Symphony X

What's your favorite Symphony X album?

  • Symphony X

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Damnation Game

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • The Divine Wings Of Tragedy

    Votes: 7 25.0%

  • Twilight In Olympus

    Votes: 1 3.6%

  • V - The New Mythology Suite

    Votes: 11 39.3%

  • The Odyssey

    Votes: 5 17.9%

  • Paradise Lost

    Votes: 4 14.3%

  • Iconoclast

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Underworld

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    28
Oh yea I totally agree. Despite Iconoclast songs being pretty short I thought they still felt bloated.

It's interesting because the last Dream Theater album was also an exercise in conciseness and I had the exact same issue with how they ended songs. The Looking Glass, Behind the Veil, and Surrender to Reason had really awkward endings IMO. However while Dream Theater doing an album of shorter songs was totally out of left field, Underworld feels like a natural progression as far as song lengths/structure goes. Plus SX never really had many epics. It's always one or two per album at most.
 
The biggest problem with the conciseness of Underworld is that many of the songs simply feel rushed. I know Romeo said that people's attention spans are decreasing, which is sadly true, but several tracks (Nevermore, Without You, In My Darkest Hour, Swan Song, even Charon and Legend) get to the vocals far too quickly. It just sounds... "off" somehow. Even most of the songs on Paradise Lost and Iconoclast had proper intros.
 
Detective Beauregard said:
The biggest problem with the conciseness of Underworld is that many of the songs simply feel rushed. I know Romeo said that people's attention spans are decreasing, which is sadly true, but several tracks (Nevermore, Without You, In My Darkest Hour, Swan Song, even Charon and Legend) get to the vocals far too quickly. It just sounds... "off" somehow. Even most of the songs on Paradise Lost and Iconoclast had proper intros.
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I agree, but again I think these songs fit more properly into their structures than Iconoclast, which felt really forced. Honestly, if every single song had a one-two minute intro, things could get predictable really quick. The only song that desperately needed an intro on Underworld and sounds rushed is Swan Song. It's bizarre how quick the vocals come in due to the nature of the track.
 
Russ singing on a track by Joel Hoekstra (TSO, some other stuff).


Russell sounds great, and I know he loves singing this kind of music, but the production so horribly cheap and thin.
 
I'm no graphic designer, and these are from crappy booklet scans, but I made them in about 5 minutes and find them superior to the actual cover:

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2nd one is pretty cool, I could see that being a cover. Gives me a modern Damnation Game vibe.
 
Mosh said:
2nd one is pretty cool, I could see that being a cover. Gives me a modern Damnation Game vibe.
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Definitely! Would've been a nice subtle way to tie together with the older albums.

I'm mostly just shocked that they spent money on the booklet art that looks great and then slapped a cheap ass cover on the front.
 
A bit late to the party again, but I love the new album. :rocker: Every song's a killer! I can't help myself but to feel it's their Train of Thought - their heaviest and most brutal work, yet one of their best (IMHO!), a bit simplified, but still complex enough to my tastes, with keyboards a bit in the background and everything revolving around the axe player. And catchy as f***. Sir Russell Allen is a serious candidate for my current favourite singer, this album really shows his abilities quite well (the title track, OMG). I can't even name any favourite, every song is.

When the first notes of Nevermore started to blast out of my speakers, I was completely blown away. :bigsurprise: Such was the step up from Iconoclast (which I like anyway, mind you). This album sounds to me much heavier than most death metal I currently possess. :huh:
Along with TBOS, the best money spent in 2015 :D (#3 would be probably Nightwish).
 
P. S. - as for the thought mentioned above, that is the songs are shortened and cut off and so on... I don't feel it. I don't think those ends are that abrupt, mostly. Also, like I said, I like more or less every song here and the album is long enough as it is, so I don't really mind they're more to the point this time. They definitely managed the "short song" form more gracefully than DT, honestly. DT12 felt to me much more rushed/compressed.
 
I haven't spent nearly as much time with this album as I should've, way too much good music this year and this has fallen through the cracks a bit. I do enjoy it qhen I listen to it though. I think it's more that I've kinda burnt out on SX this year.
 
JudasMyGuide said:
A bit late to the party again, but I love the new album. :rocker: Every song's a killer! I can't help myself but to feel it's their Train of Thought - their heaviest and most brutal work, yet one of their best (IMHO!), a bit simplified, but still complex enough to my tastes, with keyboards a bit in the background and everything revolving around the axe player. And catchy as f***. Sir Russell Allen is a serious candidate for my current favourite singer, this album really shows his abilities quite well (the title track, OMG). I can't even name any favourite, every song is.
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I'm glad someone else is as enthusiastic about this album as myself, it's a great piece of work. Honestly, I find Iconoclast and Paradise Lost to be "heavier" records (especially the former), but Underworld does the best job of taking the heaviness and blending it with the traditional Symphony X sound. The title track is indeed one of their heaviest moments and Russell is fantastic all around.

JudasMyGuide said:
P. S. - as for the thought mentioned above, that is the songs are shortened and cut off and so on... I don't feel it. I don't think those ends are that abrupt, mostly. Also, like I said, I like more or less every song here and the album is long enough as it is, so I don't really mind they're more to the point this time. They definitely managed the "short song" form more gracefully than DT, honestly. DT12 felt to me much more rushed/compressed.
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I don't agree about DT, but I think Underworld does the best job of shortening the Symphony X without making it sound shortened. It's really well done.

Mosh said:
I haven't spent nearly as much time with this album as I should've, way too much good music this year and this has fallen through the cracks a bit. I do enjoy it qhen I listen to it though. I think it's more that I've kinda burnt out on SX this year.
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Seeing it live really helped. The first half of the album was brilliant. The least notable track was actually Charon, which is great on the record.
 
Seeing Iconoclast helped me appreciate that album more too so that's not a surprise. Surprised about Charon though, love that track!

The only song that hasn't really stuck is Kiss of Fire, it's too Iconoclast-esque for me. Everything else is very enjoyable.
 
Mosh said:
Seeing Iconoclast helped me appreciate that album more too so that's not a surprise. Surprised about Charon though, love that track!
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It's not that it was bad live; it just didn't work as well as the other new songs. It's a mid-tempo rocker, and to be honest, the band has a lot more of those that are stronger than Charon.

I would have rather heard Legend.

The only song that hasn't really stuck is Kiss of Fire, it's too Iconoclast-esque for me. Everything else is very enjoyable.
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Ha, that's probably my most-listened-to track! To me it's kind of a natural balance between King of Terrors and Heretic; more streamlined than either and more aggressive than the first, but punchier than either. That polymetric riff in the middle is probably one of the coolest things they've ever done, though.

I love all three of those songs, by the way. Angry Symphony X is great in small doses, which is why Iconoclast as an album was a bit overwhelming.
 
Detective Beauregard said:
Ha, that's probably my most-listened-to track! To me it's kind of a natural balance between King of Terrors and Heretic; more streamlined than either and more aggressive than the first, but punchier than either. That polymetric riff in the middle is probably one of the coolest things they've ever done, though.
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Well I don't really care for those two tracks either so there you go. :D
 
Does anyone else here suspect that the fact Russell has now a place to channel most of his shouting and tuffguyisms (Adrenaline Mob) might have something to do with the recently rediscovered diversity of vocals on Underworld? I know those aren't that diverse, but still...
 
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