How you discovered Sym X

[Indestructible]

Well, for me, it was probably through Wikipedia. I spend a lot of my free time reading there, and was looking for new metal bands to discover a few years ago. So under the progressive metal section I saw "Symphony X" being mentioned, I read about them, thought they were amazing, and became a fan since then.

what about you?

 

[Durakonis]

From a music store. I was checking out the CD's, and asking the seller about their genre, and if they are good and suitable to my taste. I saw this album (V) when it was out in 2000, and immediately liked the cover art and the band name, and asked the seller these questions and got positive answers. I normally prefer to hear some samples before buying an album if possible, but I made an exception and bought this one immediately. (I wasn't using internet then.)

 

[Gaussian]

Googled for "most epic metal song ever" (or something similar), and The Odyssey came up. Was not disappointed.

 

[ShadarLogoth]

they were mentioned on the old century media forum around 2001, saw V at my local music store, grabbed it, spent the rest of the semester with my roommate playing all the Zelda games with Symphony x as the soundtrack.

 

[Postulate]

I was really into power metal in high school - my friends and I all listened to Kamelot and Helloween. When SX released Paradise Lost I stumbled across Set the World on Fire and liked the power metal-style chorus, so I looked into their music. To my surprise I ended up liking the older stuff better, which is part of what helped get me into "prog."

 

[Phanto]

Bought V at random from mailorder.

 

[uhhhhmmmm4]

Through Dream Theater. I saw a lot of comments on Youtube Dream Theater videos comparing them to SX, so I had to take a lookie.

 

[TerminusDeus]

I was downloading some Rhapsody songs on limewire, bear share, who knows?, and through poor tagging, Of Sins and Shadows was one of them. It sounded different, so I looked it up and saw it was actually Symphony X. I went to a Tower Records the next day and picked up The Odyssey that just came out, V, and DWoT.

 

[MetalAges]

When I heard Mike and Mike on this album: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_Man_–_A_Tribute_to_Rush

I immediately had to look into who was playing on their song - such a unique sound and the shred level was amazing

 

[scanner313]

I was working at D'Addario strings and the AR guy knew I was into metal. So he gave me TDWOT which the band sent in looking for an endorsement deal. I took it home and was blown away within the first 30 seconds of the album. It became my favorite album at the time, and they became my favorite band.

Just a note... I went to bat for them, but at the time they weren't well known enough to warrant an endorsement deal. Of course, now they have one. LOL!

 

[Adam Fiske]

Saw them open for Blind Guardian in 2002. Having never heard them before, and after an hour and a half of Blind Guardian, Evolution (The Grand Design) was stuck in my head. I knew they were good if that was possible.

 

[Drunc]

I received (at my request) the 4th Allen Lande album, The Great Divide, for Christmas. I already had the other 3 discs and liked them but was hoping this would be better as it was penned by Timo Tolkki of Stratovarious fame, and I wasn't disappointed. I'd bought the previous albums because I liked Lande but felt Russell had really beefup up his vocals on the latest offering and found I liked him better than Lande. I also have all the Star One and Ayreon albums and decided it was time to investigate his work with Symphony X.

I searched this forum and saw that V was their most popular album so took a chance and bought it. Wow. That was earlier this year and soon after I bought all their albums bar the self titled which doesn't feature Russell.

What a journey. I agree with the forumers that V was their finest work (until Underworld) but all the albums contain some magic. The change of direction isn't an issue to me as I came into their music all at once and I actually think they are going the right way. I like The Damnation Game but I would have been very disappointed if they had gone back to this with Underworld.