ICONOCLAST

Iconoclast continues Symphony X's experiment begun in Paradise Lost of refreshing their sound by steering their power-metal flavoured progressive metal approach away from the seas of cheese and plumbing the potential of the style to explore darker themes. It's another success and is also rather accessible - there's an Iron Maiden tone (circa Seventh Son of a Seventh Son) to some of the material which I think really helps support the sort of material they're tackling here.

The set offers up a thematic concept album surrounding the idea of machines taking over humankind Terminator-style, and whilst the concept may not be very fresh (remember Black Sabbath's Dehumanizer?), the material is - to the point where the 2CD version of the album flies past as though it were a 1CD album, a sure sign that this is one of those rare double albums which isn't afflicted with filler. On that basis alone it deserves a thumbs up, but the fact that it builds so successfully on the advances made on Paradise Lost makes it a real gem in the Symphony X discography.