Band:
Russell Allen (V)
Michael Romeo (G,K,Programming)
Michael Pinnella (Piano,Keys)
Michael Lepond (B)
Jason Rullo (D)
Discography:
Symphony X (1994)
The Damnation Game (1995)
The Divine Wings of Tragedy (1997)
Twilight in Olympus (1998)
V: The New Mythology Suite (2000)
The Odyssey (2002)
Info:
Produced by Michael Romeo & Jens Borgen
Links:
symphonyX.com
myspace
insideout
From America or North America or rather New Jersey in the United States of America hails these progressive metal dudes. And they are back after a five year hiatus coming to record releases, that is a very long time without an album especially with a slight disappointment as the latest release. That fact ensures high expectations and demands on the new album, and did they manage to live up to it all? No, not even close, they seem to be almost free falling towards the bottom of the line. Maybe it was better before in the good old days.
If you believe I am a guy that likes what was before you are completely wrong since I am always looking for new stuff like the latest Ayreon offering which I see as their best album. Symphony X is very seldom played on record or on my iPod due to their slow release schedule lately, it will not change with Paradise Lost.
Musically Symphony X play music with intricate melodies and heavy, very heavy riffing which is a sign for Symphony X, it is also an Achilles heal if overused which happen here all the time. They use loads of keyboard leads and background symphonic music, but that is close to non-existent in this album.
There aren’t really any song that is really good, there are some great, even amazing parts but mainly the album feels long and disturbing. Compared to the latest Ayreon offering this album at 61 minutes feel twice as long as the 142 minutes from Ayreon, and that is not a good sign even if the Ayreon album is amazing.
There was a loss in the magic from V in Odyssey and it is an even bigger loss to Paradise lost, the fact is that the magic is quite lost here and I cannot for my life understand why some people have this album on their 2007 top ten list, or why people give them outstanding points in reviews. That is a big mystery for me but I guess they have the magic from V in their minds while looking at the Paradise Lost cover which contains the Symphony X magic, but as you get to the music all the magic is lost.
Now you may think I am all negative to this album and it may have something to do with extremely great expectations that was not very close to be fulfilled. And I cannot really see any use for this album since it is too busy and too disturbing to use as background and it is not at all close to be good enough for active listening. There are only good parts of some songs so choosing only some songs is also out of the question, the album is not all bad, but not all good either. Another disappointment from Symphony X, is this what we are going to get used to?
It was better in the good old days, today all the magic is gone.