UNDERWORLD

I'm sorry to go against the grain, but I did like a couple of Symphony X's earlier albums and, to my ears, this album sounds like outtakes to those albums, or like covers of "vanilla" Metal music--that is, there is nothing new or innovative here; the band sounds like they are suspended in a time warp around 1989. They remind me of an aging KISS. At times they sound like a 80s power ballad hair band (e.g. Whitesnake, Bon Jovi, Poison) and others like a heavy metal-on-the-verge-of doom metal. Nothing like the still-evolving, still adventurous IRON MAIDEN.

Musically there a few songs that get the blood boiling ("Kiss of Fire," "Charon," and "In My Darkest Hour" come to mind) but they are inevitably taken down by a Tom JONES-like quality in the vocals--especially in the choruses. What's happening to Symphony X? Maybe they need to get out of New Jersey.

3 stars. Recommended only to die hard 80s & 90s metal heads.

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