The Odyssey Deceives!

[symphonyXjapan]

I just wanted to make a comment about The Odyssey album that has been bothering, or rather annoying me for a while now.

It aggrievates me that there are so many people who have become familiar with Symphony X because of The Odyssey. Not that I care more people get into SX, but it is just that since The Odyssey is their most heavy/power metal influenced album there are a lot of people who are misinterpreting what SX is all about. For example, I have read on many message boards, including this one, where people talk about progressive metal not really being "progressive" and no more than "guitar masturbation". And at the same time some will say that "Symphony X is categorized as prog but they really aren't. I have noticed that a lot of these people not only don't really understand what prog metal is, but usually only have heard or only like The Odyssey album. I think, even though I love the album, that the heavier amounts of guitars in The Odyssey deceive newbs to SX. I am not saying that SX shouldn't have made the album, just that some people base their opinion of SX on this one album, where in reality SX is one of the highest examples of progressive metal. I mean just look at the three albums DWoT, V, and Odyssey; these three alone are so different from each other, and even though The Odyssey is much heavier than other SX albums it still has plenty of technicality and keyboard rythyms. I mean really progressing just means using a wider variety of sounds with keyboards and each track moving along and changing as it plays through and not just playing the exact same riff and chorus 3 times and ending like any other kind of genre of music. Along with this description add great musicians with exellent skill and technicality, and thats prog. I mean I consider Rhapsody prog, and Pain of Salvation, Evergrey, Nightwish, and Adagio. I named these examples because I know a lot of people probably don't consider them prog.

Does anyone else feel the same that people mis-perceive what SX music really is, rather than thinking they are just about what was on The Odyssey. I mean a lot of people who only got into The Odyssey seem to automatically think their next album will be as heavy/power metal like as The Odyssey.

 

[The Yngster]

Honestly, I've stopped caring about all genres and labels period, it really doesn't matter at all. Call Symphony X dance music for all I care, its still the same music no matter what genre people put them in. And you know that its impossible to get everybody to agree on a single label

 

[Yngvai X]

hehe, if you can't take the fact that SyX are just as METAL as they are prog then don't listen to em. I love The Odyssey, its my fav SyX album, and I'm glad that its made an impact on the powermetal crowd as well as the progmetal crowd, it just goes to show you the broad appeal of the band.

Its funny cause on the obverse it annoyed me to see all the progsnobs get into SyX because of V then bitch about how The Odyssey was too heavy. Personally I'd love it if their next to be even heavier than The Odyssey.

 

[Ultimate_Symphony]

The Odyssey is their heaviest release, but they also toned down the power metal influences a lot. It's probably their least power metal influenced album to date. Anyway, forget labels and enjoy the music.

 

[The Metal Chick]

Amen to what Yngvai said. HEAVY IT UP! It bothers me that people think Odyssey is too heavy because they ARE metal...so there. I believe that every album they have has the elements we can characterize as what Symphony X is, but they are each different because that's what they want to do- be different each time. If people don't understand that, then I'm thinkin they just can't appreciate what they do.

 

[NegrocK_SyX]

hmmm I think I'm agree with symphonyxJapan, SymphonyX is not just The odyssey, In fact.. I think if they plan on doing another CD in the vein of V.. I mean not so heavy as The odyssey, and With lots of progressive elements and not just power metal riffs and stuff; some The Odyssey fans would start bitching about... so I think symphonyxJapan has a point...

For example my favorite SyX cd is Twilight in Olympus, I think it has alot of everything in it... Technical, heavyness, Melody, Neoclassic... and the most important for me, Feeling; but that's only my Opinion Anyways... I do love every CD they have released including their debut CD wich I think is great stuff... and about the Odyssey, I think is another SyX release, but.. I do think their old stuff attracted more my Interest in them

 

[OfSinsAndShred]

I'm not overly fond of the Odyssey, but it doesn't bother me all that much. I think it seems more thrash than power, at points, which is really what bothers me.

 

[Luis]

MICHAEL ROMEO: "We are a metal band, we have progressive tendencies and incorporate classical ideas into the music. But each song is usually very different from the next. People have their own way of labeling bands as well...someone could hear "The Accolade" and think of us as a prog band...someone could hear "Wicked" and say we are a metal band . Someone could hear the track "The Odyssey", and have no idea. So...I guess if we had to narrow it down..we are a progressive metal band."

MICHAEL PINELLA: "Its progressive, its lyrical, melodic, and it has some metal. I guess, progressive melodic metal if one has to put a label on it. "

Clear as Water

 

[The Yngster]

Is it really so impossible to like both styles? I can't be the only one here who likes their "progressive" side equally as much as their heavy side

 

[NegrocK_SyX]

Is it really so impossible to like both styles? I can't be the only one here who likes their "progressive" side equally as much as their heavy side

No your not the only one

 

[Mr. Shred-ididle]

bah, i dont give a shit anymore. But I agree with Yngvai X.an album full of KOT's will be awsomme...who cares what they are lables as, its only meaningless words and letters. So you like prog and dont like power/heavy/thrash, does that mean that you have to like the prog side of SyX and dislike the Power/Thrashy side? No. But who really cares if someone thinks they're more of a power metal band as long as they like it, thats all music is about - liking it instead of labeling it.

 

[Ultimate_Symphony]

Is it really so impossible to like both styles? I can't be the only one here who likes their "progressive" side equally as much as their heavy side

Nope, you're not the only one.

 

[Hyoukinmono]

Well, from the first Symphony X album I heard, which was their first release, and on through every release since then in order as they were released, I've thought that it was pretty clear that (and had it reaffirmed with each album that), as Michael Romeo said, Symphony X was and is a metal band. But they incorporate "progressive" elements into their metal. For the past three decades I've thought that metal was progressive by its very nature, so I guess there isn't any conflict between the two. I think what people REALLY mean when they emphasize Symphony X's "progressive" side is Symphony X's "mellow" side. Intense, high energy progressive is really just metal. With extra keyboards and fifteen extra minutes per song, of course.

 

[Spork]

My first Symphony X C.D. was The Odyssey, and I'm intrigued by it's amazing writing with both, heaviness and melodic mixing. I've listened to the other C.D.'s and they seem really Dungeons and Dragon's to me for some reason (don't kill me for saying that), apposed to the newer sound, which is The Odyssey. I've been listening to all of the older C.D.'s (many times), and feel that The Odyssey is where Symphony X want to be. The Odyssey has a more catchier sound to me. I'm excited to see/hear what Symphony X will create next.

 

[SilentRealm]

i feel like the odyssey is .. how can i say in the right way.. 'less proggy' than previous albums, more straight out metal, which is fine, but when i feel like something more proggy i stick on divine wings or v.

i never recommend that anyone forms an opinion of syx based on one song or even one album, theyre all so absolutely different you just cant judge without hearing lots of different key songs.

p.s i agree also with Matt that it would be fantastic if SyX tried even heavier next album..

 

[bball_1523]

The Odyssey is the only album from S-X I own and I love it. I've heard songs from some of the other albums as well and I like them too.

Who cares what people think, as long as S-X is still going at it.

 

[The Yngster]

I'm a little confused about what exactly you guys mean by a "proggy" sound. Hyoukinmono seems to be right when he said that when you guys say "proggy" you really just mean "mellow". The heavier stuff on Odyssey still has the same complicated chord progressions and time signatures, it just has a rougher edge to it.

 

[Yngvai X]

Actually I think The Odyssey has their most "prog" sounding moments (Awakenings is easily their most proggy song ever).

 

[The Metal Chick]

Yeah you know, when I think prog, i think complicated mellow. That's the vibe I get from V, and even TiO, though that is not a bad thing at all. Odyssey doesn't come across as prog much at all, though now that I think about it, Awakenings is kinda...and that's my favorite song! AHHH my fav song is prog OMG! j/k

 

[symphonyXjapan]

My first Symphony X C.D. was The Odyssey, and I'm intrigued by it's amazing writing with both, heaviness and melodic mixing. I've listened to the other C.D.'s and they seem really Dungeons and Dragon's to me for some reason (don't kill me for saying that), apposed to the newer sound, which is The Odyssey. I've been listening to all of the older C.D.'s (many times), and feel that The Odyssey is where Symphony X want to be. The Odyssey has a more catchier sound to me. I'm excited to see/hear what Symphony X will create next.

This is the perfect example of the people I am talking about. Where Symphony X "wants" to be? I am glad you know what they are thinking! And it isn't a newer sound because they haven't stuck with the exact same sound for all this time and then boom The Odyssey! Every cd they have has its own different sound to it. And I don't know where you get D@D from? You mean "fantasy" lyrics maybe? And not too many of their songs have fantasy lyrics. If you don't like a song like Dragon's Den because of some fantasy lyrics then I don't see why you don't absolutely hate the song Odyssey, it has Cyclops, Sirens, and gods and all kinds of things to it. Oh, and one more thing, it is not like SX has never had heavier metal songs before The Odyssey. For example, Eyes of Medusa, Pharoah, Orion the Hunter, and the Bird Serpent War. Eyes of Medusa imo sounds much heavier than any Odyssey song except King of Terrors, which is definately their heaviest, and one of my favorite SX songs.