I read a chunk of Paradise Lost in college. The part where Satan sits around and mopes for so long that they took away his 'Prince of Darkness' title and gave it to Ozzy . Of course, Ozzy being in his usual semi-coherent state thought it said 'pints of darkness' and tried pawning it off in exchange for some bitter at the local pub. Long story. Anyway, I'm fairly certain that the new Symphony X doesn't have much to do with Milton's epic or the book of Exodus, but it's a catchy title, full of pathos, and also the name of a pretty kickass band , so I can live with it. Plus, it sounds a lot less goofy than something like, I don't know, Divine Wings of Tragedy?

This band has been turning heads and steadily trudging to the summit of the progressive metal range, and is by now a household name in that realm. You know how Dream Theater incorporates different kinds of genres into their music so that they can be 'tr00ly' progressive? SX (this is a catchy abbreviation - I'm using it from now on) comes at it from a different tack, one I like to call 'Bach at the Moon'; a veritable melding of metal, prog and classical. You know the routine - neoclassical wizardry over manic riffs with occasional flourishes of grandiose orchestral backing. It's fun.

Anyway, their last album, The Odyssey had a twist thrown in. Apart from the gargantuan title track, most of the other songs were shorter and used more conventional structures. Gunning for more radio play, I guess. More importantly, they'd knocked off a bit of the progressive and added a lot more metal, the new steely edge clearly visible in aggro numbers like 'King of Terrors' and 'Inferno'. Reactions were a bit mixed, but it was still SX enough at the core not to ruffle too many feathers.

From the look of it, the band was well pleased with the changes, since they've dumped the epic feel near entirely this time around. Paradise Lost opens with a brief intro, familiar in its pomposity, and then wastes no time diving into the meaty content - savage guitar lines playing around turbocharged rhythms, Russell Allen's awesomely gritty downtuned vocals (which hovers as close to a growl as possible while maintaining melody) and the frequent singalong choruses. This pretty much sets the pace for the rest of the album, the main distinction between songs being tempo. You have the lightspeed rush of stuff like 'Set the World on Fire' and 'Seven', the mid-paced muscle of 'The Serpent's Kiss' and 'Domination' and the mellow feel of the title track and 'The Sacrifice' (not an Elton John cover, take that fist out of your mouth). There's enough variation to make a start-to-finish listen of the album rewarding, a essential quality in any music that I like to play nowadays.

As far as individual performances go, you no doubt know or have figured out that these are some mighty skilled wankers we're dealing with. There's plenty of opportunity to showcase it without being completely self-indulgent, so it mostly boils down to whether you like gratuitous displays of skill or not. Michael Romeo, for instance - you'd think that by now you'd have become accustomed to those mercurial legato runs, but there's this insane part on the solo for 'Eve of Seduction' where he's doing what sounds like a time trial checkpoint run across the fretboard, and on the descending section, he slows down fractionally while still staying in sync with the backing and then wraps it up with a few lazy bends. Almost like it's boring him a bit. Loco! Russell Allen's harsh vocals are an awesome addition, and he really should have used them throughout the album, excluding the slow songs obviously.

Still, I miss the intricacies and dynamics of long songs like 'The Divine Wings of Tragedy' and 'The Odyssey'. The closest thing we have to that here is 'The Walls of Babylon', and that's not going to cut it. However, friends who'd previously been indifferent to SX seem to have warmed up to this album, so I'm going to have to say they're doing a good job, considering they're earning appreciation from new people while keeping their existing fanbase from being completely estranged.

Lineup:

Russell Allen - vocals
Michael Romeo - guitar
Michael Pinnella - keyboards
Michael Lepond - bass guitar
Jason Rullo - drums

Year of release: 2007
Label: InsideOut

External Links:
Myspace page