PARADISE LOST

WOW. I can honestly say that this is the only album I have ever heard the first time through and just dropped my jaw in absolute astonishment. This is not an album for the casual progressive metal listener. Everything about this album is intense, as the last reviewer so tactfully reported. This album has some great throwbacks to earlier moments in SYX history, along with a whole new bag of tricks. First of all, Russell Allen's voice is back with much more bite than even Odyssey had. Romeo's guitar work is polished to a tight, crunchy sound and with more lightning-fast rythms than ever. The guitar solos are incredibly astonishing in this album, yet Romeo shows off his talent of "less is more" in sections. In Domination and the Serpent's Kiss, there are some great pure metal moments which are likely to go down as some of the best ever. This whole disc sounds a bit like SYX gone absolute metal, but fear not! All of the great prog elements that made this band great are still here! There are multiple meter changes galore and great samples of dark, Wagnerian orchestrations with some intense choir moments reminiscent of Carmina Burana. Before the end of this rant on a great band, the mix needs to be addressed. Thanks to Jens Borgen, who happens to mix Opeth, this disc sounds a million times more polished than the "garage-band" sound that the Odyssey contained. For SYX fans old and new, this album is both a Tour de Force of old and new Symphony X. All of the stuff that I loved from past albums is here in some form, including some great neo-baroque moments, and some INSANE new metal moments. Truly will go down as one of their absolute best efforts, period.