Savatage is a band i discovered really late. It was in 2001 when Poets & Madmen was released and made the Top 10 album charts here in Germany, so i heard 2 tracks somewhere and thought they were awesome (one was the incredible Morphine Child, great song)

So i started to become a filthy pirate and downloaded some of their songs. Over the next several weeks i bought their entire discograpy on CD.
It became instantly one of my favourite bands. The powerful voice of Jon Oliva and until Edge of Thorns the amazing guitar work of his brother Criss. It was great. My favourites are Gutter Ballet, Streets, Power of the Night, Hall of the Mountain King and Sirens.
I remember that i was shopping with my mom and bought Gutter Ballet, i had my discman with me and when we went to a restaurant i started to play the album. My mom was curious and upon hearing Gutter Ballet and When the Crowds are gone, she instantly wanted to borrow the CD from me
From that album i also really love Summer's Rain and that awesome instrumental Temptation Revelation.
One of my favourite songs i learned and learned to play on Guitar was Strange Wings.
The later albums took some time. Dead Winter Dead is amazing, but i never could get into Handful of Rain, not a bad album but there's something missing. The Wake of Magellan is pretty good and of course Fight for the Rock is the worst album from them in my oppinion, though it's mostly the bad production as a couple of songs and even the 2 covers aren't that bad overall.
Poets and Madmen has his ups and downs, i bought the Limited Edition, the Poster is hanging on my wall, i like the cover art.

I'm a latecomer to Savatage too, but thwey have become one of my favourite bands by far. Whilst I love their power metal period, the band's potential and playing ability only began to be reached with their theatrical progressive sound on Hall of the Mountain King and the involvement of Paul O'Neill. that's probably blasphemy to some fans, but that's how I see it! For me, Edge of Thorns is their peak: the songwriting has diversified, Zak's vocals are fantastic and Criss Oliva sounds incredible on his final recording. The band would continue to record some great albums like Dead Winter Dead. A fantastically talented band!