New Underworld Track: Without You

The chorus could be mistaken for a generic rock song on radio if it wasn't for the drumwork during it.
Although I admire the DWoT moment, it feels like it's struggling to find the DWoT melody but never quite gets there before it's done. It's actually depressing.
Truth be told, the softer verses are quite pleasant and welcome despite these setbacks. However, if this is the "When All Is Lost" of the album then something's amiss.
 
I've listened to it a couple more times and I feel I am hearing more things than I did the first time. My main thing is that it is mainly the chorus that sounds generic, and unfortunately it doesn't help that it is repeated so much....
 
Seriously, all you haters. Name one band that is better than SX right now. Come on Postulate, whatcha got?

Bands/Artists I don't want to hear:

Dream Theater, Circus Maximus (though they are close), Soen, Leprous (absolute trash), Arcturus, George Bellas, Summoning, Kamelot, Angra.

Surely with all your vast knowledge and you can suggest something infinitely superior to the lowly and needing-of-criticism SX.

Also, Kamelot ballads are just not good. They lack that magic factor, and they have a bad singer.
 
anonym115 said:
Seriously, all you haters. Name one band that is better than SX right now. Come on Postulate, whatcha got?
Click to expand...
Haken?

Having listened to Without You a dozen more times, I'm a bit disappointed, because the non-chorus parts have grown on me but the chorus is still bad (not actually bad, but "meh" bad). Wasted opportunity, really. Still, leaves hope for the rest of the album.
 
I would agree on Haken being more interesting musically than Symphony X right now. Doesn't diminish my love for the band but just calling it like I hear it.
 
Haken is one of the worst bands I have ever heard. They scream "Hey guys, I know time signatures, look at me!" And their melodies are just collections of random notes. Next please.

EDIT: I meant to put Haken in the original "do not suggest" list, but forgot!
 
anonym115 said:
Seriously, all you haters. Name one band that is better than SX right now. Come on Postulate, whatcha got?
Click to expand...

I would have to say Soen, Haken or Leprous do more creative music than SX currently. Is it better? That can be debatable.

But honestly, you have to go back 10 years and more if you really want to hear good prog and power metal albums. Bands like PoS, Opeth, Porcupine Tree, Angra, DT and of course SX still delivered albums what could be described as "fresh and innovative".
 
I love Seventh Wonder quite a bit but the problem there is that we are talking about a band with 4 albums total while this is the 9th for Symphony X. Same can really be said for Haken who only have 3 (but the recent E.P is damn near album length). You'd be hard pressed to find any band who at the 9th album is still bringing it like they were in the 3rd-4th album time frame. Symphony X is doing a pretty good job for me where they are at in their career.
 
Seventh Wonder is just...dry, I think is the word. I have been through their discography several times and I felt almost compelled to delete it after having used it up so thoroughly.

I also couldn't care less if you want to ignore me.

I'm half being a huge butt-hole, and I am aware of that, but it's because I just find it laughable to criticize SX and then praise some of this new super time-signature random note stuff that is coming out like Haken's latest efforts. Leprous, as another commonly cited example, really wants to be good, but their songs lack energy and motivation almost completely. It is also my opinion that all these commonly suggested bands just lack vocal talent completely. SX might not write the most optimum possible vocal melodies, but Russell is just leagues more talented than the next best option (with the exception of CM's singer, who is a fairly close second IMO).

The other half of me is being completely sincere, and wanting actual suggestions! Logically, the biggest critics of SX should have some of the best to offer.
 
Interesting, I find Seventh Wonder to be mostly a breath of fresh air and I find myself listening to them with at least some regularity. All the guys in the band are super talented and their songs stand out and feel extremely varied to me. Also Tommy Karevik's voice is pretty darn emotional I think. But hey, if you've been through their discography several times then there either must have been something you like or you're a masochist :)

I do agree with what you've said on Leprous. I don't entirely get what the big deal is with them. I tried listening to Coal once and couldn't even get all the way through it. Different strokes for different folks!
 
I was being a little unfair about Seventh Wonder. First off, I only even care for Mercy Falls and onward...

Positives: Fantastic Singer, but he almost sounds like he should be in a boy band. Still, I can't not give him props.

I generally like their arrangements overall as well.

Negatives: Guitar tone is unbearable. Additionally, their guitarist puts no soul into any individual notes. Their composition also often just have time signature changes just for the heck of it, a personal extreme pet peeve of mine. No fluidity of change of time, just prog for the sake of it.

I also generally am saddened by the keyboard tonal choices they make. There is no thickness to it, I guess I'd have to say.

All that being said, I genuinely at one point really liked them, and I imagine I still do to some degree. But I never pick up my phone, scroll through my music, and say to myself, "Man, you know what I need right now? Some Seventh Wonder!". They just tired on me very easily after several listens through Falls/Escape.

I think maybe they have the same problem most other prog musicians have: No classical foundation. They learned music from other proggers, which is a mistake in my opinion. This is the problem I have with bands like Haken, Soen, and Leprous as well. Haken is especially guilty.

It is better to learn classical music from the great composers of old, and then be like, "Hey, I'm a metal guy." Then you learn all the technique and make a metal band and worry about time changes and things.

I can't stress enough that my goal isn't really to find a band I like, but a band that is at least near to SX (in my opinion). The only 5 bands I can stomach at the moment are SX, DT, CM, Animals as Leaders, and Blotted Science. And Blotted Science I need to be in the mood for. Everything else is just such a far jump downwards to me.
 
anonym115 said:
Seriously, all you haters. Name one band that is better than SX right now. Come on Postulate, whatcha got?

Bands/Artists I don't want to hear:

Dream Theater, Circus Maximus (though they are close), Soen, Leprous (absolute trash), Arcturus, George Bellas, Summoning, Kamelot, Angra.

Surely with all your vast knowledge and you can suggest something infinitely superior to the lowly and needing-of-criticism SX.

Also, Kamelot ballads are just not good. They lack that magic factor, and they have a bad singer.
Click to expand...

Your list of "forbidden" bands doesn't even make sense -- it spans a bunch of unrelated genres.

Listen to some new music is all I can recommend. If you want my opinion on where the seriously good prog metal is right now, there's some crazy stuff out there.



^Compared to this, SX is not even making music, IMO.
 
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And if you want something more straightforward and "poppy" because anything with jazz influence is "just random time signatures" (whatever that means), I think this is a good example of a prog metal band doing something straightforward that manages to be fresh and interesting:



For Threshold I think you can make the "progression" argument, because it's actually cool and unique, what they're doing (similarly for bands like Voyager who have recently turned poppy). With SX, it's like, okay, sure, why does "progression" just happen to mean "sounding more like Nickelback than before" every time?
 
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One final suggestion before I go is that in the traditional prog metal vein, if you like DT, Fates Warning's A Pleasant Shade of Gray makes them look like total amateurs.

If you like technical instrumental metal like Animals as Leaders, there is so much stuff out there in that vein, and much of it is even a lot better that AAL IMO. Among them is Blotted Science, which you already mentioned, but also Planet X, Virgil Donati, and Alessandro Bertoni, who have made some of the most incredible music.
 
Animals as Leaders has some really cool songs, and then they have some super annoying songs. Wierd. They have been popping up on my Pandora since I have Conquering Dystopia as a like. I have heard some I really like, and then some that I wonder who the hell it is.

I, agree, about the APSOG by Fates Warning, such a great album
 
This new song is not a good sign IMO. Nevermore was SX cliché at it's best, and this is just more of the same. I love the band to death but they have been stuck in the same song writing mode since Paradise Lost. With both tracks now I could cite multiple sections of their own material that sounds almost identical.

My excitement for this album is now fading pretty significantly I'm sad to say.
 
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