Tuesday, April 05, 2005
Symphony X
Just discovered this group tonight. Link. I could write a review of this band using only words that would make any self-respecting grunge kid cringe: prog, melodic, metal, fantastical, epic, keyboards, piano, virtuoso solos, instrumentals.. and it's what makes them so great. On top of that, they're as heavy as Pantera and can do guitar / keyboard duets in the same style as Iron Maiden's double-guitar action.
The Chuck Taylor-wearing low self-esteemers who thought they had killed metal in the early nineties have surely all been scared off by now, and I can say that Symphony X fully deserve the prog label as well, wish shifting time-signatures, classical melodies and sweeping themes.
At times the rising and energetic instrumentation skates dangerously close to video game intro music territory, but the off-beat drumming and heavy riffs keep the flying melodies nicely grounded. The song I'm listening to right now, “The Odyssey” from the album of the same name, just began with a horn flourish that is continuing through the first part of this 24 minute-long song that sounds like a flight-theme from Fantasia but with electric guitars dancing in and out of the usual symphonic movie score instruments. Jesus I'm in love, it's like Indiana Jones went metal. Epic rock operas are the rule with this band, rather than the exception.
One thing I am less than thrilled about is the tendency to sound a bit too much like every lame European Dio-retread metal band even I'm embarrassed of vocally, while instrumentally they surpass just about everything else out there. Then again, that's how most other people would describe Bruce Dickinson, so perhaps I'll get used to it.
There's a lot of Queen II (their best album, IMO, and very different from their best-known stuff) influence in here, I'd put money that it's a direct influence on The Odyssey's bonus track, “Masquerade”.
Yes, I'm truly lame, and revelling in it. Even the synths, still dancing perfectly well with grinding guitar stomps, are perfectly welcome in this unabashed celebration of music-making.
And it turns out that they have 2 or 3 songs from each of their albums available for download on their web site:
OK, there's even an oboe near the end of “Odyssey”, and now it's totally into the symphonic instruments. This isn't for the image conscious music fan, to say the least.
TITLE (click title to download) FILE SIZE King of Terrors 8.7 MB Awakenings 11.4 MB Inferno (Unleash the Fire) 7.6 MB
TITLE (click title to download) FILE SIZE Evolution (The Grand Design) 6.12 MB Communion and the Oracle 8.8 MB
TITLE (click title to download) FILE SIZE Smoke and Mirrors 8.4 MB Church of the Machine 12.3 MB
TITLE (click title to download) FILE SIZE Of Sins and Shadows 6.8 MB The Accolade 13.5 MB
Technorati Tags: Music, Metal, SymphonyX
