Symphony X - The Odyssey

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Free Music Notes for The Odyssey

Free Music Review: Heavy Neo-Classical Progressive Metal at its best
Hit: 5 Stars

From the very start of the album, "Inferno" attacks the listener with a relentless guitar riff/solo; Michael Romeo is an amazing musician. The vocals on this one are low and heavy and reveal a side of Russell Allen that is rarely seen, yet utilized much more in the songs to come. This first song has lots of instrumental breaks and the chorus is somewhat softer than the main verses. "Wicked" is heavy and unremarkable, probably the weakest track on the disc, but its far from bad. "Incantations of the Apprentice" is a fast song with some impressive double-bass drumming. Jason Rullo abandons his usual 16th note patterns on the bass drum and switches to a very fast technical beat, almost in the style of quick punk rock drumming. "Accolade II" is a continuation of one of their older songs, and in my opinion much better. The chorus is cathcy and the lyrics are story-driven and fun to listen too. The whole beginning album seems to be keyboard-deprived, but The Accolade II uses it well. "The Turning" is a song based on Edgar Allen Poe's short story "The Pit and The Pendelum." This is one of the heaviest songs on the disc, with a slower, heavy metal guitar riff; not as complex as some of the others on the CD. The chorus is also catchy on this one, and it captures of feeling of the story very well. "The Turning" is a fast tune with a chorus that reminds me of the main theme of The New Mythology Suite, although the song fits much better on this album than V. Cool drums and guitar solos. "The Awakening" is also reminiscent of V. Not nearly as heavy as the other tracks, this one has some very cool keyboard work and chilling, driving solos and piano chords.

And now for the title track. Wow. The Odyssey is a 24-minute masterpiece, complete with an overture and several different parts all relating to different events that occur in Homer's epic poem. The song even uses some of the literary motiffs and repetitions used in the poem: the consistant mention of "home," for example. Michael Pinnella's keyboarding talent finally gets its due attention on this one: the song starts out with what sounds like a full symphony orchestra--brass, strings and timpani are all mimicked with incredible composition and technique. Truly amazing. The separate parts to this song are diverse and fitting to the actual poem: "The Journey Home," a sort of second intro after the overture is softish and very catchy, Allen's vocals are at their best. "The Eye," representing the debacle with the Cyclopes, is heavy and driving with some awesome guitar solos afterwards (my favorite is Romeo's little piece in 5/4 time--very cool). The section about Circe is probably the weakest part of the song--cheesy and soft, not very likable (some of it is pretty catchy though). "The Sirens" is another extremly heavy part, but the vocals and angrier than those of "The Eye." The following section about the sea monsters Scylla and Charybdis are instrumentals, very well orchestrated with the keyboards, though not as complex or impressive as the Overture in that regard. The concluding section ends the story with a trimphant--and rather cheesy--chorus with Allen raising his voice, reminding me of AC/DC or Guns and Roses.

This is truly an amazing album--the beginning might seem overly heavy and keyboard-deprived, but it all evens out with the last two tracks, including The Odyssey itself.

Score: 9.4 out of 10

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