I won't bore you with details, but real life has kinda been a bitch and I kinda forgot that this was going on amidst all the other craziness. Sorry about that - I have already written the remaining two write-ups, so it definitely won't happen again.
Onwards!
After the release of the wildly successful
V: The New Mythology Suite, Symphony X went on an extensive tour that was larger than any previous tours. To celebrate this, they recorded the confusingly-titled
Live on the Edge of Forever, which, despite the title, didn't feature any tracks from the first two albums - a shame, if you ask me, but oh well. The album received mixed reviews - which I find pretty generous, to be quite honest. All the performances are great, but I have honestly heard better sounding bootlegs. I'm not someone that is easily bothered by audio quality, so that says something about this release. It's also why we won't really examine it in detail - it's just kinda bad. Plus, all tracks are quite similar to the studio versions. People interested can listen to "The Death of Balance / Candlelight Fantasia", which is a kinda neat segue, but the rest is ultimately worthless.
Undeterred by all this, the band - this time without any lineup changes - entered the studio in early 2002 to begin recording their sixth album. Unlike previous albums, which were at least partly recorded in other studios, this album is the first Symphony X album to be recorded at Michael Romeo's private studio in its entirety - a trend that would continue for subsequent albums. This allowed the band to take all the time that they needed, and I think that it shows - The result is the album that is eternally warring with
The Divine Wings of Tragedy for the spot of my second favourite Symphony X album: 2002's...
The Odyssey (2002)01. Inferno (Unleash the Fire) (5:32)
02. Wicked (5:32)
03. Incantations of the Apprentice (4:22)
04. Accolade II (7:53)
05. King of Terrors (6:19)
06. The Turning (4:44)
07. Awakenings (8:21)
08. The Odyssey (24:09)
The Odyssey marks a stylistic shift that Symphony X would continue on the two following albums - the vocals became rougher, the guitars became more aggressive and in-your-face, while the keyboard lost some of its importance. While this is a shift that I'm not really all that happy about,
The Odyssey is still close enough to their old sound that it still works. Still, it is a herald of things to come, and of a stylistic shift that not everyone will enjoy. This also reflects in the reviews - while the general reception of this album has been positive, there are quite a few reviewers that gave this album two or three stars, one prominent example being AllMusic.
"Inferno (Unleash the Fire)" opens the album with a furious guitar riff that immediately reassures us that Romeo has lost nothing in terms of technical skill. The verses display Russell Allen's gruffer vocals for the first time, but he shines in the chorus and shows us that he can still sing like nobody's business. The instrumental section feels a little more redundant than in perhaps other songs, but mainly because the whole song features Romeo shredding and Pinella's solo patch is kinda... eh. Still, the song is, all in all, a win - mainly due to that amazing chorus.
"Wicked" is one of the weaker songs on this album, but it's still quite good. The main riff is pretty damn headbangable, and the verses have a pretty awesome vocal melody - it's not entirely familiar or expected, but it doesn't feel disjointed. However, the chorus is kind of a let-down and doesn't really go anywhere. The instrumental section saves the song though, with an awe-inspiring solo by Romeo that is even better for its brevity. The bridge after the solo is pretty good too, though what really makes it is the transition into the main riff. All in all, this song is pretty damn good let down only by a sub-par chorus.
"Incantations of the Apprentice" is, I feel, quite an underrated song. It has a great keyboard groove, some unconventional riffing that keeps things fresh, a great performance by Allen on the vocals and an awesome prechorus. Again, the chorus is what lets this song down, which is weird, as Symphony X's chorus are generally spot-on. The guitar solo is one of my absolute favourites from Romeo, mainly due to some really cool harmonics and then that incredible sweep in the second half. I like this one a lot more than "Wicked" and "Inferno", so while it may not be perfect, it's still a severly underrated song.
"Accolade II" achieves a rare feat - it is a sequel that actually matches its predecessors brilliance. For a long time, I actually preferred this to "The Accolade", and while that is no longer the case, it's not a case of this song becoming worse, it's just that "The Accolade" grew on me a lot. Anyway, there are many brilliant things about this song, but the best thing is unquestionably the vocals - both the verses and the chorus (HOLY SHIT GUYS THAT CHORUS!!!) are nothing short of brilliant. Another thing that I love about this song is Pinella's presence on the piano - he's a little underused on this album, but the tracks where he shines, he shows why he's one of progressive metal's finest keyboarders.
"King of Terrors" might just be the band's heaviest song up until this point. The main riff is simple, but amazingly powerful at the same time. Russell's gruffer singing style works perfectly on this song, and the chorus is a thing of beauty. However, despite this song being amazingly heavy, Pinella plays a heavy role in it, with backing keys under the riffs in the verses and some great piano playing in the pre-chorus. The instrumental section isn't one of my absolute favourites, but it's still great, and contains one of my favourite LePond bass moments, which must be treasured, due to them being much rarer than Thomas Miller's standout bass moments.
"The Turning" is another track that is rarely mentioned, much like "Incantations of the Apprentice", but that's where the similarities end. While the former is creative and exciting, "The Turning" is probably as close to generic as Symphony X can get - a boring riff, shred solos that go nowhere a chorus, that, while catchy, lacks something special. On the up side, it's quite short, and the pre-chorus is pretty good, so it's not a total failure, and it's not a track I'd skip - but not a track that I particularly seek out either. It's just kinda there, and on an album of this calibre, that sadly means that it's going to be my least favourite.
"Awakenings" might just be Symphony X's most underrated song ever. I would call this "The Edge of Forever"'s spiritual successor, featuring heavy use of piano, an unconventional song structure, a shitload of amazing solos and a brilliant chorus, and while many people (rightfully) love "The Edge of Forever", this is a song that I rarely see mentioned. I could just spend a few hundred words on how this song is amazing, but I'd just end mentioning every single part, so I'll just say this: this is one of the very few Symphony X songs that I would consider perfect, and it's my favourite on the album.
"The Odyssey", the gargantuan title track is a fan favourite, and it made #2 in our Symphony X survivor last year, and while I personally don't agree with that, it's still a great song that tells an epic story in a way that few other songs could, and it shows all the facets of Symphony X's sound, from serene and beautiful to all-out aggression, from complexity to catchiness. The only real problem that I have with this song, and the reason why I don't rate it as highly as most others seem to do, are the two orchestral sections that don't really contribute a lot, sound quite cheesy and are just generally too long and too interesting, thus breaking up the flow (well, the first orchestral section is the overture, but Sirens features of lot of orchestra too, and that's what breaks the songs flow). If some of those parts were cut or reworked, this would have the potential to become one of my favourite songs of all time - the other sections, especially the closing "Champion of Ithaca" are certainly amazing enough.
In summary, this album is really good. There are a few songs that stay below their potential ("Wicked", I'm looking at you) and one song that is a noticeable drop in quality ("The Turning"), but on the whole, the album is of an incredibly high quality, and quite consistent to boot. While it marks a shift in musical style, this one straddles the middle between early and later-day Symphony X quite well, making this an album that both fans of the newer style and the band's older work should enjoy. It is also the album that I would probably use to introduce a newbie to the band - at least, if he came from a more metal background, as opposed to a prog background. While I don't quite hold this in the same high regard as I used to (it used to be my favourite Symphony X album, and #10 of all time), this is still an album that I can put on at any time and enjoy.
1. Awakenings
2. Accolade II
3. King of Terrors
4. The Odyssey
5. Incantations of the Apprentice
6. Inferno (Unleash the Fire)
7. Wicked
8. The Turning