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"
Single by Toto
from the album Toto XIV
Released	February 17, 2015 (2015-02-17)
Genre	Hard rock
Length	4:03
Label	Frontiers
Songwriter(s)	Steve Lukather Jeffery CJ Vanston Joseph Williams
Producer(s)	Steve Lukather David Paich Steve Porcaro Jeffery CJ Vanston Joseph Williams
Toto singles chronology
"Orphan" (2015) "Holy War" (2015) "Burn" (2015)

"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.

Track listing

All tracks are written by Steve Lukather, Jeffery CJ Vanston and Joseph Williams

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Holy War" (Radio Edit)	4:03

Credits

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.