Symphony X
Paradise Lost

Immense! How else to define the latest masterpiece - yet another - by Symphony X?

First of all, the band: Michael Romeo on guitars, the mastermind and author of all compositions, including the stunning symphonic and classical parts that often grace their tracks, Russell Allen, simply the best rock singer around today, possessing an impressive range, technique, and versatility that shine even more in live performances, Michael Pinnella, a classically trained keyboardist, essential for creating the unique atmospheres of Symphony X's sound, Jason Rullo on drums and Michael Lepond on bass, both virtuosic, equipped with skills that are dazzling, combined with strong personality and creativity...

With "Paradise Lost," they reach their seventh studio album (in addition to having a compilation and a double live CD in their discography) five years after their last effort 'The Odyssey.'

The genre? I'd call it Prog-metal, with a strong component of power metal, classical orchestrations, progressive rock, even branching into jazz-fusion compositions... in short, in Symphony X, you can find Tchaikovsky excellently combined with Deep Purple, Rush and Dream Theater, Kansas and E.L.P., Tool and Vivaldi (forgive the comparisons!).

Just from the cover, you can tell that refinement and attention to detail have taken precedence: a beautiful and intricate digipack, with splendid fantasy-themed illustrations created by artist Warren Flanagan, the mind behind the Hollywood posters for "I, Robot," "Blade," and "X-Men"... "Paradise Lost" is not a concept album in the traditional sense, but contains a sequence of individual thematic songs vaguely inspired by John Milton's masterpiece of the same name...

With this highly anticipated work, Symphony X, who have accustomed us to fairly complex listening, with even very long tracks (like The Divine Wings of Tragedy, 24 minutes, or The Odyssey, 20 minutes) constructed in a non-linear way, aim to be more direct and impactful, although they continue undaunted to play almost everything in odd time signatures and the average track length is about 6 minutes. The start is electrifying: 'Oculus Ex Inferni' is an instrumental symphonic construction in which Gregorian chants overlap with the progression of the piece, wonderfully supported by an excellent Jason Rullo on drums... From the first listen, the overall sound of the album is impressive: Michael Romeo's guitar is absolutely devastating, and the drum sound does justice to the great musician Jason Rullo is...

The following 'Set the World on Fire (The Lie of Lies)' is the classic opener of every Symphony X album: a very fast and whirling piece, where tight and complex rhythms (spectacular the phrasings of Romeo and Lepond) take center stage, excellently supported by Russell Allen's splendid performance. The work on the double bass drums, particularly by drummer Jason Rullo, is anthology-worthy. Additionally, the opening to the solos is grandiose, where Michael Romeo and Michael Pinnella cross paths in the vein of the immortal Deep Purple... speaking of Romeo, it's worth highlighting his technical skill, taste, creativity, and the sounds he brings to the solo parts: one of the best guitarists on the scene today, capable of outshining many renowned colleagues (see Petrucci, embarrassingly negative in the latest Dream Theater work).

The following 'Domination', after an incredible bass intro, sees Romeo creating an intricate riff, heavy as a sledgehammer, well-supported by Michael Lepond, who alone deserves a medal for managing to play the insane rhythms of the guitarist! The piece is characterized by sounds that would make even Pantera and the late Dimebag Darrell envious. Above all, however, it's once again Allen who amazes, with an astounding performance for its 'aggression' and technique... the central part with the solos and very particular constructions is also beautiful, for a piece that will claim many victims live (as already happened at the Gods Of Metal a few days ago). The following 'Serpent's Kiss' is a rocky mid-tempo where Symphony X play at being Tool, with class, technique, and imagination monstrously superior to the mentioned band. The central acceleration and the 'neurotic' solo of an increasingly inspired Michael Romeo are beautiful.

With the next track, we find the masterpiece within the masterpiece: 'Paradise Lost' (understood as a single track and not as the entire album). Michael Pinnella's piano introduces us to listen to one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard... a ballad in full Symphony X style, reminiscent of 'The Accolade' or 'Candlelight Fantasia': Russell Allen's interpretation is stunning, with a unique delicacy and intensity, in a song with the most varied nuances, complex (time is almost entirely in 3/4 and 7/8) and linear, fast and cadenced, intense and dramatic, full of melodic openings and epic-symphonic parts... the solo by Michael Romeo is to scream for, I mean, to scream for, simple but exceptional for sounds, melodic choices, and taste... a song that, regardless of the genre, cannot fail to please any music enthusiast...

We return to the faster and more frenetic rock with the beautiful 'Eve of Seduction', an excellent combination of epic parts (in the refrain), nods to the classic rock of the 80s, and brief more introspective moments... in this track, for the record, we also find the best solo of Mr. Michael Romeo, who starts 'arm in arm' with Michael Pinnella, stringing together a series of sweep picking and tapping that are panic-inducing, in unison with the keyboardist, then continuing with great technique, expressiveness, and imagination... not a single note is played randomly (unlike Malmsteen or unfortunately the latest Petrucci), but is perfectly contextualized... the final part of the solo is absurd in its genius! This brings us to the second masterpiece within the masterpiece: 'The Walls of Babylon', which in the first 3 minutes (instrumentally) offers us a complex, dark, heavy, yet at the same time genial structure in its linearity and the exquisite technique that fills all the passages! The next part of the piece already wipes away, with a single riff, all the various Blind Guardian, Masterplan, Manowar, Helloween, and associates: power metal from another planet! Chilling, too, is the vocal performance of Mr. Russell Allen, who reaches an inhuman vocal range (particularly in the pre-chorus). The gothic choirs introducing the refrain are also gorgeous.

The eighth track, aptly titled 'Seven', is a breakneck speed-metal song, in the middle of which we have, in order: (to me) the second-best solo of Michael Romeo on the album, an absurd break with alternating times in 7/8 and 4/4 supported by Michael Lepond's bass in a hallucinatory 'tapping' and gothic choirs, and again Michael Romeo with another uniquely expressive solo in wah-wah (listen to what he 'pulls' from his guitar at minute 5:04). The tempos become less frantic with the next 'The Sacrifice', another intense ballad with Romeo and Russell Allen on fire. The central symphonic part is beautiful, as well as the subsequent solo masterpiece by the guitarist. The album closes with the wonderful 'Revelation (Divus Pennae ex Tragoedia)', the only track where Symphony X reaches 10 minutes, in which there's a summary of all that is the band's sound... very nice, for those who follow the band, to find in the last track of the album, as has happened in the band's last two albums, strong influences from the great Kansas, a progressive rock band from the 70s/80s...

In short, a work of enormous depth for a band we find in perfect shape, with Michael Romeo once again on fire and deserving mention as one of the most important guitarists of recent times... Finally, noteworthy is the marvelous digipack of the limited edition, meticulously detailed with a Bonus DVD, and Warren Flanagan's stunning artwork, completing a work already great for its musical contents. Unmissable, at this point, are the band's live dates in Italy in October (Bologna and Rome, among others), in the company of none other than Dream Theater, who couldn't have chosen better companions for their journey...

Welcome back, Symphony X!