Symphony X's new dark look

[reidie]

^ Agree 100%

Dressing as pirates would be popularity suicide with respect to the newer, younger fanbase that they will surely gain from the new album and/or picked up from the gigantour shows...

 

[rockyracoon]

Good lord, I think this forum has hit an all time low.....

Ya know what Dubs, there may be some relevance to this. Many bands have done themselves favors by upgrading their stage appearances, without compromising the band integrity. Sorry to say, but if you wanna be taken seriously in any facet of life, sometimes people are looking for the total package. Take a band like Zero Hour, for example. They are the epitome of casual dress on stage. I love their music, as do many others. However, they will NEVER rise to that next level of showmanship with their current stage presentation. Sorry if that rubs anyone the wrong way. Mainly the people who will say, "who cares, the music should be all that matters." Anyway, I've thought SX could benefit from a more professional presentation at times, especially if they are to be headlining...which, of course, they should.

 

[J-Dubya 777]

I'd still never tell a band how to dress, one way or the other. It was the original complaintant's "Mr. Blackwell on bad acid with a dash of toxic shock syndrome" that set me, and others here, off. I'm mostly over it, if it matters THAT much to him fine, just knock off the caustic holier than thou whining for God's sake. Not to mention his "guitar duel" comment. If we're going to be THAT disjointed with our reasoning pro/con, I can make his head explode with a single shot at 500+ yards, that beats ANY guitar duel, and neither have anything to do with the subject at hand.

 

[rockyracoon]

I'd still never tell a band how to dress, one way or the other. It was the original complaintant's "Mr. Blackwell on bad acid with a dash of toxic shock syndrome" that set me, and others here, off. I'm mostly over it, if it matters THAT much to him fine, just knock off the caustic holier than thou whining for God's sake. Not to mention his "guitar duel" comment. If we're going to be THAT disjointed with our reasoning pro/con, I can make his head explode with a single shot at 500+ yards, that beats ANY guitar duel, and neither have anything to do with the subject at hand.

Dubs, your militant nature at this forum is to be encouraged, if not at least condoned. But, I'd certainly rather see you at PP this coming Oct. than read about your unfortunate incarceration stemming from unspeakable acts provoked by this forum. Cooler head will prevail my friend.

 

[progmetaldan]

I can make his head explode with a single shot at 500+ yards, that beats ANY guitar duel, and neither have anything to do with the subject at hand.

Relevant or not, I'm impressed...

 

[CttN]

when it comes to it, the bill says "symphony x" not "symphony x in tights."

I would not mind at all. Mmm Rus in tights...

And really. Trust metal fans to take what a band wears on stage way too out of hand. This thread is about the new photo released. You can barely even SEE what they're wearing. You've all gotten your man panties in a knot over nothing.

 

[3DimensionalAperture]

:Epic spewing of more literary diharea that nobody would or should bother reading:

When I saw X with Blind Guardian I left saying 'that was the tightest, most cohesive live performance I have ever seen'. When I saw them on Gigantour they BUTCHERED the intro to Inferno, Russ's singing was all over the place pitch wise, and MJR messed up every solo he played.

lol ok. So the way they dressed affects their playing too? Forget about the fact it was the first time they toured in a year, and the fact that it was the band's first ever open air tour, everyone knows it's that the jeans/t shirt combo on Russ affected everyone else in the band and their playing. Your logic rules, and I would love to learn from you how exactly you come up with this stuff.


Rock and metal aren't the same genre, but metal is derived from rock music, especially Symphony X, who are rooted in both prog rock and blues moreso than classical music. In fact it makes me laugh that you think they are some kind of classical composers with songs like "Wicked" and "Of Sins And Shadows" which are both fast and heavy. Romeo might take a lot of time in composing the orchestrations to The Odyssey but that doesn't make them a classical band. Ask Romeo himself, he'll tell you that he tried taking classical lessons and hated them. He's more inspired by bands like Maiden (a band that wears t-shirts and jeans) and King Diamond than anything by Bach or Vivaldi (great composers btw).

And don't tell me to "look up" classical music. I have a BS in Music Industry, Summa Cum Laude

You should definitely go back to school and take a different course asap, like reading comprehension. I never said that all metal= t-shirt and jeans. In fact, I said that there are bands that require a specific kind of visual presentation for their music, many of them being GOOD. But that's not the point. The point is that in metal/rock, you can wear WHATEVER you want. Costumes, t-shirts, jeans... doesn't matter.

Should Finntroll dress like this:

http://www.notableimages.net/images/LustigenMusikanten4.jpg on their next tour?

Maybe the guys in Necrophagist should wear frilly shirts also since they have pretty much the same amount of classical influence as Symphony X.

You're a pretentious idiot. I win, and you lose. Deal with it.

 

[3DimensionalAperture]

Oh and LOL @ Dream Theater having a clothing line. I guess Dethklok t shirts are considered fashionable these days.

 

[dparker88]

Relevant or not, I'm impressed...

I can make your bowel explode from 500+ yards, using a bass downtuned to the 'brown note' (korn tuning lawl!), and a massive 10000W rig.

I win, and you lose. Deal with it.

Haha win indeed!

SyXified, how dare you post wearing anything but a $50k suit!

 

[Jax]

And really. Trust metal fans to take what a band wears on stage way too out of hand. This thread is about the new photo released. You can barely even SEE what they're wearing. You've all gotten your man panties in a knot over nothing.

That, and I fail to see what's 'dark and new' about the promo photo that's out there to begin with..it's a photo of their faces, wtf is there that could be considered dark or light or anything else? It's just faces..

I think the forum's running low on crap to bicker about so they need to make crap up..

 

[DoomsdayZach]

That, and I fail to see what's 'dark and new' about the promo photo that's out there to begin with..it's a photo of their faces, wtf is there that could be considered dark or light or anything else? It's just faces..

I think the forum's running low on crap to bicker about so they need to make crap up..

I think it's running low on crap to argue about because ken and i started utilizing the ignore function

 

[Beelzebub]

I think your display of the people you have on ignore exceeds the sig size limit. You might want to look into that.

 

[DoomsdayZach]

Ken has more on his ignore list. He's up to 11. But then... he doesn't proudly display them. maybe i should take out the gay matt moliti line.

 

[dparker88]

That, and I fail to see what's 'dark and new' about the promo photo that's out there to begin with..it's a photo of their faces, wtf is there that could be considered dark or light or anything else? It's just faces..

I think the forum's running low on crap to bicker about so they need to make crap up..

Nooooo... simfuny ecks are the total deth metal now!!! Russell doesn't sound good with death grunts and his new guttural vocal style!:zombie:


Beelze, be careful, you'll probably end up on his list ahahhaha.

 

[J-Dubya 777]

Dubs, your militant nature at this forum is to be encouraged, if not at least condoned. But, I'd certainly rather see you at PP this coming Oct. than read about your unfortunate incarceration stemming from unspeakable acts provoked by this forum. Cooler head will prevail my friend.

Have no fear, I'm not out to whack anybody. I wanted to include an example of a skillset I possess that means NOTHING in regards to this "discussion", only to illustrate the irrelavance of Mr. Holier Than Thou's comment earlier.
If I didn't have to moderate this forum, my ignore list would be popping...

 

[3DimensionalAperture]

One more thing to the dude that brought up Zero Hour:

I agree that it's a DAMN shame that Zero Hour isn't headlining venues right now with the best of 'em. They are GODS in their own right. However the reason why they aren't huge isn't because of the way they dress. There are tons of bands that dress regularly like Into Eternity that are blowing up right now. What Zero Hour needs is better record label. Sensory has great distribution, but they don't seem to do a good job with putting their bands on tour.

 

[mistymountaingrlrocks]

I never said anything remotely resembling a notion that presentation is the entire package, or even a large part of it. All I've ever said is that it is part of the package, and if you bothered to actually read what I have said rather than just people's flippant responses over dramatizing it, you'll notice that. The original phrase was that 'it kindof pisses me off when...'. That's a very casual little observation, and it's right in tandem with the title and topic of the thread (which, btw, I did not start, I just responded to). The thread is 'Symphony X's new dark look' and every comment before mine had to do with their apperance. In fact, in direct reference to the 'new dark look', I stated that I LIKED the look they were going for with this album.

Rock and Metal are NOT the same genre

Are you really going to try to make the argument that in the world of rock it is the music that counts AS OPPOSED to classical music, where its about business and appearance? Congrats, you just made every classical musician who sat in a conservatory for years studying counterpoint while composing entire orchestral symphonies roll over in his grave - but you sure made the White Stripes pretty happy about the tunes they doubtless bang out overnight. Please, do mention to J.S. Bach that his ability to improvise fugues does not put him in the same league as Chicago.

And don't tell me to "look up" classical music. I have a BS in Music Industry, Summa Cum Laude, and I studied music history in great depth. You're the one making assumptions and speaking out of your ass about how classical music developed and how rock music developed - I actually know. Alone the fact that you are calling Symphony X a rock band shows exactly how much you know about music.

Meedley - my point in mentioning KISS is this:

You stated that you dress for the genre - and that Metal = tee-shirts and jeans for the dress code.

I'm giving you an example of METAL where the dress code is NOT tee-shirts and jeans. It's a very obvious example to make a point. The idea is not to draw a direct comparison between Symphony X and KISS. It is to refute your statement that ALL metal = tee-shirts and jeans, by providing a counter-example. In fact, if I wanted to paste in images of all the bands in the power/prog metal genre, for the large part you will notice 2 things:

1. Absence of tee-shirts and jeans (FOR THE MOST PART, NO ONE WASTE YOUR TIME FINDING THOSE RANDOM PHOTOS OF TEE SHIRTS AND JEANS, ITS NOT LIKE I DON'T KNOW THEY DO EXIST. If you look hard enough you can even find a hippie wearing a suit.) Gamma Ray, Nightwish, Angra, Blind Guardian, Malmsteen, on and on ALL of them dress to their music - and not in tee shirts and jeans.

2. Most prog/power metal bands dress in a very specific manner for their performances, very FEW prog/power metal bands have the 'let's just wear whatever the hell we want' attitude.

I'm not sure exactly how CLOSE to Symphony X you want me to get for you to understand the point. You say KISS is about theatrics and image and blah blah... even if I had used Dream Theater - the famed group of most Symphony X comparison (who, btw, have their own on stage clothing line), you would say the same thing 'well they're different in this way and that way so you can't make that comparison'. In the end, you can't make any comparsion, which certainly negates any sort of rhyme or reason to the statement that ALL metal = tee shirts and jeans.

I think where we are not seeing eye to eye here is that you percieve Symphony X as a metal band with some classical influences, and I percieve them more as a symphonic band with some metal influences. But whereas you insist I am seeing them wrong, I'd argue each view is as valid as the other, depending on what aspects of their music you herald more prominently. To me, the leap from Sabbath to Symphony X is MUCH further than the leap from Symphony X to say, Phantom of the Opera. I percieve their music as much closer to classical and theater than you do clearly. And honestly, an X crowd is usually split half and half - half the people mosh, half the people just want to stand there and listen and take it in (which is more reflective of a classical audience than a rock or metal audience). So for you then, tee-shirts and jeans may be appropriate, whereas I would find the MJR style button down frilled shirts and black pants more appropriate.

I never really thought I'd somehow be facing an arguement where someone was essentially saying 'don't OVER play Symphony X's role, they are just a metal band'. That's a very strange way of 'defending' the band from my wee fashion critique. Is the idea that X doesn't have to dress well BECAUSE they are just another beer swilling, redneck rock band, pluckin away the old blues progressions on their banjos? Sorry, I think they are classier than that, and should dress accordingly (which you'll notice was the entire premise of my first post). Music = classy so dress should = classy.

And I don't mean to open up a whole nother can of worms here - but for those tauting the 'only the quality of the musical performance matters' banner, I'll say that on Gigantour the quality of the performance was pretty poor musically. When I saw X with Blind Guardian I left saying 'that was the tightest, most cohesive live performance I have ever seen'. When I saw them on Gigantour they BUTCHERED the intro to Inferno, Russ's singing was all over the place pitch wise, and MJR messed up every solo he played. Sorry, that's what ACTUALLY happened - I was there, and being a performing musician myself, I notice these things. I went in excited and left disappointed. That doesn't mean I suddenly hate the band and instantly burned all my CDs. I know what it is like to have a bad gig, or even a bad series of gigs. But to me, the gigantour performances seemed slapped together musically (and it wasn't helping matters that they were dressed and looked like they had just rolled out of bed). I bet it was a last minute tour decision for them and that they were concentrating mostly on other things then and were not as rehearsed and in sync as they usually are. I'm still looking forward to the new album and new tour with great optomism.

I almost NEVER comment on this forum, but I read it quite often. However, I felt compelled to comment on this topic. First, this has to be "the" most ridiculous topic I ever heard. I know we all agree that the band is awesome. Each member uniquely talented. However, this band is not on the "monetary" level of ANY of the bands you mentioned. It takes a great amount of money to put on a show with not only great sound and lighting, but "stage gear" that a stylist creates for each member. With half the fans ripping off their music it's a wonder they make any money at all. Although we feel that they are true "rock stars" in our minds, the truth of the matter is they are still trying to make a name for themselves no matter what genre you lump them into. Second, we should stop putting SX in any category at all, and just enjoy the music. Third, to say that they look like they rolled out of bed, and have minor problems on the road for Gigantour was an insult. They were "HAPPY" to be on a tour that brought them to that level of exposure to help further the band. Putting Russ back into leather pants and a puffy shirt a la "Euro style" or bringing back Holy 1985 (Judas Priest--who I do love) isn't cool either. The bands look a certain way because that's what they looked liked "years ago", and it works for them. IT's 2007, and until SX has the kind of money to have people make their clothes or buy cool show clothes themselves, lets just be happy they show up at all---no matter how they look, and that the ticket price which half the people can't afford is still somewhat reasonable. Last, if you really feel that the way they dress for "BB Kings, or Starland" is so out of place, maybe you should start going to Lincoln Center and the opera instead. Unless perhaps thats where you perform. Sorry to be so harsh, but I said I was compelled.
PS: Don't go to Hot Topic in the mall either:Smug: (By the way, I know the band pretty well).

 

[DoomsdayZach]

With half the fans ripping off their music it's a wonder they make any money at all.

You say this as though no one buys their album. I know the band hates the whole d/l issue, so i won't go into it, but suffice it to say i flew from washington state to see this show, bough a shirt and a mug, etc. etc. So c'mon guy, don't act like just because people get a preview of the album that it means that we don't support the band. And yeah, i'm going to buy PL the day it comes out. I'd bet that most other people will do the same. The people who don't buy it because they downloaded it would not have purchased it anyway.

Edit: by the way, the rest of the post was fucking win. Much applause.

 

[3DimensionalAperture]

You say this as though no one buys their album. I know the band hates the whole d/l issue, so i won't go into it, but suffice it to say i flew from washington state to see this show, bough a shirt and a mug, etc. etc. So c'mon guy, don't act like just because people get a preview of the album that it means that we don't support the band. And yeah, i'm going to buy PL the day it comes out. I'd bet that most other people will do the same. The people who don't buy it because they downloaded it would not have purchased it anyway.

Edit: by the way, the rest of the post was fucking win. Much applause.

IMO it's stupid that people are so against the D/L issue. Before Gigantour, The Odyssey sold what in the US? 20,000 copies and maybe 50-100,000 copies worldwide? For a band on a indie label like Inside Out who doesn't spend alot of money on promotion nor puts many of their bands on tour, that's actually REALLY good.

Bands shouldn't be upset that people download their albums. If people didn't download their albums, nobody would know who they are. Word of mouth doesn't work for everyone, and downloading helps spread awareness to people who wouldn't have bought the album otherwise. I just can't stand people who think that the music industry is facing some kind of downward spiral because some people are downloading music. The sales numbers for the most part never changed since the 80s/90s. It's the RIAA who's fucked, not the industry itself. And good riddance to them anyways.

 

[mistymountaingrlrocks]

You say this as though no one buys their album. I know the band hates the whole d/l issue, so i won't go into it, but suffice it to say i flew from washington state to see this show, bough a shirt and a mug, etc. etc. So c'mon guy, don't act like just because people get a preview of the album that it means that we don't support the band. And yeah, i'm going to buy PL the day it comes out. I'd bet that most other people will do the same. The people who don't buy it because they downloaded it would not have purchased it anyway.

Edit: by the way, the rest of the post was fucking win. Much applause.

PROPS to all those who do buy the CD's, and I am NOT addressing any of those people at all!