TWILIGHT IN OLYMPUS

At this stage of their career, I guess that the band wanted to capitalize on the receipts which led them to commercial success and critical acclaim. They comfortably built on '' The Divine Wings Of Tragedy'' (but who can blame them for this).

Fair enough but I can't find any songs as ''The Accolade'', ''Out of the Ashes'' or the great ''Candlelight Fantasia'' for instance. And if one considerers that I am not the biggest fan of this musical genre, there are little to wake up my enthusiasm here.

The usual speedy metal lines, so what? As a diversion, the band is even playing a classic ''Sonata'' (less than ninety seconds, be reassured). I am rather sceptical whereas it was all necessary.

Apart from this nice break after all, I'm afraid that the uniform mood of this album is hardly going to please non-metal ears.

Skills and dexterity, for sure the band has many. Even virtuosity with Michael Romeo. But in terms of compositions, ''Twilight In Olympus'' is seriously inclined to offer the same musical spectrum. I have to add though that the epic of this album ''Through The Looking Glass'' rightly shines and I consider it as a highlight. At last, one song with some progressive feel. Better late than never!

The ''Queen'' oriented feeling that could be noticed in their previous album, is also present here in the very good ''Lady Of The Snow''. A rock ballad which comes rightly to break the global and metal mood from ''Twilight''.

I decided to enter ''Symphony X'' catalogue while I knew that they would open for ''Dream Theater'' during several concerts of their last European tour (2007). The SX set was a total nightmare, the sound being truly horrifying from A to Z. When Russel Allen announced that we were going to have a great heavy metal night, I knew that prog would be seriously set aside. But was it a real surprise?

I have exactly the same feeling with this album. Two stars (five out of ten if I could).