THE ODYSSEY

This is the last Symphony X's album up to date. I remember, going back two years ago, when I first listened to this band, I was surfing on the Web, when I got on this band's official site and downloaded some songs: the very first ones I heard were "Inferno" and "King Of Terrors", which made me think this could be a great Prog Power Metal band, and since then I have all their albums, except for "V: The New Mithology Suite", which I have to hear soon !

Going back to the album, this is definitely the heaviest one, with a characteristic heavy, very heavy and distorted and crunchy guitar sound, that riffs directly in your face and violent drumming; not too Prog Power Metal here, it's more like Prog Heavy Metal. Another remarkable thing is the perfect sound, excellent quality, very, very powerful. Here we've a description track by track:

"The Odyssey" starts with the kick ass "Inferno (Unleash The Fire)". I was blown away by the terrible and fast guitar riff directly in your face, definitely, one of the best I've heard from 'new' bands. Catchy choruses, and I can say Allen is more free here to do more dirty vocals (more á la Heavy Metal), but obviously very melodic when needed, this is a good example of it. Excellent opener, if you like that songs that shake and destroy your head, this is for you.

To keep on with the Metal vein, then goes "Wicked", which has again a very technical and heavy riff, seems like Romeo has been working on this aspect a lot, and composed this song which is similar to the follower, "Incantations Of The Apprentice", and their only objective is to blow your head apart. As I said before, Heavy Metal fans will love this.

I need time to breath after this 3 discharges of pure adrenaline, so here goes "Accolade II", a mid - tempo song which is a continuation to the nice "Accolade" on the masterpiece "The Divine Wings Of Tragedy". Some vocal and melodic lines are repeated here, and obviously it carries the concept and goes on with the story told on "Accolade". More importance of the piano and I find some very enjoyable moments during the instrumental intermissions and solos. Nice song !

To contrast this 'quiet' moment we've, as most of you said before, the heaviest Symphony X's song ever, "King Of Terrors": again another riff in your face, very low bass lines and atmospheric keys to create a dark and 'terrific' ambient. A very catchy Power Metal chorus, some screams here and there, a very fast guitar solo (as expected) and one of my favourite songs of the band.

"The Turning" is a typical Power Metal song, with similar structure to "Wicked" and "Incantations Of The Apprentice", not very prog, but we've a kind of arabian chorus (backed with double bass drum, obviously !). This is one of the singles of the band.

"Awakenings" is (with the exception of the last song) the first epic here and the proggiest composition. In a moment I was like crazy for this song, and learned how to play it from the beggining to the end. Catchy choruses, again big importance of Pinnela's keys, specially on the solo, and lots of modulations and great solos from all members, which make this a very complex and interesting composition. Wonderful !

So, why do I really give this four stars ? The answer is simple: because of the last epic of 24 minutes long, "The Odyssey", which is comprised of seven parts, and shows again the excellent compositional qualities of this band, that not only can do straight metal songs, they can compose terrible epics like this (another excellent example is the masterpiece epic "The Divine Wings Of Tragedy") ! Comparing this to "The Divine Wings Of Tragedy", it has more orchestral movements, specially on the genius intro. Pinnella shines here: the principal solo (around 16 minutes) is incredible, and with lots of classical influences. As it's expected, after the intro goes a calm part with acousic guitar and Allen singing "My journey has begun ..." (something mor epic than that ?). Then it goes getting heavier and heavier, with the use of that tremendous riffs and solos in the middle. On the final we've a memorable melody, yes, it's a little Power Metal, but it's nice ... well, I'll stop here, you've got to hear this !

Overall, this is an excellent addition to any Prog music collection, that will appeal more to (Prog) Metal fans, but anyone that has an open mind should give this a chance.

Rating: 4.0/5