Dehumanize..
Lyrics and Vocals I do not like.. reminds me of paradise lost, very derived and predictable to me. Boooooooo.
Other than that its ok.. just sounds like they are now writing music for their kids rather them themselves. The solo is pretty good but where else is the guitar? It's like he just throws in some old school Symphony X solo and expects us to be happy. I can't imagine actually listening to this and WANTING to listen to it. Sorry but it's true.
"You cant break us, no you can't make us."
Sorry but these are simply bad lyrics. Anyone care to argue this?
To be fair, lyrics have always been Symphony X's weakest point in my opinion. Luckily lyrics are the least important part of music for me...
About the actual music, it sounds like a hybrid of something from The Odyssey and Paradise Lost, which I can live with. It's very groovy (not unlike parts of Wicked or Serpent's Kiss) and also has some melodic sections, like the pre-chorus and bridge.
The keyboards are less prominent in this song than in End of Innocence, but I think we all need to accept that for one reason or another, Pinnella
wants to take a back seat to Romeo. I don't see why he'd still be with the band if this isn't the case! The band is straying away from their beautiful keyboard polyrhythms of the past (e.g. Church of the Machine, Fallen, Communion and the Oracle), which is somewhat of a shame, since it's one of the biggest reasons this band is unique to me. We also need to accept that they
are somewhat commercializing their sound, at least compared to their previous songwriting style. Paradise Lost is evidence of this not only for the songwriting style, but for the greatly decreased amount of keyboard solos - for some reason, keyboard solos just aren't as accessible as guitar solos. Sure, we as Symphony X fans love them (my favorite song from Paradise Lost is The Walls of Babylon, one reason being because it contains
half of the keyboard solos on that album and
doesn't feature MJR in the spotlight), but it's obvious that they are trying to be more of a "metal" band with keyboards in a supporting role. As much as it pains me to say it, I don't foresee many more dueling guitar/keyboard sections in the band's future. But of course, I still hope the new album proves me wrong!
Discuss.
