)

Additional musicians

• Robert Kinkel – keyboards
• Ray Gillen – backing vocals on "Strange Wings"
• Chris Caffery – guitars (touring member only)

Production

• Paul O'Neill – producer, arrangements
• Savatage – co-producer, arrangements
• Roy Cicala, Nick Schiralli – recording, mixing at Record Plant, New York
• James A. Ball – engineer
• Joe Henahan – assistant engineer
• Jack Skinner – mastering at Sterling Sound, New York
• Gary Smith – Illustration
• Savatage, Bob Defrin – art direction
• Robert Zemsky – direction
• R. Z. management Inc. – management

Charts

Chart performance for Hall of the Mountain King

Chart (1987)	Peak position
US Billboard 200[8]	116

Chart (2022)	Peak position
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[9]	26
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[10]	48

References

External links

• Track by track review

На других языках

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[de] Hall of the Mountain King

Hall of the Mountain King ist ein 1987 erschienenes Musikalbum der Band Savatage. Es bietet Musik im Stil des Power Metal und ist das insgesamt fünfte Album der Band. Zudem war es das erste von Paul O’Neill produzierte Album. O'Neill verstärkte später sein Engagement mit der Band und nahm nicht nur weitere Alben auf, sondern komponierte Lieder mit, spielte Keyboards ein und schrieb Storykonzepte für die Band.

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- [en] Hall of the Mountain King (album)

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