Symphony X has made brilliant music from the very beginning and this debut has many highly memorable moments. The characteristic high grooving and very deep rhythm guitar from Michael Romero gives this band a special and very powerful sound.
The following is an attempt to get around some of the best songs but also to mention some things that could have been better.
The Raging Season has a very complex nature with lots of technical drumming, detailed guitar leads, but the rather melodic chorus binds things nicely together.
What appears very clearly are the limits on the production side, some guitar leads and keyboard passages are a bit hidden and doesn't evolve at the same production level as drums and vocals. Even though some aspects of the production are a bit muddy and not that transparent it overall comes out quite good, especially the tight and rather dark sound supports the music well.
Masquerade is one of the albums strongest tracks, involving great heavy guitar riffs, catchy singing and a fantastic speedy chorus passage. The underlying keyboard gives the song a very dramatic profile and fast bass lines work in great connection with the impressive drum effort.
The very technical and atmospheric
Absinthe And Rue and the softer and more straight-ahead ballad
Shades Of Grey are also very successful cuts.
My absolute favourite though, is the 12-minute epic
A Lesson Before Dying, a song that ranks up there with the absolute best songs ever in my opinion. Acoustic guitars and calm keys open the song with a soft beginning and from then on we are offered progressive music when it's best, technical guitar solo's, lots of changing passages, superb dynamic drumming, innovative keyboard arrangements and thrilling solos, well the list goes on, all put together in the most fascinating way.
The complex lyrics about oppositions in life and the fight you have put in to get on with it is brilliantly matched by the atmospheric music and Rod Tyler's bright and emotional voice.
It's pretty hard to come up with things that don't work that well but there a few minor aspects. The main flow of
Rapture And Pain becomes a bit unstructured and the chorus lacks more excitement, this doesn't make it an average song though, fantastic keyboard details and Jason Rullo's genius ingenious drumming makes it a overall decent track.
Thorns Of Sorrow also has a tendency to rely a bit much on a chorus that could had been more inspiring, what keeps this from being quite fair in quality is the excellent and exciting guitar/keyboard split solo and the great fast parts of the song. So when the song quality drops a bit we get hit by arrangements that are so great, that all songs end up being from good to grand.
The lyrics are well written, interesting, and sometimes a bit abstract but the depressing aspects found here and there works well with the dark moods on the atmospheric front.
This is one of those albums you never think you get finished with exploring, the songs are packed with impressive technical refinements and still contain many catchy passages.
Written by
Tommy Tuesday, December 23, 2003
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