Recent content by javie

I don't get it. Uematsu and Romeo are composers. Romeo's music is quite filmic. The Odyssey is very much like a miniature score. I think Romeo could play in that ballpark if he wanted to try. Maybe the comparison is F1 versus NASCAR, but both seem to me very much like high-end drivers, at the...

I looked up some of Uematsu's music online. I think Michael Romeo can do it. A huge movie or game score is a lot more effort than an album -- and a whole lot more music to compose, arrange, perform and mix -- but who knows? I also agree that I miss the epics. I find myself tuning into The...

If we're giving unsolicited advice to the band, here would be my three cents. 1) Listen to Haken's new album. It's in a very different style from Symphony X, but it's refreshing to hear music that's so intelligent and made with minimal processing. Back to roots, if you like. It's highly...

He may have approved mock-ups or JPEGs, and the work of recoding the pages into properly compliant HTML (or Flash) is currently under way. This is just a total wild guess on my part....

It's never been clear to me why so many people hate on Portnoy and LaBrie, or why there are so many complaints about DT's arrangements, but I think it hit me today. In my mind, there are two Dream Theaters. One DT is the band that releases 90% of the band's tunes. The other is the band that...

Here's another attempt at a video of that tune. This one looks "official", so I'm hoping it won't disappear like the other two. Russell Allen is the best hard rock vocalist in practice today. Period. End of discussion. This simply cannot be overstated. I also like Portnoy's work on...

Sorry I was away for a few days. OK, actually, the SymX connection to fretless is actually kind of strained -- maybe it was unfair of me to phrase it that way -- but the connection goes like this: SymX -> Russell Allen -> Adrenaline Mob -> Mike Orlando The fretless playing starts...

Very interesting, OK. BTW, in the total opposite direction from scalloped necks, I just learned about fretless guitars, which seem completely insane to me. I'm guessing that it's like playing with a slide, except that you don't alter your guitar to an open tuning(?). BTW, there's...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but with a scalloped neck you can hit the fret much harder than otherwise. You're not really hitting the wood of the fretboard as much as you're hitting the string just above the metal fret itself. So you can get a much harder attack. Also, you don't get any kind of...

Skinny player palm-muting = Edward Van Halen, of course. But holy cow, Gottardo's fretboard is as scalloped as hell. Which may explain why his 8-finger tapping technique is so clean. Not to take anything away from Gottardo. I like that clip a lot, and I'll be looking him up.

Non capisco. Is "Away From" the name of a song?

FYI and FWIW, the full and official title of the original novel by Mary Shelly, if you include its subtitle, is actually "Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus".

I'd love to contribute to this thread, but when I downloaded the MP3 files this morning, I asked myself: Where's the digital booklet?

... if anyone can, Michael Romeo has the musical intelligence, talent and taste to make it work, and his bandmates have the musical talent and skill to pull it off.

This entire album is extremely strong from start to finish. It's amazing. Every song is interesting in its own way. I've been listening to prog and metal for almost 30 years, and I own S/X's entire catalog, of course. This whole album is top-notch all the way.