Classic Video of the Day || Savatage- Hall of the Mountain King

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Savatage was amazing. Truly. The bothers Jon and Criss Olivia pumped out some of the greatest traditional and progressive heavy metal tunes between ’85 and ’93. Sadly, in 1993 a drunk driver took Criss’ life as he was on his way to a festival. The band continued after that because of an agreement the brothers made, but it just wasn’t the same.

Around this time Jon and fellow Savatage member Al Pitrelli joined up with Trans-Siberian Orchestra. (If you only know of TSO from their sometimes oft-cheesy treatments of Christmas songs, you’ve missed out. The album Beethoven’s Last Night is one of the greatest rock opera/crossover records I’ve ever heard. Go check it out.) Savatage continued to make records until they went on indefinite hiatus in 2001 after a fair amount of drama and member departures.

For a while rumors floated around, as they sometimes do, that the band would be reunited for one more album but in 2009 Jon Olivia put them to rest though he did hint the band would be re-releasing their entire back catalogue sometime in the future. 

Recommended listening: Sirens, The Hall of the Mountain King, and seriously try Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s Beethoven’s Last Night.

You have your assignments. Have a good weekend, everybody! 

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About J. Deathscript

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Chief Editor and Writer for Metal CallOut. Favorite sub genre of heavy metal includes Black, Death, Folk and Traditional. Deathscript can be found at @JDeathscript or Google+.

Aaron Joy's picture
Submitted by Aaron Joy on Sat, 02/19/2011 - 10:00am.
Dude, check your facts. 1. Jon and Al didn't "join up" with Trans-Siberian Orchestra .... if they did so did Savatage members Chris Caffery, Jeff Plate, Bob Kinkel, Johnny Lee Middleton, Paul O'Neill and later Alex Skolnick all at the same time. Leaving only singer Zak Stevens (who would later do backing vocals) to be the only member NOT to join. Considering there's no other members of the original TSO line-up except for this team .... and considering Oliva didn't join TSO but help create it. The anonymous history is that the bands are the same and for a while even co-existed. 2. "Savatage continued to make records until they went on indefinite hiatus in 2001 after a fair amount of drama and member departures." They didn't go on infinite hiatus because they still tour as TSO, though Oliva went off and took some music from his brother with him to form Jon Oliva's Pain (though he still writes for TSO). Further, there wasn't many member departures except for Al who joined Megadeth only to return to Savatage in 2002 (so obviously they couldn't be on hiatus in 2001). Zak Stevens left in 2001. If two people are what you consider "fair amount". 3. '85-93. Savatage was around since '78 and recorded their first album in '80. ~ Aaron Joy, host of the weekly podcast "The World Of Trans-Siberian Orchestra"

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