Paradise Lost

For many years, Symphony X was a really kind of exclusive band for most metalheads. It was a band that remained largely underground, attracting it's own rabid fanbase in the United States and making it's mark in Europe and particularly in Japan. They became another favorite among the typical guitar shredhead's crowd, but otherwise the band had not really seemed to break into the field that most metalheads were at. Then came the 21st Century, then came Gigantour, and then everything has just exploded. Before Gigantour, I knew very few people outside of myself who knew of Symphony X, and now it seems like every other kid and their siblings worship the band like metal gods. They ate up old Symphony X recordings like no one else's business and desperately waited for a new one, and on 2007 they got that new Symphony X recording, with the concept album titled Paradise Lost.

Since Symphony X has seen a huge explosion in popularity, I cannot blame them for this album. What I pride them on is an album that has mostly appeased veteran fans of the band such as myself and making one that is generally more "modern" and appealing to the younger generation. Overall the result is arguably Symphony X's darkest and heaviest album to date and it's most intelligent in one very key aspect that the band has always lacked in, but in another way it's a darker sign. For some reason, I have this very nagging feeling that this is something of a turning point for Symphony X, a turning point of appealing to a younger generation who holds the bands up high with the classics and lame metalcore bands that they love so much.

First of all, the one aspect that I have to get out of the way right now is that lyrically this is Symphony X's best album ever. Pretty much, for all you people who aren't English literature aficionados, the title of the album reveals the concept. For those of you who still don't get it, the entire album is a heavy metal retelling of the poem Paradise Lost. This work by Englishman John Milton is one of the few modern day epics, and it tells the story of how the great angel Lucifer becomes banished from heaven because of his rebellion against God and becomes the ultimate evil that we all know and love today as Satan. For a band that previously had sung mostly about garden variety fantasy with the occasional dabble into ancient Greek mythology, this album rocks. The lyrics of this album are written absolutely awesomely, reflecting the awe inspiring power of both ultimate good and ultimate evil fighting against one other and the way that this is affecting everything else in the process. Huge props to Russell Allen for writing these lyrics so well and making everything seem as power and dark as it is.

Speaking of Russell Allen, this guy performs absolutely amazingly. Russell pushes his vocal prowess above and beyond what I thought the guy could do. His vocals are at the verge of being at growling levels of power, and the anger and evil he pushes out in songs such as Set The World on Fire, Domination, and The Serpent's Kiss will make you tremble like you're being spoken to by Satan himself. The latter of the two he also does some amazingly seductive sounding vocals, acting just like the slithering demon that seduced Adam and Eve into going against god and committing the original sin. For those who liked Russell's more sad sounding and emotional stuff, he has that on songs like the title track (the album's power ballad), Eve of Seduction, and The Sacrifice (the album's straight up ballad) and he sounds as good as ever. Many more catchy vocal patterns are prevalent here then most Symphony x recordings, and I especially enjoyed Russell's performance on this album probably more then any other members.

Michael Romeo, Symphony X's ultimate mastermind, really has directed the band in a bit of a new direction here. As a result. Paradise Lost is without a doubt the heaviest album in Symphony X history. The keys are bombastic and ominous, heralding in on in songs such as Set The World on Fire, the title track, and Seven. Michael Pinnela rips it up with astounding keyboard solos and lines of orchestration that will amaze you to no end. Jason Rullo picks up his A game with pounding beats and a level of ferocity that he has never reached before in all his years behind the drum kit for Symphony X. Bassist Michael Lepond gives a stellar performance throughout the album, even if you can seldom hear him but his wicked intro to Domination will have your jaw dropping and wishing you could play bass like he could, as well as his little tapping sort of lick on Seven. Overall the music is much more dark and bombastic then ever before, and I really have to provide Michael Romeo for making this a milestone in terms of intensity for Symphony X.

Unfortunately, this is where the albums kind of starts to tip off. See in the grand scheme of Symphony X albums, this album is a more straight forward direction then other Symphony X albums. While this is okay as the album isn't as straightforward as the rather lackluster Twilight in Olympus, it's straight forward in a way that starts to make me a bit nervous. Instead of being more power metally and straight forward in that sense like Twilight in Olympus, Paradise Lost is more straight forward in a way that is designed to be heavier. There are more grooves here from Michael Romeo then any other album, continuing a path of overall guitar orientation that was practiced on the album before it. After listening to this album a few times, I can kind of see how kids like this album so much, and it makes me a bit alert to a grim possibility in the future. Could Symphony X be traveling down the path towards simply being a groove metal band with keyboard enhancement? Or even worse, to metalcore? While I doubt such, the band gives everyone a clear sense that they kind of dumbed themselves down here to make things heavier in the progression and technicality department, which annoys me and scares me quite a bit.

Hence the problem comes over to Mr. Romeo. The metal guitar master that attracts Symphony X's biggest acclaim here just sounds dumbed down for the most part. Sure he's ripping as always with the solos, but the riffs aren't as technical and the arrangements aren't as complex. I know he could write better stuff, for he is the guy that pretty much got every kid and their brother's into prog metal has really kind of dumbed himself down. His riffs are more or less a lot of grooves and while that does make things very heavy, going from one groove that uses the same chords to simply playing those same chords in a different manner doesn't make much of a progression. While Rullo changes the beat a lot, Romeo isn't doing much to change the time or key on his end and while he really leads the band, this makes things a bit boring.

The other thing that gets to me is that while the album has no tracks that are longer then ten minutes, these songs are still a bit on the lengthy side. While the band succeeded in chopping down most of the tracks to the proper length on The Odyssey, Paradise Lost they are made a bit longer by a few minutes, and subsequently they start to sound redundant and make you not want to listen anymore. I heard this most honestly on Domination, The Serpent's Kiss, and Eve of Seduction. These songs both start off rather intense but then they just start to tip off after awhile and you start yawning and want to move onto the track already. I wouldn't mind this if they were more progressive like on The Odyssey but now they're not as progressive and more straight forward for the sake of heaviness and the band starts to lag and just plod it out for the rest of the song.

The only real gray area between good and bad on Paradise Lost is the production. It's a huge step away from previous Symphony X recordings, thanks to the fact that they sent the recording far away to get mixed and mastered by someone in Sweden (I forgot the guy's name). I will say that who did mix this album, I enjoyed it. The drums sound less poppy then previous Symphony X albums, the guitar tone is reigned in a bit and the keyboards are pushed out in a way that you can hear them but they are not overpowering everything, and Russell's vocals get the best treatment they've ever gotten to date. I have to say that cleanliness is something that I did desire in previous Symphony X albums (I really wish they would send albums like The Divine Wings of Tragedy or The Damnation Game to this guy for remixing) and while it's very fitting for the darkness and intensity of this album, but after having liked The Odyssey's mixing so much I have to say that I kind of wish they kept it the same here.

Paradise Lost is glorious in some ways, and an omen in others. If you're like me, you cannot help but feel that this is a bit of a sign that Symphony X is on a direction that I don't quite agree with too much. But if you take it for what it is, an intense and powerful and (at the time) long awaited album, then you're going to really enjoy it. Overall I was pleased with the heaviness and overall I was happy with the release, but the nagging feelings in me that this is a band that's starting to take a turn for the worst makes me feel a bit scared. I guess I'll just have to wait till later, but in the meantime I'll just listen to Paradise Lost.