Symphony X

[MrKnickerbocker]

How does Romeo kick off his band's debut album? By playing guitar underwater, of course!

And sadly, it's not just the intro! Romeo remains underwater when playing leads on the entire album. And you'd think he'd be pretty buoyant.

 

[Diesel 11]

Here’s the thing about Romeo in general: he’s a great and talented guitarist, but he isn’t very memorable as a soloist. His solos (generally) fit the songs quite well, but very few of them are outstanding — like, holy shit, one of the best solos ever - kind of outstanding. “Sea of Lies” is the only song I can think of off the bat that has an outstanding Romeo solo. Generally I think his riffs end up sticking out more.

ADDENUDUM: While writing this I also remembered the ‘Circe, Daughter of the Sun’ solo in “The Odyssey”. That one’s pretty cool too.

 

[MrKnickerbocker]

Here’s the thing about Romeo in general: he’s a great and talented guitarist, but he isn’t very memorable as a soloist. His solos (generally) fit the songs quite well, but very few of them are outstanding — like, holy shit, one of the best solos ever - kind of outstanding. “Sea of Lies” is the only song I can think of off the bat that has an outstanding Romeo solo. Generally I think his riffs end up sticking out more.

ADDENUDUM: While writing this I also remembered the ‘Circe, Daughter of the Sun’ solo in “The Odyssey”. That one’s pretty cool too.

Accolade II has a pretty great solo, as well. I do agree in general, though.

 

[Detective Beauregard]

Accolade II has a pretty great solo, as well. I do agree in general, though.

Communion and the Oracle too, if memory serves correct.

 

[Diesel 11]

“Communion” has some really nice, lush guitar playing as a whole. Really shows off Romeo’s versatility as a player.

 

[Detective Beauregard]

“Communion” has some really nice, lush guitar playing as a whole. Really shows off Romeo’s versatility as a player.

If you really want to hear Romeo be diverse, check out Russell Allen’s Atomic Soul. I’m pretty sure he’s playing rock n’ roll bluesy slide guitar on one of the songs.

 

[MrKnickerbocker]

Premonition

Lyrics:

Spoiler

Unlock the doors of silence
Scanning eyes turn into stone
Pours the wine of hate and enmity
Helpless minds dance in circles
Forever frozen within time
Then stare into unlit serenity
Endless dreams are all encased in disarray

CHORUS:
Through the eyes of time, I see
All the love and tragedy
The breath of fate surrounds me
And bring me to my knees
Through the eyes of time, I see
Peace and false tranquility
Although my scars, they do
Run deep, right here I'll be

Blind visions summon me
Returned under blackened skies
Scorned and scathed by the spirit's song
A shadow forbears warning
Reveals a rhyme, then descends
And falls into the black endless sea
Endless dreams are all encased in disarray

CHORUS

Our inner strengths will fill our needs
And heal the hearts that still bleed

[Guitar Solo]

CHORUS

• Pinnella kicks this one off with some nice, pretty piano followed by dramatic bass 'n' drums + synths, while Romeo continues to exist underwater. The bass and the drums sync up really nicely here.
• The progression that hits around :50 sounds really familiar...but I can't place it.
• Edit at 1:13 into the verse is so poorly done. Clearly spliced.
• Verses are okay, Rod sounds meh (though he fits this sound better than the opening track), Romeo debuts his "trademarked" delayed/reverbed clean arpeggio style. It always sounds cool.
• Gosh, those backing vocals are loud.
• The transition into the guitar solo is much better, though Romeo is still underwater and locked inside a vault.
• Pinnella is still playing mostly straight piano throughout this track and I think I'm starting to understand why I prefer him to most other metal keyboard players.
• HOLY SHIT that outro is way too short. The fade out is incredibly brief. It's literally 10 seconds from the start of the outro riff until it fades into nothingness.

 

[Diesel 11]

Pinnella is still playing mostly straight piano throughout this track and I think I'm starting to understand why I prefer him to most other metal keyboard players.

I’m going to actually add substance tomorrow, but for now I shall digress: this is really such an important concept that I love in metal. Nightwish does this often too. You can have the keyboardist playing difficult pieces that hit you right in the face, but often the synths sound cheesy and kill the vibes. Great players know when to simply use piano for a song to add a lot of depth that isn’t seen at first until you peel back the layers. It’s so cool and I’m going to really pay more attention to Pinnella in this DDD.

 

[Diesel 11]

You can have the keyboardist playing difficult pieces that hit you right in the face, but often the synths sound cheesy and kill the vibes.

Also: Symphony X could often fall in this category, but they’re exempt because their whole æsthetic, as my girlfriend lovingly put it, is that they sound like everything is being played through a Casio keyboard.

 

[Midnight]

You can have the keyboardist playing difficult pieces that hit you right in the face, but often the synths sound cheesy and kill the vibes.

Exhibit A: Jordan Rudess.

 

[Spambot]

I couldn't wait so I've listened to the whole album yesterday. On the first listen, I noticed there are some heavier tracks mid-album which I'm looking forward of diving into. So far, it looks to me like the album is still in third of fourth gear, like they still haven't got into it.

Premonition
Piano intro sounds good but I fail to see what it has to do with the rest of the song. And as someone mention before, that cut as 1:13 is so poorly done, I can't believe nobody intervened. The rhythm is good but is so poorly produced, seems this song would be 10 times heavier if they had a decent producer. Back vocals in chorus sound like a church choir meeting for the first time after a long break. I like the part after second chorus, at 3:49, it seems like they had chops to try and make a twist but it didn't fully pay off after that. I laughed at that outro. It was like:
A - What now? What shall we do?
B - IDK, should I repeat that riff again?
A- Do it! Do it now! I'll fade it out quickly.

I'll repeat again: I can't believe this is produced in '94, it just out so out that period and didn't age well. Also, I've found out guy that sings on this one (Rod Tyler) left after this album. I guess that is OK, the guy just lack... character, emotion? I can't really put my finger on it, but something about his singing makes me follow current guidelines and keep 2m (6ft) distance from this song.

 

[Detective Beauregard]

Premonition is a much better song than the previous one, and easily in the top half of this album in terms of quality. This style - more atmospheric, emotive, keyboard-driven Symphony X - is the sound I prefer from them. As you can imagine, I prefer the band's earlier work to Paradise Lost and beyond (even though I still love those albums).

• I love the intro (sections of The Edge of Forever sound eerily similar to this). This is the sound I was describing above; keyboards that are pretty yet ominous and foreboding at the same time. The piano intro is great, and then we get a classic Symphony X modulation - and then moments later we get another modulation. I miss this jumping around from key to key in the band's later works in favor of Romeo and Russell's desire for "in yo face" metal. There are four modulations in this intro alone - Dm to Cm to Am to a transitional section that begins in Gm and then circles back to Dm. Most bands stay in one key for an entire song, but only a minute has elapsed in this case. This is why I've always loved Symphony X. Long songs without key changes tend to sound very same-y to me.
• Romeo takes a back seat for a lot of this song, which I love. The guy never really had an ego on the band's first five albums and was content to play with the other instruments, not over them. You know, like a symphony.
• Interesting verse with a classic Symphony X backing keyboard line and bad (but not the typically awful) vocals from Rod. We're back to Gm here, by the way.
• The brief pre-chorus likely exists solely to transition to a chorus in the new key of Ebm. I don't love this chorus, but it's one of the vocal sections from this album that stays stuck in my head. So I guess it's... catchy?
• I could live without another Queen bridge, although Rod actually sounds decent on the last line. This leads into an all-too-brief neoclassical section that I like.
• Romeo's solo here is much stronger than the previous track's. There's some cool melodies here and there when he's not doing his typical legato noodling. The key changes again here, to Em.
• The post-solo instrumental section is neat, too, and should have been longer. Honestly, I think this song would have been better if it ended instrumentally without ever bringing Rod back. The same can be said of, well, every song on this album.
• The outro is poorly executed. I like it - it calls back the intro and it's in an odd meter (5/8 or 5/4, depending on how you hear it) - but it should have been expanded. They also fade the song out (too quickly), which could have worked if the outro were longer. In general, I really don't care for full-band fade-outs. Symphony X does this a few more times on this album and a lot on their post-Odyssey material (The Walls of Babylon comes to mind), which just sounds wrong to me. I think it works with the softer stuff, but heavier songs sound better to me when they have a strong, punchy, definitive ending (like Metallica often does). It resolves the song and doesn't pitter-patter out into nothingness. Punchy endings also make the songs easier to play live.

Premonition's Russell Factor: yes please, please just yes

Lyrically, this is more of the same when compared to the opening track. Again, lyric analysis isn't my forte, but I don't mind these. It's poetry compared to the band's later works.

This is probably the third or fourth or maybe fifth-best track on the album. It's a fine blueprint for where the band is headed for their more symphonic and progressive songs up to and including The Odyssey. Sadly, since Paradise Lost, the band's lighter tracks have been derivative, straightforward, and boring in comparison. Obviously, Rod's voice is wrong for this song, but he's more tolerable here than when he tries to wail over heavy riffs.

 

[Diesel 11]

I'm gonna be up front and say that "Premonition" is far and away a much better composition than "The Raging Season", there's really no comparison between the two. That piano intro is fantastic, played with so emotion and it's truly breathtakingly beautiful. I love how the synths come in - very much reminds me of "The Divine Wings of Tragedy", and though the latter song works much better than this, it still works, really well in fact. Then there's another change and I really dig how audible the bass is here, it's pulling the strings and controlling everything like a master at play - god bless Thomas Miller, man. And then another change into a piece with distortion-less guitars. Romeo is already showing his versatility here. It sound gorgeous, I love it. The intro alone is better than everything from the previous song. It literally goes through four different moods in the span of about a minute and this is, as far as I'm concerned, where the genius of Symphony X first gets to rear its head. My god, it's amazing.

The weakest link on this song is... well... Rod. I like the way he first enters the scene with that "mmmmm yeah", but it just sets you up for disappointment when his weak-ass voice actually starts singing. And again, I'm not the biggest hater of Mr. Tyler, but he's clearly out of his element. Russell cannot come soon enough.

The way the verses roll out reminds me of another later Symphony X song. They aren't heavy, and there's a nice flow to them. Once the chorus comes in I'm sure that what I'm thinking of is "Candlelight Fantasia". It's not that they're the most similar songs, and the choruses are definitely structured differently, but the kind of feel, to me, sounds like they were going for similar things here. Man, this pre-chorus is like if you flooded a cathedral and swam in it. At least, that's the best description my brain offered me. It's a very small pre-chorus but it helps bring us into the actual one. And I tell you what, that chorus is one of the few things I can remember from the album right off the bat. It isn't perfect, but I really dig the Beatles-esque backing vocals. Too loud? Eh. They're so much more interesting than Tyler.

Rod is struggling big time on this bridge, but it's ultimately much shorter than the one in the previous song so I won't let it bother me. Very symphonic pre-solo. It literally sounds like something out of a symphony and if you were to tell me that they did nick it from one - since they do that so often anyway - I would believe you easily. Christ on a stick, that solo is waterboarded to hell again, but Romeo is actually playing a really, really good one, which saves it big time. It's not just noodling, there's a strong sense of precision to it. I'm also getting Iced Earth vibes twice in this song - in that post-solo piece (reminds me of "Dante's Inferno") and in the outro ("Pure Evil", maybe?).

By the time we get to the final chorus I'm literally air drumming alongside Rullo. And though the outro should have been built up more and allowed time to simmer, I gotta say that as a whole, this song is truly a great sign of things to come. There is so much more thought put into it than the previous song, so many layers to the construction, so many moments that you can really see the band picking up later on and perfecting. You could probably make this one perfect if you replaced Rod with Russell and had better production and editing choices. Overall, I dig this one a lot. An imperfect but memorable early masterclass.

 

[MrKnickerbocker]

Masquerade

LYRICS:

Spoiler

Shackled in darkness, the forbidden portrait confined to it's frame
Unbroken silence, a total misfortune and shame
Raging obsession, mask of depression
It hides your aggression from view
This tearing suture renounces the love he once knew

Your sacrifice this paradise of innocence
Trust the lie, you falsify the line of truth
You disguise your insolence
Don't deny insanity, mediocrity

CHORUS
Save us from this masquerade of lies
Kings and fools die in ridicule (save us)
Save us from this masquerade of lies

A fallen fortress sees him beneath starless skies
Subsiding deeper, the final farewell in his eyes
Unspoken hero, distrusted and thrusted within surmise
Seizing intrusion to unveil his clever disguise

Your sacrifice this paradise of innocence
Trust the lie, you falsify the line of truth

CHORUS

[Guitar and Bass Solo / Guitar Solo / Keyboard Solo]

CHORUS

The song so good they recorded it twice!

• The neoclassical intro really is great. It sounds pretty lame at first, but once the bass and drums come in you 100% understand what they're going for. I feel like this might be one of their most (if not the most) neoclassical songs ever?
• Rod, at first, doesn't sound terrible. But boy, that turns around real quick with lines likes "and shame!" and "he once knew!" He sounds like he's actually taking a poop.
• The verse and pre-chorus guitar parts are very reminiscent of later-era Symphony X and are really nice. There's a simple chug followed by some really cool turnarounds that are expertly accented by Thomas Miller's bass and it sounds great despite the terrible recording quality.
• Transitioning into the chorus with the choir is...something. I don't know if I love it or hate it. It's certainly striking.
• The bridge of this song rules. The staccato start-stop part dominated by the harpsichord is really cool and the insane guitar and bass section that follows is fantastic.
• Typical Romeo solo full of typical Romeo-isms. We should count how many times throughout the discography a Romeo solo opens with the "bluesy" wail notes heard at 3:23 and how many times he uses the passage at 3:32 for dramatic effect.
• It's nice to hear Pinnella jump on a little lead, even if he still sounds like he's trying to figure out how he fits.
• For once, I think they ended it pretty well.

 

[Diesel 11]

Aight well the third Symphony X song begins, once more, with STRANDS AND STRANDS OF SPAGHETT. Only Romeo forgot to take his SPAGHETT out of the WATER, or even TURN IT ON for that matter. Luckily Pinnella is here! Yay! Pinnella MASTERFULLY turns on the STOVE so that Romeo's SPAGHETT can BOIL. Gordon Ramsay has been awfully quiet since Pinnella showed the world that he was the one and only TRUE MASTER CHEF!!!

Unfortunately Pinnella's expert cooking skills don't obscure the fact that Romeo forgot the seasoning, so while the fire is there in the form of MP's synths, it's not really all that interesting. Solid piece that sounds like it was lifted from a symphony precedes an actually very nice riff, boosted again because of Pinnella's presence. And here's where it connects with me, that "Masquerade" really sounds like a metal version of a masquerade ball. And then Rod comes in, and this time he sounds terrible. He struggles immensely on the low notes and sounds like he may throw up. And then the high notes! MAMMA MIA! I do not like this maître d' at all. I'm considering going to another restaurant altogether, Jesus Christ. And the appetizer is stupid and rotten. That pre-chorus is just blah. The main course is no better. Sounds like they got lost on their way to Vegas and dovetailed the car into a swamp, blew all their money on an alligator's tail feather (oh so you're telling me that alligators don't have tail feathers? FAKE NEWS!!!), and then went back to Jersey riding nothing but a meatball sub. At least Rod is better during the second verse.

Luckily everything picks up with desert. As water-logged as Romeo sounds, I love how he and Miller hold a little bass / guitar duel at the start of the instrumental piece. Then Romeo takes the stage alone and delivers a really good guitar solo before Pinnella joins him and there's another duel, this time between guitar and keyboards.

And hey, by the time the chorus comes back and he hit that outro I'm actually having a good time. But it still isn't very good. I'm shocked that they chose this song to re-record with Russell because it's easily the worst of the four (yes I'm counting the intro track) that we've been through. Not even the instrumental can make this one anymore interesting than it actually is. We stan Pinnella but the rest of this song is pointless.

 

[Detective Beauregard]

We've reached the most popular song from this album, if you can call it that. Masquerade is Symphony X's first really neoclassical song, of which they usually have at least one per album. It is very difficult for me to hear this song and not criticize everything about it, since it was done so much better in the 1998 version. But I'll give it a shot.

• In terms of the notes being played, I like the intro. The sound, however, does not help Symphony X escape the crowd who ridicule them for the Casio keyboard patches.
• The first riff is bare bones, but thankfully the keyboards add some texture. I like how Romeo arpeggiates the notes of the Absus4 chord after letting it ring. It's a small thing, but it sounds neat. I've never been a fan of straight 8th note chugging riffs like this, but Romeo uses them quite a bit on the early albums. Still, this is one of the better ones since the chords are changing often enough to keep it from getting stale.
• Musically, I like the bass/guitar octave jumps on the turnarounds in the verses (particularly the start/stop "funkiness" of the first and third ones). Vocally, well... not my thing.
• The pre-chorus is just weird. The pulse switch (it's not a tempo change, but rather where Rullo is placing the snare hits) is interesting, but the vocal melodies are just poor. "Mediocrity" is right, Rod. What's even more confusing is how this pre-chorus doesn't repeat the second time through; it's as if Romeo knew it wasn't particularly strong.
• The chorus is a bit too musical theater for my tastes. Nothing particularly catchy here.
• The interlude after the chorus is great because the other instruments sync up for maximum power but give the keys a chance to carry something. I miss Pinnella a lot on the band's more recent albums.
• I love the tapping unison, and it's great to hear Miller as high in the mix as Romeo is. It's strange that you can't hear him as clearly on the '98 version.
• Romeo's solo is much better in the '98 version, although it's far from weak here. There are parts where it seems like he's just throwing random licks at the wall, though. That said, I do like the two harmonized runs. When I saw them play this song live in 2008, I'm pretty sure Pinnella was harmonizing with him during those parts. Finally, the riff under the solo has a nice start/stop punch to it.
• The guitar/key unison is nice, if typical. Sadly, the rhythm section work underneath is stock and boring.
• Once again, I don't think the painfully average chorus needed to return here. It feels almost tacked on, only for the song to end abruptly a few seconds afterward. The outro in the '98 version is much more fitting in my opinion.

Masquerade's Russell Factor: We've heard it, and it's... alright. Better? By default, yes. But Russell's voice isn't really ideal for these mostly poor melodies.

This song is in the lower half of the album for me; I'd probably rate it as sixth best (out of nine). It is sprinkled with interesting bits, but they are overshadowed by mediocrity. Thankfully, the album mostly picks up after this.

For those of you who haven't heard it, here's the 1998 re-recording with Russell on vocals:

I'm assuming that we'll discuss this re-recording between Twilight in Olympus and V?

 

[Diesel 11]

The sound, however, does not help Symphony X escape the crowd who ridicule them for the Casio keyboard patches.

I don’t know if you’re referring to my girlfriend’s comment or not, but I just wanna point out that that’s actually what she likes the most about them. The fact that they’re super talented and yet the sound is... well, cheap. She likes it because she too has a Casio keyboard and finds it very endearing.

And for the record: when Symphony X actually got a proper production job they also stopped being the same band that I love.

 

[Diesel 11]

I'm assuming that we'll discuss this re-recording between Twilight in Olympus and V?

Sounds like a good plan if @MrKnickerbocker agrees. There aren’t too many bonus tracks anyway IIRC, just that one and “Frontiers”.

 

[Detective Beauregard]

I don’t know if you’re referring to my girlfriend’s comment or not, but I just wanna point out that that’s actually what she likes the most about them. The fact that they’re super talented and yet the sound is... well, cheap. She likes it because she too has a Casio keyboard and finds it very endearing.

And for the record: when Symphony X actually got a proper production job they also stopped being the same band that I love.

I recall you mentioning that, but I've also heard other people criticize them for it (and for not having the production of, say, Dream Theater). Not every progressive metal band can hire actual orchestras to play on recordings, and sadly Symphony X has never reached enough popularity to where the guys (outside of Romeo and Russell, I believe) don't need day jobs.

Also, you're right about their sound change. After The Odyssey, Romeo started adding male choirs to accentuate the metal riffs and cut back on the other orchestral elements. This changed their overall sound from what we hear on the first five albums to more of a traditional metal band with classical and progressive elements mixed in. I too prefer the style of their first five albums, where the guitar was no more important (or higher in the mix) than the other instruments. It's a shame, even if I do think that their last three albums are better than 99% of metal out there.

The Odyssey is truly a hybrid between their old sound and new style. It boosted the guitars and was more riff-heavy, but it still had enough space for the other instruments to shine (even on the heavier tracks).

 

[MrKnickerbocker]

Aight well the third Symphony X song begins, once more, with STRANDS AND STRANDS OF SPAGHETT. Only Romeo forgot to take his SPAGHETT out of the WATER, or even TURN IT ON for that matter. Luckily Pinnella is here! Yay! Pinnella MASTERFULLY turns on the STOVE so that Romeo's SPAGHETT can BOIL. Gordon Ramsay has been awfully quiet since Pinnella showed the world that he was the one and only TRUE MASTER CHEF!!!

Unfortunately Pinnella's expert cooking skills don't obscure the fact that Romeo forgot the seasoning, so while the fire is there in the form of MP's synths, it's not really all that interesting. Solid piece that sounds like it was lifted from a symphony precedes an actually very nice riff, boosted again because of Pinnella's presence. And here's where it connects with me, that "Masquerade" really sounds like a metal version of a masquerade ball. And then Rod comes in, and this time he sounds terrible. He struggles immensely on the low notes and sounds like he may throw up. And then the high notes! MAMMA MIA! I do not like this maître d' at all. I'm considering going to another restaurant altogether, Jesus Christ. And the appetizer is stupid and rotten. That pre-chorus is just blah. The main course is no better. Sounds like they got lost on their way to Vegas and dovetailed the car into a swamp, blew all their money on an alligator's tail feather (oh so you're telling me that alligators don't have tail feathers? FAKE NEWS!!!), and then went back to Jersey riding nothing but a meatball sub. At least Rod is better during the second verse.

Luckily everything picks up with desert. As water-logged as Romeo sounds, I love how he and Miller hold a little bass / guitar duel at the start of the instrumental piece. Then Romeo takes the stage alone and delivers a really good guitar solo before Pinnella joins him and there's another duel, this time between guitar and keyboards.

And hey, by the time the chorus comes back and he hit that outro I'm actually having a good time. But it still isn't very good. I'm shocked that they chose this song to re-record with Russell because it's easily the worst of the four (yes I'm counting the intro track) that we've been through. Not even the instrumental can make this one anymore interesting than it actually is. We stan Pinnella but the rest of this song is pointless.

I do not share your absolute disdain for this song (though it's generally just about as bad as most songs on this debut), I would absolutely love to see Gordon Ramsay judge Symphony X as cooks and watch SX judge Gordon Ramsay as a musician.

I'm assuming that we'll discuss this re-recording between Twilight in Olympus and V?

Sounds like a plan!

I recall you mentioning that, but I've also heard other people criticize them for it (and for not having the production of, say, Dream Theater). Not every progressive metal band can hire actual orchestras to play on recordings, and sadly Symphony X has never reached enough popularity to where the guys (outside of Romeo and Russell, I believe) don't need day jobs.

Also, you're right about their sound change. After The Odyssey, Romeo started adding male choirs to accentuate the metal riffs and cut back on the other orchestral elements. This changed their overall sound from what we hear on the first five albums to more of a traditional metal band with classical and progressive elements mixed in. I too prefer the style of their first five albums, where the guitar was no more important (or higher in the mix) than the other instruments. It's a shame, even if I do think that their last three albums are better than 99% of metal out there.

The Odyssey is truly a hybrid between their old sound and new style. It boosted the guitars and was more riff-heavy, but it still had enough space for the other instruments to shine (even on the heavier tracks).

I like to think of Symphony X's style change in a similar vein as Anthrax: they dropped a lot of the speedy, "intricate" stuff for chunkier riffs, gut-punching rhythms, and lower vocals (before later trying to marginally recapture their original sound without going all the way). The difference is that even Symphony X has been scientifically proven to be a 97% better band than Anthrax.