Only one year passed after the release of
The Divine Wings of Tragedy, and in 1998, Symphony X followed up their to-date biggest hit with...
Twilight in Olympus (1998)
01. Smoke and Mirrors (6:08)
02. Church of the Machine (8:57)
03. Sonata (1:25)
04. In the Dragon's Den (3:58)
05. Through the Looking Glass (13:06)
06. The Relic (5:03)
07. Orion - The Hunter (6:56)
08. Lady of the Snow (7:07)
This album would be no easy album to make. Drummer Jason Rullo left prior to the recording of this album due to what Michael Romeo describes as "personal problems", with both the band and Rullo himself being dissatisfied with the respective other party, leaving the band to record
Twilight with drummer Thomas Walling, but things didn't really work out with him either. According to Romeo, he refused to make commitments to the band and soon grew disinterested in the kind of music that Symphony X was making. After
Twilight, he left the band again, and Jason Rullo returned behind the drumkit, making this album the only Symphony X album without Jason Rullo on the drums.
This album also credits Michael Pinella with "knives and chainsaw juggling", a joking reference to an injury that Pinella had obtained during some house work, when he was being careless with a butter knife. Much to the band members relief - who had no idea of what had occured until Pinella came into the studio with a bandaged hand - he recovered fully and was able to record all the keyboard parts on the album with little difficulty. They decided to reference this almost-tragedy with some cheeky liner-notes.
Anyway, let's talk music. "Smoke and Mirrors" opens in what might be most neoclassical shredding that Symphony X have ever recorded - a brilliant guitar/harpsichord unison, before exploding into a furious riff. Both the verses and the chorus are full of energy and always a joy to listen to - it's not hard to see why this is the song that they choose to play live when representing this album. Funnily enough, it was also the first Symphony X song that I heard (after "Taunting the Notorious", but that didn't leave much of an impression), even before my first Dream Theater song, and unlike with Dream Theater, it was love at first listen, making Symphony X the first progressive band that I really got into. To this day, "Smoke and Mirrors" remains one of my favourite songs by the band. I especially love the bridge section based on Bach's "Kyrie eleison" from the Mass in B Minor, one of my favourite Bach compositions.
"Church of the Machine" is very very good for most of its run, it's just that the outro feels very weird to me, very abrupt, without a real transition into the next track. The rest is great - that chorus is one of the most infectious things that Symphony X have ever written and the instrumental section is out of this world. Especially lauded should be Pinella's piano playing on this song, it's some of his best, and not even in a ballad!
"Sonata" is a short segue, based on Ludwig van Beethoven's "Pathetique", and it's a nice song in the context of the album, albeit not one that I'd listen to outside the album. It mainly works the way it works in the album's context because of the contrast of the soothing melodies of this one and...
...the aggressiveness of the follow-up "In the Dragon's Den". Everything is dialled up a notch here, speed-wise, and the solo-section is ridiculous. The verses are a little forgettable, but a great chorus more than makes up for that. This song also features some smoking bass playing and even a short bass solo. And yes, Thomas Miller is still as brilliant as on the three previous songs.
"Through the Looking Glass" is this album's long-track, clocking in a little of 13 minutes. It's divided into three parts, though unlike the band's other multi-part songs, the parts here don't have their own titles, they're just Part I, Part II and Part III. This song shows Russell Allen at his absolute best - his first vocal parts is amazing, so much power and emotion in his voice. Lyrically, this song is based on Lewis Carroll's book of the same name, and the lyrics, while not often Symphony X's strong suite, are pretty damn awesome in their own right on this song. The music, as with most Symphony X epics, is godly, being just straight-forward enough to be catchy and to not bore people, and yet just out-there enough to remain interesting with repeated listens.
"The Relic" is another example of a typical, straight-forward Symphony X being done with great results. Awesome riffing, and infectious chorus and a jaw-dropping solo section, this song has, in a nut-shell, everything makes Symphony X awesome. It's not particularly unique among their catalogue, but certainly a very good example of their sound. It's also one of two songs on this album that have yet to be played live, something that I don't really understand, 'cause I'm sure that would absolutely slay live.
"Orion - The Hunter" is the other song on the album that has yet to be performed live, and while I can understand that, it's still a kick-ass song. The opening riff is one of my favourites and both the verse and chorus melodies are some of Symphony X's most unusual. without ever feeling awkward or unfitting. If I had to name one song on this album that I never see mentioned, despite being completely awesome, it'd be this one. One of the band's most underrated tracks, surely. And that solo section and the way it leads into the intro riff again is nothing short of pure brilliance.
"Lady of the Snow" is one of the band's most unique songs, featuring the use of Oriental scales and the use of a sitar in the intro. The lyrics are based on the Japanese legend of the snow spirit Yuki-onna, a supernatural being that would lure travellers to their death in the snow. Allen's performance on this song is amazing, similarly to his work on "Candlelight Fantasia". In fact, I often see this song compared with
The Divine Wings of Tragedy's closer, and I might be in the minority, but I think that "Lady of the Snow" is the superior song of the two. One of my favourite closers ever, and definitely a top-tier Symphony X ballad.
All in all, I think it's pretty obvious that I'm a huge fan of this album. More, it's my favourite Symphony X album. There are several factors that contribute to this, I think. One is that it opens with my first real progressive song that I loved, so the opening of the album takes me back to my discovery what I would now consider one of my favourite genres. Another thing is how varied this album is - you have the standard straight-forward songs like "In the Dragon's Den" and "Smoke and Mirrors", but you also have uniquely structured songs like "Through the Looking Glass", the Oriental touches in "Lady of the Snow" or syncopated riffing of "Orion - The Hunter", all of which come together to make this an incredibly varied album. And third, this album is really quite short, by Symphony X standards, at least, clocking in at 52 minutes, and while few Symphony X albums are too long in my opinion, this album is as concise and to the point as they ever got, with astounding results.
I already said that the making of the album wasn't the easiest, and the same applied for the tour. During the tour, bassist Thomas Miller started to have troubles with touring, exhibiting symptons of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, regular sickness and anxiety attacks. Michael Romeo also adds that Miller appeared to become more and more religious over the tour and more and more withdrawn from his bandmates. During the tour, Thomas Miller left Symphony X and was replaced with Andy DeLuca, who left before they could even begin to record their next album. Jason Rullo did return after the tour, but I do think that Miller's absence is felt a lot stronger in current Symphony X than Rullo's ever was. But more on those line-up changes when we discuss the next album.
1. Through the Looking Glass
2. Lady of the Snow
3. Smoke and Mirrors
4. Orion - The Hunter
5. Church of the Machine
6. The Relic
7. In the Dragon's Den
8. Sonata
Topic: Symphony X: Iconoclast (2011) (Read 20511 times)
