V - THE NEW MYTHOLOGY SUITE

Whilst many cite The Divine Wings of Tragedy as the album where it all came together for Symphony X, personally I consider V to be their first really great album. Where I think the band really excel here, to an extent that they didn't on Divine Wings, is that they manage to seamlessly blend the conventions of classic power metal and progressive metal, delivering the best of both worlds whilst deftly evading the weaknesses of the two styles.

For instance, from progressive metal they draw the high level of technical complexity and the prog rock song structures whilst avoiding the pitfall of putting technicality and instrumental wanking above atmosphere, emotion, and tight song structures. For those three factors, they look to power metal, with its soaring emotional highs and epic atmosphere (perfect for the album's Atlantis mythology), but at the same time unlike many power metal bands (and prog metal bands who draw on power metal) they never cross the line from entertainingly over-the- top to embarrassingly cheesy on here, which I felt they did a little too often on Divine Wings.

In short, this album offers the listener all of the cream and none of the crud of the two genres most closely associated with Symphony X, and on the whole puts the band in the front rank of progressive metal.