Review Summary: Excellent outing of Symphony X that takes all the facets of their sound to the next level. The amount of effort and time the guys really paid off.
One of the advantages of taking the time to release an album is being able to get right all the details. The more time you have, the more you can rehearse things, the more you can finetune the production, the more you can get every single note and riff right on the album. Symphony X, a progressive power metal band from the US, took five years to make their new album, Paradise Lost. And it is probably going to pay off big time for them.
Now, how does this show in the music on this album? First of all, there is no filler on the album. The band took their time deciding what were the good tracks, what were the bad tracks, what to leave out, what to include, and how to place the songs on the album. The band shows a nice songwriting restraint, with the longest song clocking in at nine minutes and eighteen seconds: pretty neat for a band known to craft 24 minute epics. Of course there's still a lot of delicious guitar noodling, but Romeo has seemed to realise that there is a time to solo and there is a time to rein in the guitar wankery.
For a second, the production is pristine. The guitars sound crunchy, but not too far up front, you can hear the keyboard melodies underscoring the guitars, the drums sound perfect, the vocal production just rules, and you can even hear the bass at times! It all just fits, nothing is too far up or down in the mix, which ensures the album conveys aggression when it has to, but also ensures the melody and the symphonic arrangements come over properly without being drowned.
And for a third, these songs are all just killer. Romeo plays those trademark arpeggiated guitars and combines them with riffs that have the crushing force Pantera is known for. He even throws in some bonus squeals just to please all the Dimebag fans out there, not to mention Mr Guitar Virtuoso goes onto some equally delicious shred tangents. He even duels it out with Mr Pinella on tracks like Eve of Seduction.
But it's not the virtuoso shredding and speed the band is known for that completely tackles the darker atmosphere of this album. First of all, the guitar riffs are so seep crunchy from Romeo I thought I was listening to Slayer at points: that intro to Set The World on Fire or the whole of Domination just breaks necks. And Russell Allen shows that he can do more than the typical power metal wail vocals as well: on aforementioned tracks, he belts out some gruff vocals that put anything Anselmo's ever tried to shame.
And on tracks like the killer midtempo track Paradise Lost, he shows he can also sing with the best of them, doing those typical power metal "look at me I can get the high notes!" vocals, and you know what: Mr Theart can take some singing lessons from this guy, 'cause he hits all the notes without sounding cheesy once. Now there's an accomplishment for a power metal band, eh?
Neoclassical and symphonic metal lovers can also dig into the album, because the epic choruses of The Walls of Babylon or the near-Satanic opening instrumental Oculus Ex Inferni have "orchestral arrangement" written all over it. Even though Romeo heartily makes the metal side sound like ye olde Metallica or Pantera, the keyboards still give it that wispy, melodic quality that all the symphonic metals lovers dig so much.
And maybe that is why this album is going to rock so much for the band in the future. Every track is a monster (I haven't even touched the ballad The Sacrifice or the grand Revelation (Divus Pennae ex Tragoedia here), make no excuses, the band doesn't fiddle around with all-too-odd stuff, the band just sounds heavier and better than they ever did, and this album is bound to make the band even bigger in its respective scene. It just doesn't get any better than this, and if we have to wait another five years for the next album, I'll be counting down the days. Until then, you have this bad boy to enjoy, so if you dig this type of metal, why aren't you running to the store to pick this up? One of the albums of the year, no doubt.
