“Hall of the Mountain King” by Savatage

"Hall of the Mountain King" is the title track of Savatage's fourth album, released in 1987, and it catches the American heavy metal band as it turned toward something grander. It was their first record with Paul O'Neill producing; he was assigned to them after the tour behind Fight for the Rock, and from here on he steered them toward concept albums. O'Neill wrote the song with Jon and Criss Oliva and Johnny Lee Middleton, and arranged it with the band.

Jon Oliva sings lead, Criss Oliva plays guitar, Middleton plays bass and Steve Wachholz drums, with Robert Kinkel adding keyboards. One oddity: Edvard Grieg gets a composer credit here, though this is an original; his "In the Hall of the Mountain King" is actually reworked on "Prelude to Madness", the track before it.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.