LIVE ON THE EDGE OF FOREVER

"Live on the Edge of Forever" ist he first live album of the progressive metal band Symphony X. It was recorded during their "V-TOUR" throughout Europe and features songs from their last 3 releases "The Divine Wings of Tragedy", "Twilight in Olympus" and "V". Although their setlist is quite good I'm sad that there are missing some songs. For example "The Accolade", "The Edge of Forever", "A Winter's Dream" or the rest of "V" (track 10,11,12,13). They decided to play every song of V in a row but stopped after "The Death of Balance" and continued with "Candlelight Fantasia" instead of "Lacrymosa". The conversion is quite good, and is as proper as the studio version. Overall there are a few differences to the studio tracks. Some solos have been changed (e.g. "Evolution" or "Of Sins and Shadows"), some stuff original played by keyboard/piano has been played by guitar (e.g. "Trascendence", "On the Breath of Poseidon"), some new things have been added (e.g. the new solo after "On the Breath of Poseidon"), but some parts have been left out, for example the orchestral interlude in "The Eyes of Medusa" or the choir part at the beginning of "The Divine Wings of Tragedy". I think the sound is ok, nothing great, like e.g. "The central Park Concert" by Dave Matthews Band, but not as bad as some people here described. Furthermore the sound of the "older" tracks is far better. Songs like "The Divine Wings of Tragedy" sound much better now! The performance of every musician convinces and the new bass player Michael LePond shows much skill, even if he's far away of the virtuosity of Thomas Miller. If you are a fan of Symphony X, you can't go wrong and I think it's a good start for people getting into Symphony X, because there is the mixture of different kinds of their music!