I'm doing a cover of "Damien" off of Edge of Thorns on my next album.
Savatage rules. It's a shame what happened to Criss Oliva. He died in a car accident in '93. Apparently his widow committed suicide about two months ago. Really really sad.
As for the band, Savatage really got good in '92 when they added Zak Stevens on vocals. He appeared on "Edge of Thorns" "Handful of Rain" "Dead Winter Dead" and "The Wake of Magellan". Alex Skolnick of Testament was also the guitarist on their heaviest album "Handful of Rain".
Pre-Stevens era was good too, but the vocalist then, Jon Oliva (Criss' brother) had a voice that kinda grated on a lot of people and held the band back. Having said that, "Hall of the Mountain King" and "Gutter Ballet" are great albums, although dated. Criss Oliva had some amazing guitar work on "Gutter Ballet" and the title track is just amazing. I have a live bootleg video of Savatage from '95 where Zak Stevens and Jon Oliva go back and forth singing together on "Gutter Ballet", it's a great performance!!
For anyone into the Dream Theater / Fates Warning style operatic metal, this band is pretty good. Their musicians for the most part are average, but their songs are moving. They have several rock operas as well, and this is the band that spawned Trans Siberian Orchestra. The song "Christmas Eve: Sarajevo 12/24" was originally on the Savatage album "Dead Winter Dead".
Radio stations were playing that song and people liked it, but as soon as they found out it was a "metal" band, they pulled it off the radio. TSO was originally formed to get that song on radio and keep it there. It's amazing what's happened to TSO since then, as they've just taken off now!