Recommend me a first SX album to buy?
- Thread starter metallifan3091
- Start date
EyeballKid
Shyamalan'd
Everyone is going to recommend "V" or "Divine Wings of Tragedy"
Personally, I think it depends on what else you listen to/like. What are some of your favorite bands?
Personally, I think it depends on what else you listen to/like. What are some of your favorite bands?
Ben101
Shreddy McFuntits
From Damnation Game to their most recent album Paradise Lost you really can't go wrong with Symphony X.
Like myself I guess a lot of people started with The Divine Wings Of Tragedy which is considered to be one of their best albums if not the best. It's a good album, very heavy but leans a bit more towards power metal then their most recent stuff but it's still quiet progressive and has some classic SX material on it. Check out Of Sins & Shadows, title track, Out Of The Ashes, The Accolade.
I would recomend Twilight In olympus just because its the album I get the most enjoyment out of. It's a bit more progressive then it is strictly heavy, but its still a heavy record. Some amazing songs and arrangements on this album, if you just wanted to check out a few songs definately go with Church Of The Machine, Smoke & Mirrors, Through The Looking Glass (one of the most amazing progmetal epics ever written IMO) or In The Dragons Den. Very high quality but underrated classic SX album.
A lot of people are going to recomend V: The New Mythology Suite which is probably their most complex album to date. The riffing is a bit heavier like the older material but the keyboards take on a more 'film score' like role and overall its an amazing album best l;istened to from beginning to end. Songs to check out: Evolution (The Grand Design), Communion & The Oracle, Rediscovery Pt 2, Egypt & the Bird Serpent War.
You really can't go wrong, check out either Divine Wings, Twilight or V first. Or if you want something thats a lot heavier and a bit more accessible and easier to digest at first then check out Paradise Lost, their most recent album.
Hope you enjoy Symphony X!
Like myself I guess a lot of people started with The Divine Wings Of Tragedy which is considered to be one of their best albums if not the best. It's a good album, very heavy but leans a bit more towards power metal then their most recent stuff but it's still quiet progressive and has some classic SX material on it. Check out Of Sins & Shadows, title track, Out Of The Ashes, The Accolade.
I would recomend Twilight In olympus just because its the album I get the most enjoyment out of. It's a bit more progressive then it is strictly heavy, but its still a heavy record. Some amazing songs and arrangements on this album, if you just wanted to check out a few songs definately go with Church Of The Machine, Smoke & Mirrors, Through The Looking Glass (one of the most amazing progmetal epics ever written IMO) or In The Dragons Den. Very high quality but underrated classic SX album.
A lot of people are going to recomend V: The New Mythology Suite which is probably their most complex album to date. The riffing is a bit heavier like the older material but the keyboards take on a more 'film score' like role and overall its an amazing album best l;istened to from beginning to end. Songs to check out: Evolution (The Grand Design), Communion & The Oracle, Rediscovery Pt 2, Egypt & the Bird Serpent War.
You really can't go wrong, check out either Divine Wings, Twilight or V first. Or if you want something thats a lot heavier and a bit more accessible and easier to digest at first then check out Paradise Lost, their most recent album.
Hope you enjoy Symphony X!
Thanks for the help. To answer your question, my favorite metal sub-genre's are thrash and prog, and I like death metal quite well, but I like stuff that grooves really well too, like Machine Head and Lamb of God. I love Testament and the other classic thrash bands, and I love bands like Protest the Hero and Between the Buried and Me. I really like Dream Theater and Mastodon, and Cynic and Death and Nile. And I'm a big Pantera fan, and a huge In Flames fan. I love Shadows Fall, Meshuggah, and Periphery, and bands like Living Colour and Extreme. I also really like instrumental shred stuff like Satch, Vai, Becker and Petrucci, and I like Opeth a pretty good deal. I also like a lot of jazz, flamenco, funk, and classical stuff, and a lot more straight up rock stuff, and a little hip hop. I have pretty broad tastes.
EDIT:I'm listening to Divine Wings right now, and I'm impressed. I like the odd time signature stuff, and, for once, I actually like the keys. Normally I'm not a big keys fan at all. I have to say that the singer is way better than James LaBrie
I can't stand Labrie, haha. Holy crap, its long. 3 Youtube vids for the studio version but it was awesome.
EDIT:I'm listening to Divine Wings right now, and I'm impressed. I like the odd time signature stuff, and, for once, I actually like the keys. Normally I'm not a big keys fan at all. I have to say that the singer is way better than James LaBrie
I can't stand Labrie, haha. Holy crap, its long. 3 Youtube vids for the studio version but it was awesome.
progmetaldan
Member
Going by your favourite bands and the like, you'd probably particularly enjoy their latest album Paradise Lost, but as has been said, you really can't go too far wrong with any of their albums after Damnation Game.
Detective Clarence Beauregard
Dehumanized
Based on the bands you're into, I would recommend working backwards in the Symphony X discography. Start with Paradise Lost, followed by The Odyssey, V, Twilight in Olympus, Divine Wings, and Damnation game. Avoid the self-titled debut.
Alright. Thanks guys. I'll definitely start with either Divine Wings or Paradise Lost, and just slowly accumulate albums from there, along with everything else on my to buy list, which is getting to be like 1000 albums long, haha.
EyeballKid
Shyamalan'd
This is correct. I was going to recommend this, but a lot of people might get touchy at saying Paradise Lost is the best thing to start with. For your tastes, however, definitely follow the Detective's orders.
PrgrsveMetalnChains
Vocal Prince
I first learned of Symphony X playing a hacked version of Guitar Hero II strangely enough. A friend had Inferno on there and played it while I watched and was just kind of like "meh, they are good...probably another unknown band with only one good song though". Didn't think anything of it. Then I started thinking, I love Alice in Chains, Pantera, Lamb of God, Dream Theater, many of the bands similar to yours, and was like...man these guys might be good. (At the time) went and downloaded the album that had Inferno (Odyssey) and gave it a few listens. With any album I usually think its mediocre at first listen, simply because I didn't really take each song in, but after a few REAL sessions with it, I was hooked - didn't take it out of the player for like 4 months - no shit.
Long story short...they are now my absolute favorite band. Being a vocalist with a key influence being Layne Staley, its interesting getting SO into this band and their music, but I absolutely love it, Allen has made me a better vocalist with more variety and drive than ever before. As far as the music, Alice is still amazing IMO, but S-X has inspired me and opened my ears to so much more and...GODDAMNIT! They are so good...seen 'em live once thus far, hopefully many more live shows to come.
(Sorry I went off on a muffalaude, beer + love for music = happy person)
Long story short...they are now my absolute favorite band. Being a vocalist with a key influence being Layne Staley, its interesting getting SO into this band and their music, but I absolutely love it, Allen has made me a better vocalist with more variety and drive than ever before. As far as the music, Alice is still amazing IMO, but S-X has inspired me and opened my ears to so much more and...GODDAMNIT! They are so good...seen 'em live once thus far, hopefully many more live shows to come.
(Sorry I went off on a muffalaude, beer + love for music = happy person)
Lucius Octavion
Member
- Jun 9, 2007
- 528
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- 16
Great post above ^
It's really funny that you like Nile. Really funny in fact because I was in fifth grade at the time I first heard Symphony X, it was V, The New Mythology Suite. That was about eight years ago.
I was so heavily influenced by the epic egyptian scale sounding stuff in that album that I started playing it on my bass and my cello a LOT. I started to develop this really cool really heavy metal style with that kind of sound, thinking I had made it up!
Then I heard Nile and was like, "oh crap"...
Based on your tastes I would recommend V as I think it encompasses the entirety of Symphony X's styles the most solidly out of all their albums. There's some jazz influence, lots of progressive style metal presented in a melodic classical fashion, with a lot of heavy riffing, sounding epic without being a cheesy "powermetal" kind of way.
It's really funny that you like Nile. Really funny in fact because I was in fifth grade at the time I first heard Symphony X, it was V, The New Mythology Suite. That was about eight years ago.
I was so heavily influenced by the epic egyptian scale sounding stuff in that album that I started playing it on my bass and my cello a LOT. I started to develop this really cool really heavy metal style with that kind of sound, thinking I had made it up!
Then I heard Nile and was like, "oh crap"...
Based on your tastes I would recommend V as I think it encompasses the entirety of Symphony X's styles the most solidly out of all their albums. There's some jazz influence, lots of progressive style metal presented in a melodic classical fashion, with a lot of heavy riffing, sounding epic without being a cheesy "powermetal" kind of way.
That's exactly how I did it. When I first heard Paradise Lost, I was blown away with how good it was. Imagine how thrilled I was to find out that as I worked my way backwards through their discography, they got better and better!
Thanks for the help. To answer your question, my favorite metal sub-genre's are thrash and prog, and I like death metal quite well, but I like stuff that grooves really well too, like Machine Head and Lamb of God. I love Testament and the other classic thrash bands, and I love bands like Protest the Hero and Between the Buried and Me. I really like Dream Theater and Mastodon, and Cynic and Death and Nile. And I'm a big Pantera fan, and a huge In Flames fan. I love Shadows Fall, Meshuggah, and Periphery, and bands like Living Colour and Extreme. I also really like instrumental shred stuff like Satch, Vai, Becker and Petrucci, and I like Opeth a pretty good deal. I also like a lot of jazz, flamenco, funk, and classical stuff, and a lot more straight up rock stuff, and a little hip hop. I have pretty broad tastes.
EDIT:I'm listening to Divine Wings right now, and I'm impressed. I like the odd time signature stuff, and, for once, I actually like the keys. Normally I'm not a big keys fan at all. I have to say that the singer is way better than James LaBrie
judging by your post you should get paradise lost. it's more guitar driven and heavy, and russel's vocals are more harsh
and yea when SX use odd time signatures you don't even notice it because it blends so well with the rest of the song unlike some other bands who do it just for the sake of it
DoomsdayZach
The Professor was right
Also, realize that when you get to V, that's very very different from a lot of their other stuff. Personally, my favorite SymX album.
