Symphony X

[MrK]

Romeo’s solo in Saucey Jack always makes me laugh because the first time we saw them 23 years ago in that dinky little bar in Aurora, the guys brought out a bottle of Jack for him for his birthday.

Russell still drinks a Jack & Coke towards the end of most shows.

I remember Hunters Night being the single best track from all of those Allen/Lande albums. They could have done so much more with these albums, but I recall every song being cookie-cutter verse/chorus 4-minute non-prog boringness. Compare that to the stuff that Tobias did with these guys in Avantasia, and it’s night and day.

Hunter's Night is definitely not the best song on the albums, but it's one of the better ones. It's definitely all very much the same and even the best songs across the albums I would only rate an 8-9/10. There's nothing outstanding.

Listen again, though, the guitar playing is legitimately great throughout.

Highlights:
The Walls of Fucking Babylon
Dominfuckingnation
Revefuckinglation

That's more fucking than Symphony X have done in ages.

 

[Detective Beauregard]

Russell still drinks a Jack & Coke towards the end of most shows.

Really? Never noticed. I thought I recall him saying he quit smoking, which is obviously a great thing considering his pipes.

Listen again, though, the guitar playing is legitimately great throughout.

Will do. I need some more commuting music, anyway, and I've already grown tired of working my way backwards through Megadeth's discography (currently about to start Dystopia... I've made it so far lol).

That's more fucking than Symphony X have done in ages.

LOL

 

[Jer]

I've already grown tired of working my way backwards through Megadeth's discography (currently about to start Dystopia... I've made it so far lol).

Ouch — that’s going to be a rough ride doing it in that direction. Grin & bear it through Th1rt3en and Super Collider, but Endgame will make the previous suffering worthwhile.

 

[Detective Beauregard]

Ouch — that’s going to be a rough ride doing it in that direction. Grin & bear it through Th1rt3en and Super Collider, but Endgame will make the previous suffering worthwhile.

I’m almost done with Dystopia and it’s a very good album. I’ve heard it several times before but it never really resonated with me like it does now, so I don’t know what changed. Maybe hearing the subpar TSTDATD right before it makes Dystopia sound better than it is?

I’ve never been able to make it through Super Collider in full, so it’ll be interesting for sure.

 

[MrK]

Star One - Victims of the Modern Age (2010)
Featured player: Russell Allen

Russell, Floor, Damian and Dan return for another collection of sci-fi-influenced tunes courtesy of Arjen Anthony Lucassen and it's a barnburner! This record is just so very enjoyable. The riffs are heavy, the melodies are good (or great), and everyone really pulls out a fantastic performance (especially, d'uh, Sir Russell). Each song is inspired by a science fiction film or series, including the mighty Firefly, and yet nothing feels overtly cheesy - which is honestly a pretty impressive feat for someone who typically blends in several kinds of cheese into his secret sauce. A really fun, cool listen through and through.

Highlights: The album starts off incredibly strong with the excellent Digital Rain and Earth That Was. I also love how much scenery Russell chews on 24 Hours.

Lowlights: The back of the album falls off a bit, with the chorus of Cassandra Complex and verses of It's Alive, She's Alive, We're Alive being pretty weak. The final track is also a bit of a slog.

Grade: B+ (8.5/10)

 

[MrK]

Symphony X - Iconoclast (2011)

Let's get one thing clear: Iconoclast is a Symphony X album. And, as such, it is better than 90% of other metal out there. With that said, I must continue to voice my displeasure with this album as I have done since its release. The short of it is: this album is just too damn long. It's nearly 90 minutes of absolutely crushing, pummeling, endlessly heavy material and, while that should be a glowing review of a metal album, it is not what I want from Symphony X. There is very little room to breathe here, very little room for melodic instrumentation or vocalization. Is the band on fire? Yes. Does Russell sound great even though he's practically verging on harsh vocals for most of the album? Yes. But the songwriting just doesn't always rise to the occasion. There is a lot to love here strictly because it is Symphony X, but there's also just a lot here. And that's a failing.

Highlights: Reign In Madness, When All Is Lost and Iconoclast are pretty good longer tracks. Dehumanized is a killer song with a rare bluesy solo by Romeo.

Lowlights: A near career worst pairing of Light Up The Night and Lords of Chaos (truly, only Shades of Grey is worse than these two songs and even that has better lyrics). The super lame Bastards of the Machine.

Grade: B+ (8.7/10)


Adrenaline Mob - Omertà (2012)
Featured player: Russell Allen

Russell continues his string of prolific releases with a self-dubbed "supergroup" featuring Mike Orlando on guitar and the illustrious Mike Portnoy on drums. Now, that sounds pretty good on paper, right? Well, on record, it sounds like trough-feeding, scum-sucking dogshit. I'm not exaggerating: this album is trash. The cruelty of fate brought Allen and Portnoy together at the absolute worst point in both of their careers (i.e. Russell's peak "tough guy" vocal phase and Portnoy's peak "tough guy" vocal phase). The music here is nu-metal-infused hard rock that falls short on catchiness. The riffs suck, the lyrics are absolutely inane, and neither the vocals or drums are worthy of their performers. Don't listen to this album.

Highlights: Russell gets a little more melodic on Indifferent, All On The Line and Angel Sky. These aren't objectively good songs, but here they sound downright genius compared to the other tracks.

Lowlights: The terrible opening duo of Undaunted (imagine Russell growling over a bad Disturbed cover) and Psychosane (which is even worse) don't even come close to being as pathetically abominable as Feelin' Me (which features a brilliant chorus of "Are you muthafuckas feelin' me?!").

Grade: F+ (3/10)

 

[MrK]

It's time for an all-new feature of my comprehensive Symphony X Extended Universe ratings! INTRODUCING...

Mike LePond's Bass-tacular Metal Rodeo!


Ladies and gentlemen, if you think Russell Allen is a bit too willing to contribute to side projects: have you met Mike Lepond? As you will soon learn, our 4/5-string bass-master from Symphony X will literally put his name, songwriting, and playing on anything that pays him to do so! Well, anything that is trve/power/Christian metal that is (or probably just some friends from a bar in New Jersey). Anyway, here's the first of many mini-reviews of some of his prolific work in the studio!

Distant Thunder - Welcome the End (2004)
Trve metal with a dash of power and a penchant for terrible effects-laden “spooky” sound bites with Ripper Owens Lite on the mic. Some of the riffs and songs here were better than expected, but this adds nothing new to metal and mostly sounds like the Troma Films version of Judas Priest.

• Highlights: Soulless Inventions, Distant Thunder (instrumental), solid production, LePond’s bass (of course)
• Lowlights: the wannabe Priest vocalist
• Grade: D- (4/10)

Fatal Array - Metally Insane (2011)
A basement quality recording with a terrible vocalist, terrible lyrics, and muddy, muddy bass. Nope. Hard nope.

• Highlights: none
• Lowlights: everything
• Grade: F- (1/10)

Holy Force - Holy Force (2011)
Decent production, clearly skilled players, and an average vocalist playing Christian trad/power! As before, there’s just not a single ounce of uniqueness here (other than the incredibly upbeat churchy lyrics). The singer keeps striving for memorable hooks, but they never materialize.

• Highlights: clean production, LePond (especially on A Country Good or Bad)
• Lowlights: weak vocals and even weaker lyrics and some truly awful melodies
• Grade: F (2.8/10)

Seven Witches - Call Upon The Wicked (2011)
LePond teams up with a C-league power/trad band to make a very average bit of Priest worship with outstanding bass playing. Overall everything except LePond's bass just feels very pedestrian and derivative.

• Highlights: LePond’s bass solo on Ragnarok
• Lowlights: the vocals are Halford/Ripper worship done to about 70% efficiency but the melodies are quite bad, especially the female guest vocals on Track 5. Mind Games is garbage. The cover of Cream’s White Room also stinks.
• Grade: D- (4/10)

*side note: the first time I ever saw Symphony X with @Detective Beauregard was in a tiny bar in Aurora, IL and Seven Witches opened. Joey Vera played bass for them that night and I remember thinking the same thing: this is an alright bar band with pretty poor songs and an annoying singer. How they managed to snare two of the best bassists in the genre, I'll never know.

Affector - Harmagedon (2012)
Classic Dream Theater-style prog metal, but now with 100% more Christianity! Somehow this bizarre record features Neal Morse, Derek Sherinian, and Jordan Rudess on keyboards - and boy does it sound like it! The instrumental performances here are amazing, literal top tier prog, but it’s a shame about the muddled and wanky arrangements, terrible vocals and “our Lord Jeshua” lyrics.

• Highlights: epic wanking! LePond sounds awesome and the production is solid.
• Lowlights: poor song arrangements and even poorer vocals. It’s crazy how bad the vocals are considering the instrumental talent on display.
• Grade: D (4.5/10)

Sleepy Hollow - Skull 13 (2012)
Does Lepond accept literally EVERY job offer that comes through his Yahoo web mail?! w00f. This is the worst yet. The production is atrocious, the riffs are identical from song to song, and the vocals sound like someone doing a shit parody of Blitz from Overkill.

• Highlights: Misery Waltz is an instrumental! I can hear LePond’s bass on Midnight!
• Lowlights: Mike saying “yes” to this offer.
• Grade: F- (1/10)

Rivera Bomma - Infinite Journey of Souls (2013)
Alright, I just can’t listen to this whole thing. It’s a combination of the previous two: god-awful production and God-praising lyrics. I can’t even hear the bass.

• Highlights: I stopped listening.
• Lowlights: I started listening.
• Grade: F- (1/10)

Lalu - Atomic Ark (2013)
A truly proggy hard rock record with a ton of layers and even more special guests (Rudess appears again, among many others). I enjoy this while listening to it but the songs feel fleeting, like they end before they really get going. The production is good, LePond’s bass sounds awesome, but I think the parts ultimately fail to build a truly successful whole. The vocalist is good in his mid-to-higher registers, but his quieter lows sound like Roy Khan practicing English for his ESL class. Still, this is easily the best thing LePond has touched so far that wasn’t written by Michael Romeo.

• Highlights: the heaviness and serpentine rhythms of the opening two tracks, Bast, the silly, spooky Slaughtered, parts of the epic
• Lowlights: Mirror Prison, the lyrics (Deep Blue is pretty lame)
• Grade: C (6.5/10)

That's all for now! Tune in again later for more (hopefully better!) bass-tacular sport!

 

[Detective Beauregard]

I had no idea Lepond had played on so many albums, but if they’re paying him, why wouldn’t he? Man’s gotta make a living with side projects, as such is the Symphony X way.

I trust you’ll review his solo albums? I recall that big song about MacBeth (apparently it’s a dumb play or some shit) being pretty good.

 

[MrK]

Micheal Pinnella - Ascension (2014)
Our favorite keyboard maestro returns with another solo album full of (some) piano, some fuzzy-sounding solos, and some bleep-bloops. Unfortunately, the issues I had with Pinnella's first album continue here: poor production, inconsistent songwriting, and overall length. Drum programming is a major problem here simply because it sounds so incredibly cheap. I also find many of the synth patches to just feel weak, which may be a symptom of the lack of immersion within a full band structure. Michael provides some sparse harmonized, layered vocals on a couple tracks and they actually sound great. I love Pinnella, but I don't think his strengths lie in solo material. I would honestly prefer to hear him do a full album of straight piano pieces.

Highlights: The Great Escape (only song without "drums"), Miswired, Spider's Web

Lowlights: See above, re: "drums"

Grade: C- (6/10)

Adrenaline Mob - Men of Honor (2014)
Alright you drunk mothafuckas, the boys are back in town whether you like it or not! Mike Portnoy has jumped ship (because of course he has) and nothing has changed! Horns up, beers guzzled down your skulls-on-fire t-shirt, and shame buried deep within your divorced dad stomach, bitches! Russell Allen is gonna kick yer dick in, unless you man the fuck up for this tired, butt rock on steroids formula! The good news: the production is better, the band is tighter, Orlando's solos are awesome, Disturbed bassist John Moyer has some pretty cool moments, Twisted Sister's A.J. Pero feels much more suited to the material than Portnoy, and Russell's melodies are way better. The bad news: the lyrics are even dumber than before! Once again, don't waste your time here.

Highlights: Dearly Departed is fine enough. Crystal Clear is a great change of pace and I wish they'd just stick to this lame ballad-style songwriting because at least it's not trying to shove biker leather up my ass.

Lowlights: The first two songs just downright suck lyrically. Mob Is Back sounds like Nickelback doing a cover of Pantera's Walk, but with dumber lyrics than either of those bands could ever dream up. Come On Get Up sounds like a Sevendust rip-off and features lyrical gems like, "stop acting like a bitch and grow some balls!" House of Lies is pure trash ("I wanna fuck ya til ya scream my name out LOUD!"). Russell legitimately sounds like he's vomiting throughout Judgment Day.

Grade: F+ (3/10)

 

[MrK]

New interview with Russell:

Highlights:

• Romeo sent him "10 hours" of material for the new album and there's just too much - that's the hold up. But hopefully, that means the NEXT album would come even quicker.
• There's no touring beyond this month, so that leaves "all of summer and fall" to work on the songs before recording starts.
• Russell reiterates that he doesn't really feel like The Damnation Game is his first real work with the band as he had just joined and didn't contribute much.
• Underworld is his favorite Symphony X record.
• "Without You" is one of his favorite songs ever to sing.
• He has an acoustic project hopefully coming out soon that includes a song about his daughter (who is Autistic). He would love to raise awareness to help kids with similar situations.
• He wants "absolutely nothing to do" with politics.
• He used to work as a general contractor back when Symphony X didn't make him enough money to survive.

There's also new ones with Romeo and Lepond that I'll check out later. I can't usually bring myself to watch Romeo interviews, but I'll give it a shot.

 

[MrK]

MindMaze - Back From The Edge (2014)
Featured player: Mike Lepond

Mike Lepond ropes a prize bull here, gang! This is honestly so good that it doesn’t even deserve the rodeo. Really catchy, killer power/prog with amazing instrumental sections, good melodies, and legitimately fun songwriting. Seriously, this is a hidden gem. Every song is fun, with great riffing, drumming, bassing (of course) and even some really tasty harmonized licks. Some of the songs branch out into proper prog territory, with extended track lengths and time changes. So, what’s holding this back? That would be the singing. Vocalist Sarah Teets is technically hitting all the notes, but there’s a dryness and cold quality to her performance that I just can’t put my finger on. Maybe it’s the production, but all of her vocals seem a bit lifeless. She has the notes, she has the power, but also the overly-nasal quality of Charlotte Wessels, and there’s just something off about her performance here. I don’t find any fault in the lyrics or melodies, it’s honestly just her sound. If you gave this material to Britney Slayes it would be an instant A+.

Highlights: both longer tracks, The Machine Stops and Onward (Destiny Calls II)

Lowlights: no songs, just the vocal performance

Grade: B (7.9/10)


Allen/Lande - The Great Divide (2014)
Featured player: Russell Allen

Russell and Jorn return for their swan song as a duo with incredibly middling results. I honestly wish they had let this project die after the third one (or after the second one ((or hell after the first one))). This time around we have Timo Tolkki subbing in for Magnus Karlsson and Jorn taking over lyrical writing duties for much of the record. Unfortunately, this means that the instrumental material is vastly less impressive. There’s virtually no riffing or crazy soloing here, it’s just bland chord-based hard rock/metal with Jorn really digging into his Dio comparisons. This generally leads to Jorn’s songs being quite better than Allen’s, but there is just literally no meat on these bones, folks. The whole thing feels disconnected and lifeless, including the bizarre track order that stacks Jorn and Russell’s solo songs together. What’s good about it? Well, we get to hear Russell singing almost exclusively in his upper register with some nice soaring vocals on almost every song (a rare treat in his post-2010 career).

Highlights: opening track Come And Dream With Me is solid, as is Jorn’s first solo track Down From The Mountain, the chorus of Hymn for The Fallen is cool.

Lowlights: the final three songs are truly terrible, but mostly Russell’s final two (Reaching For the Stars, Bittersweet). Just very poor, lazy songwriting all around.

Grade: C (6.6/10)


Mike Lepond’s Silent Assassins (2014)
Featured players: Mike Lepond, Michael Romeo, Michael Pinnella

Lepond puts on his big boy pants to front his own solo project! Yes, it sounds exactly like what you would expect: mostly straightforward trve metal with some Priest worship and the occasional prog elements. Lepond’s songwriting pulls from power, thrash, trad and prog metal to create a pretty cool, but not without fault, metal record. Though there is energy to burn on this album, many of the songs fall victim to derivative sounds and vocalist Alan Tecchio is just not has mighty as he tries to be. He frequently sounds like a B-list Halford, which sometimes works and sometimes really doesn’t. Oddly enough, both Tecchio and Lepond spent time in Seven Witches (they even cover Ragnarok here) but I don’t think they were in the band at the same time? Anyway, Michael Romeo appears for a hefty amount of keyboard playing, arranging, drum programming (which thankfully sounds decent), and guitar solos on most of the tracks. Pinnella apparently also recorded backing vocals, though I can’t pick him out in the mix. Overall, this is a cool project with some decent songs and Lepond’s bass playing is at its absolute peak.

Highlights: the spectacular Oath of Honor, The Progeny, Apocalypse Rider feels like a Priest rip-off but it’s very fun, Red Death is neat (especially the intro), The Quest has some incredible moments (but also patchy songwriting and REALLY weak string synths),

Lowlights: power ballad Masada really exposes the flaws in a singer like Tecchio (though it does have another sweet bass solo)

Grade: B (7.8/10)

Surprising Winner of 2014: MIKE LEPOND!