Symphony X thread!

[oh8wrx]

LOL! 

Good one. 

[Rina]

I'm fully prepared to be impregnated with Russell Allen's child. 

I'm just curious.  How exactly does one prepare for that?

Listening to Symphony X while drinking a bottle of Jack Daniels...straight.

  Then that means I'm fully prepared to be impregnated with Russell Allen's child too!  HALP!   

Just accept this, it's easier that way.

[Zook]

Back off, he's mine!

[Plasmastrike]

I just had to post this because it made me laugh.

Right now, I'm sitting in our student center working on some graphic design stuff. It's Friday, so it's pretty dead around here for the most part. Naturally, I put on some music. I had the intro to "The Odyssey" on.

Some guy walks by and says "Is that Pokémon?" as he leans over my screen expecting to see an emulator.

I was like, "No, just some awesome progressive power metal band, Symphony X." He walked away disappointed.

[Zook]

I don't know what's worse: ''Pokemon'' or ''Lord of the Dance''.

[NecessaryPain]

I keep thinking these bumps signal a studio update/announcement of the new album - but it's always a disappointment. 

[glaurung]

So what you do? Bump the thread.

[AwakeFromOctavarium]

I already got impregnated by his voice. Just saying.

[73109]

Symphony X is on my list of bands to check out this year. Album suggestion please?

[PlaysLikeMyung]

Symphony X is on my list of bands to check out this year. Album suggestion please?

The Damnation Game, Twilight in Olympus, V, and Paradise Lost

[bosk1]

Symphony X is on my list of bands to check out this year. Album suggestion please?

Do you like any "symphonic metal" or "power metal" bands/albums?  If so, which ones? 

Paradise lost is very heavy, and while it definitely has the symphonic/power metal element, the focus is more on the heavy.  My only criticism of the album is that it is less varied and sounds more samey throughout.  That, combined with a bit of overcompression, and the fact that it is a concept album with a very loose concept and no real storyline cause me to lose interest at times.  But honestly, it's not a bad album at all, and a lot of fans, particularly younger fans, love it to death.  I think it is a good representation of the band.

V and The Odyssey, to me, best represent the band's historical sound.  They represent the band at the top of their game doing what the band has always done and doing it well, but do not suffer from somewhat dated-sounding production that the earlier albums have.  However, the cheese factor is much higher on these albums than on PL, so if you do not like stereotypical cheesey power metal, beware.

[73109]

I love Inferno Unleash The Fire if that helps and I dig Something Wicked This Way Comes by Iced Earth. I also dig Bye Bye Beautiful by Nightwish (Only song I know but it is cool) and I love Cry For the Moon by Epica and one or two Kamelot songs.

edit: And I adore Falconer's first album and that is ultimate cheese.

[Global Laziness]

Get The Divine Wings of Tragedy and V first.

[bosk1]

I love Inferno Unleash The Fire if that helps and I dig Something Wicked This Way Comes by Iced Earth. I also dig Bye Bye Beautiful by Nightwish (Only song I know but it is cool) and I love Cry For the Moon by Epica and one or two Kamelot songs.

If you like Inferno, go with The Odyssey.  That song is pretty indicative of how that entire album sounds, so I don't think you can go wrong.  After that, based on the other songs you listed, I really don't think you can go wrong with any of their other albums.  IMO, V is sonically very similar to The Odyssey, but perhaps a bit more symphonic, and has a lot of cool thematic development given that it is a concept album.  Again, PL is heavier and a bit less symphonic, but I get the sense you will like it. 

[73109]

Thank you, I am going one album at a time for many bands so I am probably going to end up flipping a coin between the Odyssey and V.

[bosk1]

A plus I will give The Odyssey is that the bonus track, Masquerade, is a remake of a song that appeared on one of their earlier albums, so with that song you get a flavor for how their earlier material sounded, which may help you decide whether to pursue any of the material prior to V.


...but a plus I will give V is that it is just friggin' metal! 

[73109]

Gah!!!!!

I will give one of these albums a listen today but first, I am going to check out the second Falconer album.

[Birch Boy]

Listen to The Odyssey.

[PlaysLikeMyung]

A plus I will give The Odyssey is that the bonus track, Masquerade, is a remake of a song that appeared on one of their earlier albums, so with that song you get a flavor for how their earlier material sounded, which may help you decide whether to pursue any of the material prior to V.


...but a plus I will give V is that it is just friggin' metal! 

Masquerade '98 is amazing, mostly because Rod Tyler isn't singing

[abydos]

On Tyler songs I prefer him singing to RA. Don't get the hate for this guy.

[PlaysLikeMyung]

he just wasnt good, plain and simple. the raging seasons wold be brilliant with russell on vocals

[bosk1]

wold

Look at you, getting all Medieval in your language when talking about Symphony X.  How cute. 

[RuRoRul]

Honestly any album from Divine Wings Of Tragedy onwards is worth it. The Damnation Game is good and has some greats (The Edge Of Forever is one of their best) but all the albums after it are better in my opinion.

V and Paradise Lost are my two favourite. I agree with bosk that it is a bit samey though. That's not necessarily a bad thing when it means that every song is great though - better great songs of a similar nature than vastly different songs with some of them not so good - but it can make listening to it a bit tiresome.

Also Twilight In Olympus would be better off once you've got into the other albums, imo. DWOT + The Oddyssey have the epics which are amazing, V and Paradise Lot are the more consistent albums.

[NecessaryPain]

As much as I love these guys, they need to seriously start making haste with bringing out this new album.

I would like to know how they can even afford to live with such little involvement in touring and new album releases.

Seriously.

[The Dark Master]

Any album from Divine Wings onward is amazing.  Twilight In Olympus is actually a really awesome album will some killer tracks on it (Smoke and Mirrors, Church of the Machine and Through the Looking Glass), it just sounds a little incomplete cause they had to cut the epic title track from the album, which they then expanded into V, so I guess it worked out for the best after all.

As for Paradise Lost, I love the album personally, though Twilight and V are my favorites, I consider PL at least comparable in quality to Divine Wings and Odyssey.  Paradise Lost is basically Symphony X's answer to Priest's Painkiller or DT's Train of Thought; it's a straight forward, all out metal album.  For what it is, it's amazing, and there are some really stand out cuts on that one too (the title track, Walls of Babylon and Revelations, in particular).  If you want a Symphony X album where almost every song is a "Of Sins and Shadows" or "Smoke And Mirrors", balls-to-the-wall, high speed symphonic shred-fest, then you can't do any better then Paradise Lost, but if you want a more balanced album that presents all aspects of the band more evenly, the albums from Divine Wings to Odyssey are a better choice.

[The Dark Master]

As much as I love these guys, they need to seriously start making haste with bringing out this new album.

I would like to know how they can even afford to live with such little involvement in touring and new album releases.

Seriously.

THIS x infinity

[Global Laziness]

As much as I love these guys, they need to seriously start making haste with bringing out this new album.

I would like to know how they can even afford to live with such little involvement in touring and new album releases.

Seriously.

Although I do agree, to be fair they are embarking on a tour of at least three months in February.

[PlaysLikeMyung]

As much as I love these guys, they need to seriously start making haste with bringing out this new album.

I would like to know how they can even afford to live with such little involvement in touring and new album releases.

Seriously.

Although I do agree, to be fair they are embarking on a tour of at least three months in February.

And this is why the lack of updates is disturbing. Is this gonna be a tour in support of the new album or not?

That question is glaring to me

[bosk1]

Hard to say.  On one hand, I don't see how it could be.  If the album was going to drop before the tour, the label should be saying so by now. 

However, SX are really in a difficult position as a band.  They just aren't quite big enough to have the luxury of being in absolute control over their own destiny in terms of booking and touring schedules, so maybe hte album will drop sometime during the tour, and the currently-planned tour schedule is all they could get right now.

[Global Laziness]

At any rate, some new material on this tour would be nice.

[PlaysLikeMyung]

Hard to say.  On one hand, I don't see how it could be.  If the album was going to drop before the tour, the label should be saying so by now. 

However, SX are really in a difficult position as a band.  They just aren't quite big enough to have the luxury of being in absolute control over their own destiny in terms of booking and touring schedules, so maybe hte album will drop sometime during the tour, and the currently-planned tour schedule is all they could get right now.

That would suck... Philly is the first stop on the US tour

[YtseBitsySpider]

I was on a huge Syph kick yesterday.

Odysee.
wow

[jjrock88]

Symphony X in my opinion are one of the most underated bands in the history of metal.  They deserve much more and should be much bigger; on the same level as DT as far as I'm concerned.  All of their cd's are amazing, especially the last three.  I would love a new live cd to go with the new one in 2011

[jsem]

Odyssey is a MASTERPIECE

[RuRoRul]

Currently starting on Paradise Lost after playing through most of The Damnation Game, all of The Divine Wings Of Tragedy and The Odyssey. Twilight In Olympus and V: The New Mythology Suite to follow, if I'm still here studying that long.

I really want to hear something about when the album is released, whether it's 6 months away or even next year. I only discovered Symphony X at the start of last year, and the new album has been only a few months away for an entire year, and more. At least a release date, even if it's far away, is better than nothing. Every day with no word is more chance that the album will never even see the light of day.