Holy War (Toto song)

"Holy War" is a song by the American rock band Toto. It was released as the second single from the band's 2015 album, Toto XIV. The song is written in E major.

"Holy War" was originally recorded with drums, guitar, and bass. The bass was originally played by Leland Sklar using his fingers, "which just sounded huge" according to Steve Porcaro. The band made the executive decision to replace Sklar's bass track with a new part played with a pick in an effort to open up some space in the track to allow for other musical ideas. Porcaro contributed some keyboard ideas that were later scrapped, including a string-line on verse two and a synth solo. Porcaro played a Yamaha CS-80 Yamaha DX1 and Yamaha CS-80 for brass stabs, and he used a ribbon controller on the CS-80 to oscillate the pitch of the instrument. This keyboard was doubled with a Logic ES2 synth, "which has this great pitch-bend range that’ll go down three, four, or five octaves" according to Porcaro.

Toto

 * Keith Carlock – drums
 * Steve Lukather – lead and background vocals, guitars
 * David Paich – organ, piano
 * Steve Porcaro – synths
 * Joseph Williams – lead and background vocals

Additional musicians

 * Lenny Castro – percussion
 * David Hungate – bass
 * Jeffery CJ Vanston – additional keyboards

Releases

 * CD, Single, Promo, Sampler, Stereo – Frontiers Records, Scandinavia 2015.