Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Symphony X
Label: Inside Out Records
Release: 2002
Length: 66:57
Rating: 3.5/5
This is a seriously hard swerve away from the previous record. The guitar is more aggressive and crushing in the riffs than ever before. The main culprit is of course the production, which buries the keyboards and orchestral arrangements and with them the outstanding talent of Mike Pinella. The opener “Inferno (Unleash The Fire)” starts out beautifully fiery, dynamically pompous, with bright, mighty guitar picking, but right after the transition it morphs into harsh, ear-simple, semitone neo-thrash (blame the production, which shoves the guitar to the front). One of the bigger novelties on the record is also singer Russell Allen’s decision to sing with an aggressive rasp, right on that line between singing and growling. You catch it straight away in the opening track, and it’s not the only one. In the lead-ins to the choruses or in the choruses themselves, though, Russell goes back to his recognizable “normal” voice. So the band has bet everything on aggression.
Of course, you can’t keep making the same thing forever. The band is trying out new tricks, and on this album Symphony X sound really pissed off, like never before! Everything is completely subordinated to extreme guitar chopping and supersonic sprinting through guitar-school scales. “Accolade III” is one of the songs where the band works out a middle path between melody and aggression! Considering that “Five – The New Mithology Suite” is one of those one-of-a-kind, hyper-melodic, infectious creations that, even with the “meh” production (you can’t hear the bass line!), is practically perfect in musicality and therefore a total upgrade of progressive metal standards, the gap to its successor “The Odyssey” is all the more obvious.
The 24-minute title epic about Odysseus’ misadventures feels a bit naive at first. The intro (part one) reminds me of some syrupy pre-Christmas movie soundtrack lifted from a “Home Alone”. The song is by no means bad, but compared to what Virgin Steele served up on both “The House of Athreus” albums when drawing on Greek mythology, it just doesn’t bring the story of Odysseus to life nearly as convincingly. The track is full of punchy passages and dynamic jumps and of course quality solos (the latter at least by school-textbook standards).
I don’t know what kind of contract ties the band to the label, but it’s a definite fact that “The Odyssey” was “stamped out” too fast. Apart from the title track and “Accolade III”, the songs are as alike as two peas in a pod. On the previous record it was exactly the variety of outstanding compositions that conjured up that high atmosphere. This time it’s missing. “The Odyssey” doesn’t radiate such intense feelings and magic, and it’s less of a heavyweight compared to “V: The New Mithology Suite”. It’s almost entirely a workout in sonic guitar soloing. The dizzying transitions are there, but expecting them to lift your mood this time is wishful thinking (apart from the 24-minute epic adventure). So the production itself, which cranks Romeo’s guitar “to zero”, and a mild shortage of ideas deliver a record this time that still leaves some creative reserves untapped. On the other hand, “The Odyssey” can be taken as an album of gradual stylistic transition. So let’s wait and see what the future brings.
Lineup
Russel Allen – vocals
Michael Romeo – guitar
Michael Pinella – keyboards
Michael LePond – bass guitar
Jason Rullo – drums
Production
Michael Romeo
Tracklist
1. Inferno (5:32)
2. Wicked (5:32)
3. Incantations Of The Apprentice (4:21)
4. Accolade II (7:06)
5. King Of Terrors (6:19)
6. The Turning (4:44)
7. Awakenings (8:21)
8. The Odyssey (24:09)
– Part I: Odysseus Theme / Overture
– Part II: Journey To Ithaca
– Part III: The Eye
– Part IV: Circe (Daughter Of The Sun)
– Part V: Sirens
– Part VI: Scylla And Charybdis
– Part VII: The Fate Of The Suitors / Champion Of Ithaca
