theme of new album?

[symphonyXjapan]

Long before we knew that Paradise Lost would be Paradise Lost there was a thread about what people here thought would make a good theme for the new album. Being that SyX albums are always themed around mythology and literature it is always fun to think of the different things they could do. Even without much news lately about any kind of new album from SyX, I felt it would be a good time to start a new thread about the theme of the next album. What do you think or just plain wish the album will be about and/or themed around?

Discuss.




I lately have been thinking that the hybrid play/extended poem "Faust" by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe could be a pretty cool literary work for them to use; however, it is probably not likely in that it would take a lot of extensive research and reading on the band's (or rather Romeo's lol) part to do this. It is probably at least as hard if not harder to read and interpret than Milton's "Paradise Lost" poem. Even so, it may not be too hard if they just used certain themes or ideas to mainly focus on. Goethe was a big figure during the Romantic period and therefore his version of "Faust" is unique in that it explores romantic ideas and thought. I guess that could be a main focus? Anyway, this idea is something that is most unlikely to ever happen and just me wishing and daydreaming.

My other idea, which I think has a better chance of maybe happening, is an album that is focused on the mythology of Dracula/vampires. As long as they manage to do it right and not let it come out cheesy it could really be a cool idea. I think the best way for them to do it would be to take the authentic story of Dracula, or mythology of vampires in general, and sort of make their own fictional story around it. Basically they should do it in the same vein they did with V:The New Mythology Suite. V was of course based off of the mythology of the lost city of Atlantis, yet they came up with their own fictional story that was based around the mythology. Hell, I could even see the music being similar to V if this idea of mine was done.

Those are my ideas/hopes, what are yours?

 

[Iced Dog]

The vampire concept might be cool, though it's been done before by a couple of my fave bands...Heavenly (Dust To Dust), Adagio (Archangels In Black, the lyrics indicate a vampire theme anyway). Oddly enough, both are French bands...perhaps vampires prefer hairy women and fine champagne...hmz. At any rate, my "wishful thinking" choice is for a conceptual album revolving around the game Mass Effect. It's a sci-fi RPG, so there could be plenty of nice spacey proggy stuff going on...I'm looking at you, Pinella! And the mythology of that universe is second only to Star Wars IMO, which we already know Romeo digs

 

[Phanto]

The vampire concept might be cool, though it's been done before by a couple of my fave bands...Heavenly (Dust To Dust), Adagio (Archangels In Black, the lyrics indicate a vampire theme anyway). Oddly enough, both are French bands...perhaps vampires prefer hairy women and fine champagne...hmz.

Vampires are fags and so are french people and the bands you mentioned. That's the connection.

Unless there's an epic on it, I don't care about the story. It's not like I followed the one in V or Paradise Lost. On the other hand they seem to write better music if the songs are connected somehow.

Whatever they decide to write about I hope it's not "dark" or "goth".

BTW Italians are the hairy ones.

 

[Postulate]

faust has already been done by kamelot (pretty poorly imo), but considering that before the PL album paradise lost had already been done to death i wouldn't put it past SX.

vampires are just fucking gay. no. please god, no.

i'm still waiting for a satire album entitled the divine wings of comedy making fun of prog metal. now there's something i'd buy.

 

[proulxski]

im french you jerk!

 

[BlackTron]

I was thinking this the other day when I remembered Frontiers; what if they did an album with an entirely different theme, sci-fi, space travel, etc. Personally I don't even know how much I would like that, but I wouldn't put it past them. It would be like an entire CD of songs three times as cheesy as Accolade II.

I'm not saying I'd like SX to go "mainstream" (for the Love of God, no) but I wouldn't mind if they did something a bit more open or approachable. For instance V has a lot of seemingly random errant lyrics unless you know what it's about. Communion and the Oracle is far more enjoyable if you know the story...an uninitiated person might scratch their head. I guess what I'm saying is: do something where the listener doesn't need to do research to appreciate it fully.

Almost all of Paradise Lost was like that (except the title track), but usually just because it was so raw an aggressive. The meaning was clear: badassness, which is relatively easy to understand.

 

[Iced Dog]

im french you jerk!

But you're French CANADIAN, so that means you're at least half cool

 

[symphonyXjapan]

faust has already been done by kamelot (pretty poorly imo), but considering that before the PL album paradise lost had already been done to death i wouldn't put it past SX.

vampires are just fucking gay. no. please god, no.

i'm still waiting for a satire album entitled the divine wings of comedy making fun of prog metal. now there's something i'd buy.

You know what? I never even realized until you brought it up that "The Black Halo" does contain some faustian themes, but isn't TBH supposed to be the last in a trilogy or something? I am not sure because I don't know much at all about Kamelot's earlier albums. What I am getting at is that I am wondering if the album(s) before TBH are also based off of Faust? Either way the Faust that Goethe wrote is not the same interpretation as others as it is more based around romantic ideas.

On the note of vampires being gay..

I understand that the theme of vampires can easily be correlated to goth/emo lame Twilight loving tweeny girls; however, I am talking along the lines of real vampire lore that also contains themes about "creatures of the night". My best way to describe it is to maybe think of the movie Van Helsing?

 

[hexwind]

the movie Van Helsing?

The cartoon one? Was that inspired by the story of Jack The Ripper?

 

[SilentRealm]

in a perfect world they would get back to their classical inspired roots, epic 15-20 minute super songs, and russ would let some of that 'grittiness' go to rest and get back to using more of that beautiful bluesy style voice that we all know and love..

but this isnt a perfect world unfortunately..

 

[Swabs]

The cartoon one? Was that inspired by the story of Jack The Ripper?

Van Helsing has never had anything to do with Jack the Ripper.

 

[BlackTron]

Van Helsing? That's not much of an improvement.

silentrealm: well yea, obviously. Sadly MJR's gone on record that he's content with the current direction for the next CD. Ergo, OUR LIVES ARE OVER

 

[DoomsdayZach]

Theme should be Tacos. Tacos fucking rule, someone could totally write an album based around that.

 

[Detective Clarence Beauregard]

vampires are just fucking gay. no. please god, no.

I agree. Zombies, however...

 

[DavidPartay]

I concur. PLEASE don't jump on the Vampire bandwagon. They're no longer the glamourous evil villains of old. Now they're prissy little rich kids seducing teenagers.

At least in the Van Helsing movie they maintained that glamourous image while still making Dracula's bat form hideous and evil looking, and you can see that he truly is an evil character

 

[Marwen]

I vote for a mystic/epic rpg-like concept, sort of like 'Fallen' and 'Communion and the Oracle', thematically speaking, with more tasteful proggy, classical, and orchestral stuff.

I vote no for vampires (for fuck's sake, there is enough of that stuff out there) and a big +1 to Iced Dog's sci-fi RPG and Charis' perfect world.

 

[progmetaldan]

Definately no Vampires they suck, in fact horror in general doesn't do anything for me... And the Sci-Fi has been done quite a bit by Ayreon... Whilst I like concepts, I don't mind if they don't, so long as its very epic... If they did want a concept, I think I would quite enjoy (although it also has probably been done to death in metal) some sort of Knight/Crusade/Joan Of Arc style epic. Or maybe even the Three Muskateers, you could do something pretty cool with that, not as fantasy, a bit more historical, kind of along the lines of The Accolade/Accolade II lyrics, and music closest to V in its magnificence and grandiose and orchestral/heaviness ratio... Just my 2c.

 

[proulxski]

Vampires and Zombies, are the current Mod, with Twilight, Left 4 Dead, Resident Evil and such! I think something based on Vampires could be sweet, if don't corretly. If anyone could do it right it would be Symphony X. (Btw I actually enjoyed twilight... But I am in no way impressed with the literature, nore a tweeny fan girl lol) But based on what ive seen in a recent interview, they're planning on staying on the same road. Same sound (more or less) especially since MJR had a folder of like 813riffs or some crazy ass number like that, they have plenty of left over material.

I dunno why but I've been getting that feeling too, something spacey. Something from out of this universe. But I mean waiting for a new symphony x release is the most exciting thing ever, just trying to guess a title name is like impossible because you just know it will be epic haha!

 

[Lucius Octavion]

I've always found that symphony x has always done things about the mythologies of the ancient races of the world and they always do a good job. They always seem to be stories of the old and how the mythologies were very mystical and rad.

For example, V captured and connected various themes, such as Atlantis, the connection to Egypt, the New World Order, shapeshifters, angelic/demonic spirits of the Grand Design, ancient connections to other dimensions and space, etc. Basically the thoughts of who we are, why we are here, how we got here, and what we are destined to become. Definitely the most involved and epic concept ever if you ask me. V does have a very spacey and other-universe kind of feel even though it is strongly connected to us humans on earth and our mythological past present and future.

The Odyssey was an excellent rendition of the classic Greek epic, as also The Eyes of Medusa and Orion the Hunter are. Of course DWoT had to do with continuing where the biblical story of Paradise Lost left off. The Accolades encompassed themes of Medieval knights and anglo-saxon legends. Lady of The Snow was inspired by Asian/Japanese folk tails and this proved to be very interesting from a lyrical and musical standpoint. Songs like The Turning and King of Terrors are clearly inspired by Edgar Allen Poe, while other songs like Wicked and Incantations of the Apprentice deal with themes of mysticism and occultism.

Some of their songs also have to do with life and societal issues, like Sea of Lies, Awakenings, Of Sins and Shadows, Smoke and Mirrors, and Out of the Ashes. Church of the Machine is also very interesting and can be interpreted in several ways. I see it as dealing with conflicts between modern ethics and religious corruption.

I think it would be interesting for Symphony X to explore new avenues as far as themes go, but I wouldn't want them to lose that Symphony X feel. Vampires definitely are too "goth-like". Zombies have already been done to the fullest extent by Cannibal Corpse. Space travel seems a bit too "proggy" to me (for some reason Ayreon, Planet X, and even synth bands like Eat Static come to mind), even though Symphony X has possibly already explored this with Frontiers. I'd like to see them maybe do another mythological themed work. Somehow connecting it with space/other dimensions as V did would be cool, but at the same time I wouldn't want a complete repeat. Usually we think of these spacey topics as being futuristic and scifi-ish but V does this in a very cool way by connecting it with ancient mysticism and legend instead.

faust has already been done by kamelot (pretty poorly imo), but considering that before the PL album paradise lost had already been done to death i wouldn't put it past SX.

vampires are just fucking gay. no. please god, no.

i'm still waiting for a satire album entitled the divine wings of comedy making fun of prog metal. now there's something i'd buy.

And this^ sounds like something Devin Townsend would do.

 

[symphonyXjapan]

I knew a lot of you would just shoot down the whole vampire concept; however, I really think it is due to all of the vampire related crap that has been spewed out in recent years through music and motion pictures that have taken the idea away from its roots. Either way it was just a secondary thought from me for an album concept, I still prefer my first idea over it by a long shot.

Bringing up Lady of the Snow brought me the idea that maybe they could deal with some kind of eastern mysticism? There are all kinds of interesting tales and legends throughout Asian folklore..

Even so, if they really are just going to go the same route as PL musically, I think I really may just not care that much at all. SyX used to be so interesting and diverse, yet lately they really seem to be turning into just another typical full on power metal band..