At 16 minutes ago, HeavenDuff wrote:
Too bad you can't appreciate the best Symphony X album.
If you call the album where Michael Romeo told the rest of the band "Okay, do absolutely nothing, and i'll get all the attention" their best album then you're crazy.
If you pay attention to the bass, the drums, the keys or even song structures that album is A MAJOR step in the wrong direction.
Russel's vocal performance and a large sum of Romeo's technical wankery are both great, but they don't make up for the fact the rest of the band is sitting on their ass that entire album. Plus, all the song formulas and whatnot are just being reused. The Turning, for example, is just Evolution re-written with better vocals and without the intro.
And a lot of the riffs themselves do that HORRIBLY annoying thing that bands like Pantera, Exhorder, Machine Head, etc. used to - that is START, STOP, START, STOP - that can be cool, in small amounts, but he pretty much does this in every song.
The Odyssey itself is a great track though, no hate towards that one.