Symphony X

[J Michaels]

Anybody here like Symphony X? The guys I'm playing with down here have gotten me into them, and I really like their old stuff - but their new album, "Paradise Lost", that came out this year is freaking AMAZING!!!! The songs are progressive metal - weird time signatures and changes, but heavy as hell, with lightning fast riffs. On this CD the grooves and hooks are superb, and the vocal melodies are excellent with really nice harmonies (some of the vocals get a little "guttural" but it's not "cookie monster" at all.) Everything you can ask for in heavy music.

Check this out - their first video (ever), for the song "Serpent's Kiss":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nO-cpWpzxVA

These are other youtube "videos" that are just the song playing over a picture of the album cover:

"Domination" - totally badass
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vDpsYk2MOE

"Eve of Seduction" - this song fucking RAWKS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nc6BdT1J9nY

"Revelation (Divus Pennae ex Tragoedia)" - this may be the best one on the whole album
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPaTr4XBtVg

There are more - check them out. These guys are freaking amazing.

[Ron]

Great band. I saw them on Gigantour at the IC Light pavilion in Pittsburgh in 2005.
They're one of the many progressive bands currently on the Inside Out Music label. http://www.insideoutmusic.com.
On the IO Music site is the "Serpent's Kiss" video, which is a little better quality than the one on YouTube.
IO Music is a great site with quite a lot of video and audio downloads of top notch prog-rock bands.

[Michael Troy]

Awesome band. Superb musicians. Its too technical for me to listen to for enjoyment though personally. After the "WOW" factor wears off, It can become....well..... annoying.

They are quite gifted though at what they do, just not my cup of tea.

[metalchurch]

They are great musicians indeed. Very progressive and technical that's for sure.

I enjoy good metal like this, but it seems like I have to concentrate alot when listening to it. It flows real nice, but some it it gets too repetitive.

I'm going to listen to more of them, I have a feeling that the more I listen, the more it will grow on me.

Some bands do that to me, it takes a few spins for me to get into it.

I call it 'creeper' metal.
LOL

[J Michaels]

I agree on the "tedious" thing - and that's what has me hooked on these guys. The hooks in the music and vocals are so damned good - lyrically and melodically they are so damned catchy that I can't get their stuff out of my head. I like Dream Theater and what-not, but their songs just don't stick with me like the SymX stuff.

Anyway - thought I'd share, and I'm glad some other people dig it, too.

[metalchurch]

I'm up for anything with good guitars in it.
I've heard these guys before, but there's so much stuff out there, that I kind of forgot about them I guess you could say.

I'm constantly listening to music, so there's alot that I never really took the time to enjoy yet.

Thanks for posting them, that was real cool.

The singer's voice is kind of raw sounding, but it still has some power to it.
Kind of hard to explain, but it's unique, not like alot of bands that do the same old shit all the time.

[J Michaels]

The singer's voice is kind of raw sounding, but it still has some power to it.

The vocals are "rawer" on this album - it's a concept album based on Milton's Paradise Lost, and much of it is written from the perspective of Satan, so that may be why they went for that sort of sound.

Check out the different vocal approach on these two:

Paradise Lost
http://youtube.com/watch?v=65_cjCNniwQ

The Sacrifice
http://youtube.com/watch?v=SH95rZbYwDM