After Savatage
had finished the tour, the band felt the end was near - they were
ready to give up.
Jon: " Then, I got a call from Paul O'Neill and John
Goldwater, our future manager. And they begged me not to throw it
all away just yet: "Don't do that, we simply must cooperate
with you guys, long-term !" Paul would produce us, and that
sounded real promising. So he came down to Florida ; together
with my brother and me he started working on the new songs right
away. Most of the songs for " Hall of the Mountain King had
already been prepared, because Criss and I had already agreed to
enter the tracks into a new project anyway. Well, and then it
turned out that we could cooperate with Paul in a way that I'd
always imagined it should be like."
From Paul's
point of view this looks quite the same - two parties that belong
together had found each other here.
Paul: " I flew to Florida on the advise of an A&R
guy from Atlantic , to have a look at this band. The first thing
I saw was Jon, singing ' Sirens '. It simply blew me away. And
then came his brother, an overpowering guitarist; a fabulous
technician with his right- as well as with his left hand, which
is very rare, and a tremendous sense of melody. Soulful voice,
soulful guitar. And very nice guys on top of all that. The only
word that came across my lips that night was " Wow!"
" The first song that we have written together was 'Hall of
the Mountain King". Then came ' 24 Hours Ago' - and there
was no more questioning about it. Never before did I have so much
fun with a band. Most acts are trying to copy their first
success, while they're either afraid of changes or are just
easy-going, which leads to the fact that they stagnate. I've seen
bands that have spent more time taking care of their hair or
their outfits than of their instruments. Savatage have never come
to this point. They always wanted to be different, work on their
sound, make everything as perfect as possible. To them the fact
that they are musicians, artists, is a matter of course. It has a
magical touch, and is higher-developed than in any other band I
have ever cooperated with. Whatever you may suggest to them, they
can play it."
| Jon: " 'Hall of the Mountain King' was exactly the right rebound. One can actually hear that we had six months to touch up this album. The reactions to this disc were tremendous, we were able to do a large US tour together with Megadeth and Dio, and all at once the world looked completely different..." |  |
...especially
after the first Savatage video shot: The setting of the
title-track by director Paul O'Neill combined two things, that
seemed impossible: one of the greatest heavy-metal songs ever,
embedded in movie material, that beats the cult movie 'Spinal
Tap' at great length. Exactly the same thing one would come up
with trying to translate a song text into images word by word. A
first class laughing matter, that shows one of the main
advantages of the band, compared to the otherwise too often
humorless music buisiness: self-irony without consideration for
losses, combined with utter nonsense.
Place of action: a cave in the Catskills Mountains north of New
York city, where the clip was recorded during evenings and
nights, when the "Howe Caverns" were closed for
tourists.
Jon: " All of our gear had to be transported hunders of
yards underneath the earth by goods elevators. It was a
nightmare."
Wherever passion rules, suffering often occurs. In this case the
victim again was Doc Wacholz, who had furnished his drumming kit
at his own cost...
Steve: " The first day the thing was built up, but it
wasn't used at all. So I said: " Okay, we'll do it
tomorrow". The second day it wasn't used either. When I
heard "We're ready", I said : "No,no, we're not
ready, you haven't taped me and my drums yet!" But it
already was too late. I flipped out, 'cause I had put down 1200
bucks for a truck and several extra-roadies. On top of all that
the whole thing also was super dangerous, 'cause I constantly had
to do my drumming on top of a few rocks, and right behind my back
it went down into a 50 feet deep abyss. I didn't even get
dangermoney. An the best thing is of course, that I 'm hardly
even visible in the video. I think I appeared on the upper edge
of the screen for the first time in 1989 or '90, haha. I was the
forgotten drummer."
 |
Highlight of the
"Mountain King" - tour: Headliner at the Dynamo Open Air - festival in Holland, 1989 |
For the 'Hall of
the Mountain King'-tour the quartet was transformed into
fivepiece: Chris Caffery left his first impressions.
Chris: "At the time I was 19 and I knew Paul, while he
managed Heaven, a band I had helped out for one album and the
subsequent tour. Paul invited me to the studio where Savatage
were recording 'Mountain King'. I remember my first impression of
Jon Oliva: He was running around with a foam baseballbat and was
beating anyone standing near him with that thing, whilst laughing
his head off. Was nice, but I thought to myself: My god, who the
hell is that? What's with this guy? I liked their sound however
from the first moment on. '24 Hours Ago' and 'Beyond the Doors of
the Dark' were great. The fast and loud stuff that was modern at
the time, was slowly getting on my nerves.
So I stayed in contact with Paul and heard that he was trying to
convince the band to take a second guitarist with them on tour,
in order to be able to give a better performance and to give
Criss more freedom of playing. So I asked them for an audition. I
was already packing my suitcases when all of a sudden Savatage
told me "Hey, we have already found someone here in Florida,
stay at home." I contradicted: "No way! I have been
practising your songs for a month, so you must at least give me a
chance!" Then I flew to Tampa on my own cost. Nobody had
come to the airport to pick me up. So I took the next bus. I
arrived at the practising room, and the guys asked me: "What
can you play?" I said "Have your pick, I can play each
and every one of your songs". They decided for ' The Whip'
and '24 Hours Ago'. I think they were so surprised about the way
everything fitted together, that they left the room after these
two songs , discussed the matter outside for five minutes and
then let me know: "Okay, you've got the job." Later,
Wacholz introduced me to the guy that was originally supposed to
join them on tour. He could hardly play the guitar. I believe,
they only wanted to take him with them to be able to tell Paul
afterwards: " Hey, we don't need anyone, it worked well like
it did before..."
