My reviews of all SymX studio albums at ProgArchives

[Rose Immortal]

Unfortunately, you may have to do some scrolling to find my reviews once you click on the album, but I'm interested in seeing what you guys think.

(I think the first and last are really gonna push some buttons...)

http://www.progarchives.com/Collaborators.asp?id=64&listreviews=alpha#reviews

 

[Yngvai X]

Reading some of the reviews (I couldn't find yours though)...I have to laugh at some of the negative reviews of The Odyssey...if you don't like the shit heavy, why are you listening to a metal band? This one reviewer says they didn't like Inferno? Shit this is the song I play people first when I try to get them into SymX! hehehe

I hope SymX pushes the heavy envelope further with the new one so we can weed out more of the prog weenies.

 

[MC Pee pants]

I started out with the odyssey, knowing only that one of the songs was 24 minutes long, and listened to it first. I must say I was hooked that instant, and for a good month or more I forgot all other music I was listening too, just to listen to it. So to people who say not to start with it, I'm glad I got it before you could tell me not to. I really like the others, and I'm not sure if the odyssey is the best, but I don't think there is any reason to not start on it if you like metal. If you like prog, and want to get into metal, maybe you could work you're way up, but why not just start with accolade II and awakenings, then go to the others?

I also would like to see the weenies go.

 

[Rose Immortal]

Reading some of the reviews (I couldn't find yours though)

My reviews are listed under the name FloydWright.

As to why I say don't start with Odyssey, in my review, it's because it almost turned me off of the band, and I think the other albums are better.

And it's not that I don't like hard music (I mean, I love Opeth's stuff to bits and I'd been listening to it before getting into SymX)--but Odyssey had a particularly headache-inducing mix that totally drowned out Pinnella in places, and to me, that's just not the best of Symphony X.

 

[Progbass]

I don't know why are you referring syx to floyd all the time, I see the similarity only in few choir passages, but I think floyd is much more slower and psychedelic while syx sounds more like ELP or kansas or even YES.

 

[Rose Immortal]

Unfortunately, I'm not really familiar with those other bands, and I would sound like an idiot if I tried to make comparisons to stuff I don't know. You will notice that most of the references I made were NOT made to imply a close comparison.

And Russell Allen really DOES do harmonies that sound like Rick Wright at times--like in "Church of the Machine".

Now, if you REALLY want to hear a close resemblance, Mikael Akerfeldt really is a dead ringer for David Gilmour sometimes.

 

[Yngvai X]

My reviews are listed under the name FloydWright.

As to why I say don't start with Odyssey, in my review, it's because it almost turned me off of the band, and I think the other albums are better.

And it's not that I don't like hard music (I mean, I love Opeth's stuff to bits and I'd been listening to it before getting into SymX)--but Odyssey had a particularly headache-inducing mix that totally drowned out Pinnella in places, and to me, that's just not the best of Symphony X.

Hehe, I don't consider Opeth THAT heavy (what I've heard)...but its just weird cause to me The Odyssey is the epitome of SymX, and most people I talk to agree with that.

 

[Rose Immortal]

I think for me, V is the epitome of Symphony X. Possibly the newest album could upset that, if they can get the mixing and composition issues cleaned up, but until then, V it is. The Odyssey very nearly made me not become a fan of SymX at all. I'm NOT the only one this has happened to.

In fact, just yesterday, I met a person who was really turned off from Symphony X, by one song they heard recently. This person is normally OK with metal, but said that Symphony X, from that song, sounded "unoriginal", "the same four chords", "just guitars and drums". I can be pretty sure that was The Odyssey, because that's exactly what's wrong with certain songs on there--Pinnella's mixed so far down on some that you don't know there's a keyboard in there, and they just don't quite sound up to the level of their previous work at all. In fact, if I were a betting person, I'd bet the song they heard was "The Turning".

And BTW, what albums of Opeth have you heard? A lot depends on which albums you've gotten songs from.

 

[arglebargle]

Blackwater Park-era Opeth is some of the heaviest stuff ever.

 

[Yngvai X]

Blackwater Park-era Opeth is some of the heaviest stuff ever.

Thats what i have...when I think of really heavy stuff Im thinking of bands like Hypocrisy, Dissection, Destruction, etc. Opeth has too many mellow passages and acoustic guitars for me to think of them as a really heavy band.

Rose, it seems that much of your complaints about THe Odyssey come from lack of keyboards...I really don't think that lacking keyboards makes something not as good though...Rage, is just guitar/bass/drums and they sound HUUUUGE. If anything, less keyboards = more agressive.

 

[arglebargle]

Opeth is heavy in a slow, doomy way. Bands like Dissection are heavy in a fast, aggressive way.

Guess it's all a matter of taste. *shrugs*

 

[Rose Immortal]

Rose, it seems that much of your complaints about THe Odyssey come from lack of keyboards...I really don't think that lacking keyboards makes something not as good though...Rage, is just guitar/bass/drums and they sound HUUUUGE. If anything, less keyboards = more agressive.

Well, a lot of times there actually were keyboards...but it was mixed in such a way that they were really buried. It's not that I don't mind aggressive music BUT the way that particular album was mixed just kinda backfired in my opinion. (Plus other stuff which I won't rehash.)