Which of these bands if your favorite?

[ytserush]

Riverside easily.

Don't like what I've heard from those other bands at all.

[Elite]

I will out myself and say I think almost all Symphony X before Paradise Lost is unbearable, whereas their last 3 albums are totally awesome, so they'd be my #2 here

While I'm by no means a fan, I think Symphony X up until (and including) Paradise Lost, while cheesy still did their thing pretty good. But i remember thinking the one after Paradise Lost was really painful to get through because the guitars were tuned to sound like a machine or something and the 'heavier' tuning just had a negative impact on their sound IMO. The earlier stuff is most definitely cheese but I can see why people would get something out of it more - even if me myself is fairly neutral.

Responding to both; Paradise Lost was the album that got me 'into' Symphony X when it was released in 2007. I was in high school and thought what they did was awesome. I have fond memories of this album in particular. Checking out their previous work, I dug The Odyssey and Divine Wings of Tragedy the most. I could never get my hands on 'V: The New Mythology Suite'. A shame, because years later when I finally decided to get that one after Iconoclast was such a huge let-down I think V became my favourite SX album. I haven't listened to Iconoclast since it was released basically and kind-of lost interest in the band (I only listened to their latest one like once), but Paradise Lost is one I occasionally enjoy for nostalgic reasons and and V contains some of their best work as far as I'm concerned.

Definitely an inconsistent band as far as their studio output is concerned (I think), but some of the things they do, they do really well.

[Peter Mc]

I think I’ve had 3 Symphony X albums over the years and just found them too cheesy which is strange as I like a lot of cheesy stuff.

My brother bought me a Riverside album at Xmas called Love, Fear And The Machine. I haven’t spent a whole lot of time with it but it sounded like an even more dull version of Marillion when they do dull stuff.

Not heard Andromeda.

Really liked first 2 albums by CM. First one is almost a DT tribute album but, whilst not at DT level, I enjoy it. Second album pulls more from a variety of influences and I think is a really good melodic rock/prog metal album. Third album is not bad by any means and has some brilliant stuff on but also some average stuff.  It’s Circus Maximus by some distance for me. Their last album was boring as hell though.

[Grappler]

Symphony X.  Russell Allen is incredible.

Circus Maximus' first two albums are great, then they completely lost me and I've had zero interest in them since.  Except for the retro EP that they released not too long ago, with unfinished songs from those first two records.   

[Adami]

Poor Andromeda.