Paradise Lost or Twilight in Olympus?

[PrgrsveMetalnChains]

Theres obviously a ton of people who hate Paradise Lost, or at least dislike the direction the band took when writing it. I happen to love the disk and the heavy direction they took, although I greatly enjoy their more melodic epic tracks just as well. Love the style of this new album and I am sure there is a great balance between heavy and melodic to balance the record out.

I find myself listening to tracks off TiO less than any other album most of the time simply because I just personally don't like the album very much...the songs don't stand out to me very much and never have after many, many listens.

Am I the only one with this type of thinking in regards to TiO? Probably so, but I would like to hear everyone's opinion on the matter as well because I don't see many people talk TOO much about TiO tracks being at the top of their list.

Which is the better / more enjoyable album to you? Paradise or TiO?

 

[manticore999]

I like, and still listen to, TIO on occasion but it's not as high on my list as DWOT and V.

 

[Liampie]

Easily TiO.

TiO: I think every song is very strong, minus In the Dragon's Den maybe. Through the Looking Glass is one of my favourite Symphony X songs, and Smoke and Mirrors, Church of the Machine and Orion The Hunter are some of my most played as well. However I can see where you're coming from, it does miss one monster song that carries the album. The Divine Wings had the Divine Wings, V had Rediscovery and The Odyssey had the Odyssey. TiO should've had TiO, but we all know what happened to that. This is probably why the track order is so bad (in my opinion), there's no climax and Orion + Lady of the Snow is, even though they're great, aren't worthy end songs. It ends quite dull...

Paradise Lost has some songs I enjoy a lot, being Oculus ex Inferni, Set the World on Fire (yes), Paradise Lost and Revelation (especially this one). I don't like the rest as much, there's too much agressive singing for my liking and the production is quite bad. I think I never listened the album as whole...

 

[Liquid Tension]

I don't listen to either disc... there are too many other better discs to spend time with.

 

[RuRoRul]

Paradise Lost

I like all the Symphony X albums from Damnation Game onwards but Twilight is probably #5. Church Of The Machine and Through The Looking Glass are two of their best, Smoke And Mirrors is up there too. But Paradise Lost has the title track and Revelation, which are two of my favourite Symphony X songs as well. After those, the tracks on TiO are good, nothing special, but I much prefer the average PL track to them. So Paradise Lost wins for me.

 

[Detective Clarence Beauregard]

I prefer the style they had on Twilight, even if the album wasn't as strong as Divine Wings. Church of the Machine and Through the Looking Glass are two of my top Symphony X songs, and I find The Relic and Orion to be two vastly underrated gems. However, I find the rest of the album to be rather average. Smoke and Mirrors is a decent tune but not good enough to be in the live set over other songs from this record like Church, Relic, or Orion. Sonata is filler to me (the guys even said that they were under massive time constraints for the album's recording), and Dragon's Den is "meh" (although the instrumentation in this song is above top-notch). Finally, Lady of the Snow always bored me to tears, save for the verses which I found melodically interesting. After the one-two punch of Divine Wings and Candlelight Fantasia closing out the previous album, I agree with Liampie - this album ended in a dull way.

I say I prefer Twilight over Paradise Lost simply because I prefer the more melodic style of the band's older masterpieces (read: more keyboards), but Paradise Lost is a much more consistent and well-rounded album. Everyone has a few songs on the album that they don't think are as strong as the others (STWOF, Serpent's Kiss, and Seven for me), but overall the album has very little filler material.

 

[handmadeguitars87]

Twilight for sure. I don't dislike PL at all, but Smoke and Mirrors alone from TIO seals the deal, no questions asked.

 

[Sep3]

It seems that unlike the majority here, I really don't like smoke and mirrors much. Church Of The Machine and Through The Looking Glass, maybe Lady Of The Snow too, are really nice. I have to say I prefer PL because it's more consistent, way too many fillers on TIO and some of the songs I don't like at all.

 

[Prog is King]

These albums are so different so while you can choose between them as to which one you prefer,
it's hard to compare them. Paradise Lost is pretty much straight up metal and Twilight is more prog.
I like them both but I listen to PL more. The whole album is great. No filler. The last six songs are
outstanding with The Walls of Babylon being my favorite. Church of the Machine and Through the
Looking Glass are my favorites from Twilight. Neither of these albums are close to being the best
in the Symphony X catalog. If I have to choose between the two I'll take PL.

 

[Wander]

I rather put Twilight In Olympus playing when feeling like listening to Symphony X so that one. More dynamic than PL, has a couple of tracks no PL tracks can match (Church of the machine, Looking Glass) and maybe I'm crazy but I find the production more pleasing as well.

Not such a big difference in quality tho.

 

[Marwen]

These albums are so different so while you can choose between them as to which one you prefer, it's hard to compare them.

Agreed.

That said, I prefer TIO. Weak production but the music makes up for it. The only advantage PL has over TIO (apart from the production) is the awesome/epic instrumental. But TIO wins in everything else. Simply more beautiful and melodic music, and more interesting imagery.

Although they're different albums, I think a song by song comparison is still possible:

Sonata < Oculus ex Inferni
Smoke and Mirrors > Domination
Church of the Machine > The Walls of Babylon
In the Dragon's Den > The Serpent's Kiss
Through the Looking Glass > Revelation
The Relic > Seven
Orion > Eve of Seduction
Lady of the Snow > Paradise Lost

 

[Danilo]

Once I caught myself thinking that I didn't enjoy TiO so much, but I couldn't find one single track on that album that I disliked.
Paradise Lost is an album that I only skip "Sepent's Kiss" and "Paradise Lost". BTW, I see how different I am from other SymX fans when I realize that almost everybody loves "Paradise Lost" (the song), while I think it's only like "The Accolade III". Only the original "the Accolade" is memorable, the other 2 I really don't care about them.

 

[Detective Clarence Beauregard]

BTW, I see how different I am from other SymX fans when I realize that almost everybody loves "Paradise Lost" (the song), while I think it's only like "The Accolade III". Only the original "the Accolade" is memorable, the other 2 I really don't care about them.

I agree with you about Paradise Lost (song); I think it's kind of boring. However, I disagree about Accolade II; I actually prefer it to the original. I simply find it to be a better written song, as the parts flow into each other much better.

 

[fire_angel]

PL, without question. TiO is good, but definitely not my favourite.

 

[TerminusDeus]

I'm probably more of a fan of TiO than PL mainly because I like that style of Symphony X, though I have no real complaints with their metal style.

What's funny with the Paradise Lost track is that I love the opening right up until the rest of the band starts up. I believe the last line is "does desire still hold true?". After that, I tend to switch tracks.

 

[Detective Clarence Beauregard]

What's funny with the Paradise Lost track is that I love the opening right up until the rest of the band starts up. I believe the last line is "does desire still hold true?". After that, I tend to switch tracks.

Me too, except I switch as soon as the distorted guitars come in (when the key changes). I think the song is just kind of flat and boring for them.

 

[Prismatic Sphere]

Wow, so much dislike for Sonata. It think it's a miniature masterpiece.
And I fucking love In The Dragon's Den. Brief and brutal; and proof that proggy doesn't necessarily mean lengthy. Easily one of my fave solos by Romeo.

The last three tracks off TiO are really creative and proggy as hell. As Detective said, underrated gems. Especially by the band themselves. Pinnella's keyboard solo in Orion is sick. Thomas Miller's bass work is fantastic on The Relic. And Russell's vocals shine on Lady Of The Snow brilliantly.

I prefer the live versions of Church and Looking Glass. And Smoke is just.....smokin. :Smokedev:

I could talk about this album for hours.

Can you guess which album I prefer?

If not, then I will give you a one sentence answer on just a straight album comparison:

TiO. For the simple reason that all of the instruments are present in the sound.

It feels like a band in unison and not just the Romeo show. It's so much more creative and dynamic in terms of songwriting than PL that it is not even funny; nevermind the sound mix. In fact I'd say it's their most progressive record. AND it was done in a Rush(pun intended[here's why-->]) Then again, so was Caress Of Steel.

One can only imagine what the album would have sounded like with a title track(yeah, Rediscovery with different lyrics- but yeah).

 

[Marwen]

TiO led to V, that automatically makes TiO the winner.

/end of thread

 

[Matt]

Neither album gets many plays in full. Certain songs from PL/TiO I'll listen to, but neither album has much 'full play' value to me, if that makes any sense.

To me, the band has reached and surpassed the pinnacle of it's greatness. You just can't get any better than V or Divine Wings or Odyssey. However, I'll still buy their new albums, and support them as much as I can.

 

[d0mino_rox]

That's a little tough for me. TiO has such amazing songs like Smoke and Mirrors, Church of the Machine, but those are pretty much the staple tracks for me. Through the Looking Glass is amazing, but just doesn't compare to the other epics out there. With Paradise Lost, I feel like I can listen to the entire album and still enjoy it, from Oculus to Revelations. That album has some stand-out songs too, like Domination, but the entire CD just flows better than TiO to me.