I don't think I have the balls to say this on the Symphony X forums so I'll have to say it here.
Based on the first few listens I think Paradise Lost is flat out terrible.
None of the vocal melodies are particularly interesting or capture a strong emotional sentiment. The vocals are all inappropriately gruff on the heavy songs and overly dramatic on the softer songs, which aren't developed well enough to warrant that much crooning. If a young band came up to me and said 'this is our CD, what do you think' and handed me V, I would say 'you have arguably one of the best singers around, he's articulate and accurate and sings with a great range of emotion and diversity, keep that guy at all costs.' In the same situation with Paradise Lost I would say 'you may want to think about firing your vocalist and finding a better singer'. That is a HUGE jump!
Pretty much all the songs have the same feel and there is little that distinguishes one from another - its one thing to have unity within an album, its another to have a drone that sounds like a couple softer songs were just thrown in randomly to say 'here are a couple of softer songs, we do those sometimes'. The song Paradise Lost sounds like they tried to rewrite TEoF and jammed a bit of Communion and the Oracle in there, but went way too fast and congested for a melodic song and wound up with a chaotic mess. And WAY too many open string hammer on, pull off riffs run throughout. Plus, they need outside help with the production - the sonority is better than Odyssey, but so much of the mixing is off - there are things you can't quite make out, and the solos sit in an uncomfortable frequency zone that they don't stand out from the rest of the song, they blend in and make mud.
The worst thing of all is the CD packaging. Okay, I get it, it's the eye of hell and it opens up to reveal DUN DAHH this CD which will be evil and demonic and blah blah blah. First off the graphics are shitty so right off the bat its a bit childish. Then I have to deal with these ridiculous cardboard flaps any time I want to put the CD away - which will undoubtedly be bent, and then promptly cut off within a matter of days. For a band that is going to sing about fantasy topics, they should know better that they walk a thin line between creatively fanciful and cheese, and that packaging lends itself to pure cheese - I don't know how people can take it seriously after seeing that. And what's strange is, the album cover art is great...what the hell happened!
Mind you this is all coming from someone who has called Symphony X his favorite band of all time for several years now (since V came out). It's not like I have a prejudice against them or anything - this was my most anticipated release of the year, I was flipping out all monday about getting it. But I'm not going to let wanting to like it change my actual opinion of it - and I really must say I have rarely been so disappointed with a release as this. These songs are just not well written, they sound less like the moving, powerful, and unique band I knew, and more like some average 'metal trying to be mainstream by catering to the head bangers' band that is a dime a dozen. I don't understand how right on the brink of prog/power metal actually entering the mainstream somewhat have so many bands opted to finally break down their stance of writing good music regardless of public perception and begun tailoring their style to the hardcore audience just to be more popular. Some bands are naturally of that genre - Symphony X is not.
