Is V the quintessential Symphony X disc?

[batmura]

What is the most essential and best Symphony X album in your opinion? Assuming the majority of their fans are torn between The Divine Wings of Tragedy and V, I thought I'd start a poll and see what happens.

I've been on such a Symphony X kick lately. Killer band!

 

[_Gentleman of_the Snow_]

Both fantastic, but V wins... hands down!

 

[Wander]

Divine Wings is better in most departments and a contender for the best Symphony X album. V isn't even in my top 3.

Some support for this:

Divine Wings has the better opener (Of Sins and Shadows is good, Evolution I usually skip)
The Accolade > Communion and The Oracle (Communion is great tho, but still no contest)
Divine Wings > Rediscovery

The only Divine Wings song I really can't stand to listen is Out of The Ashes. V is more consistent, but doesn't have as many killer songs as TDWOT.

 

[Detective Clarence Beauregard]

V is more consistent, but doesn't have as many killer songs as TDWOT.

I couldn't agree with this more.

Divine Wings has a few songs that I've always considered to be filler (Pharaoh, Witching Hour) but makes up for it with three amazing songs (Accolade, Candlelight Fantasia, and the title track). The first three songs are above average (although I am sick to death of the first two), and Medusa is average.

V is also a great album, but it's hard for me to narrow down the awesomeness to a few tracks (aside from Communion, which is amazing). The quality is spread quite evenly throughout the album, and the lower points (Bird-Serpent War, A Fool's Paradise) are still light years above the filler on Divine Wings.

With that said, I simply prefer the overall vibe of Divine Wings over V (or PL, for that matter). It's darker, more neoclassical, more haunting, etc.

 

[manticore999]

Disagree completely. V is definitely the ultimate, to me. Much 'deeper' - I love DWOT, but the songs are kind of cheesy (ok, cheesier than V, anyway).

 

[Marwen]

Disagree completely. V is definitely the ultimate, to me. Much 'deeper' - I love DWOT, but the songs are kind of cheesy (ok, cheesier than V, anyway).

Completely agree with you.

Story-wise, V is more magical, timeless, definitely deeper and more filled with meanings, feels less Christian/religious (referring to songs like "Of Sins and Shadows" and "Divine Wings of Tragedy" here), and is instead more on the occult/mystical/mythical side that I prefer. I don't see how DWOT is darker or more "tragic" than V. The latter is definitely darker, in a less cheesy or, shall I say, "personal" way. A song like fallen is outright evil, then you have something like Egypt which is evil/twisted but not in such an obvious manner. As a story, V has a broader, more collective nature, and is more epic.

Music-wise, I find it more interesting. I feel it's a bit less conventional than DWOT and hence may take longer to really "get into". The music certainly lives up to such a great and demanding theme (except "Absence of Light" which I regard as the only filler song in the album, without suggesting that it's necessarily a "bad" song on its own). The motifs and the cohesiveness is great.

Production-wise, V has better guitar tone (my SymX favorite so far). Everything else, including the orchestral/choir stuff, saw an improvement over DWOT too. The tones are of better quality, are less "flat" and the mix has more "depth" to it.

I'll say from experience that unless you "get" V, it'll probably just sound "ok" and far from the best.

 

[gilbertn923]

Sorry guys but DWOT is my pick for this one. V is awesome and I love it too, but as Wander said V isn't even in my top 3. DWOT has more memorable songs that I can never get out of my head. I mostly listen to V as a whole, but I feel as if it lacks something that DWOT has and I also liked Russell's vocals more on DWOT than I did on V. So overall I love both albums, but DWOT for me hands down.

 

[Phanto]

V is the only Symphony X album I'd put in my favorite top 5 albums of all time.

It's just super duper good. Everything is better about it.
Candlelight Fantasia, however, is a top-notch song. No doubt about it.

 

[proulxski]

I believe V, The Odyssey, and DwOt are all quintessential. Symphony x isn't your regular run of the mill band. Pretty much everything they've touched is gold, or at least enjoyable. I can't say the same for most bands in the genre.

 

[Progbass]

When V first came out, for a long time I only listened to it from their catalog...thats just how good it is.
But still after hard decision I choose DWOT, it's pretty even for me but Thomas Miller is the reason why I went with DWOT.

 

[Liquid Tension]

DWOT is my vote....

 

[PMA]

I believe their composition skills improved on V but I really like both albums.

 

[DoomsdayZach]

I voted for V.

Fortunately, the world has both albums and I don't really have to choose

 

[J-Dubya 777]

DWOT gets my vote..... As Zach said, we got both cds, so we don't have to choose.

Back when the mailing list had an FTP site, Jax or Matthew procured 3 tunes from V to share with the mailing list folks. To say I was not amused was an understatement, from the samples, it seemed like V lost the balls & chunk of the previous releases. It sounded better once I got the cd, but DWOT is still, IMO, "THE" Sy-X cd.....

 

[DavidPartay]

Meh, I honestly don't care either way. There are great songs on all their albums. If Symphony X only ever wrote the same thing, we'd all be bored of them by now.

All their albums get equal play-time on shuffle in my primary listening source - my car - while I'm travelling to and from work.

 

[RuRoRul]

I don't see how the title question and the poll question are the same.

Anyway my thoughts have already been said - V is much more consistent an album. DWOT and Accolade are two of Symphony X's best songs, but most of the rest of the album are below average Symphony X songs. V is much more consistent.

 

[Marwen]

2/3 of people prefer V. Sounds reasonable enough to me.

(Not that I have anything against the other third )

 

[-kNuCkleS-]

Great albums, but my vote is to DWOT (probably my favorite album ever)

 

[Alteredmindeath]

V is one of my favorite records.

 

[_Gentleman of_the Snow_]

I couldn't agree with this more.

Divine Wings has a few songs that I've always considered to be filler (Pharaoh, Witching Hour) but makes up for it with three amazing songs (Accolade, Candlelight Fantasia, and the title track). The first three songs are above average (although I am sick to death of the first two), and Medusa is average.

V is also a great album, but it's hard for me to narrow down the awesomeness to a few tracks (aside from Communion, which is amazing). The quality is spread quite evenly throughout the album, and the lower points (Bird-Serpent War, A Fool's Paradise) are still light years above the filler on Divine Wings.

With that said, I simply prefer the overall vibe of Divine Wings over V (or PL, for that matter). It's darker, more neoclassical, more haunting, etc.

Hmmm... I'm shocked that you chose Divine, Detective.

It's rare that I don't see eye to eye with you.

As for Sins being above Evolution... I have to disagree. both are similar to me, and close in quality... but I have always preferred Evo.