THE DIVINE WINGS OF TRAGEDY

If there's something I have always liked about Symphony X, it has been the clear fact of how they fuse the progression and technique with a fine sense of melody and musical force in any moment. Their sound is strongly influenced by classical music, baroque music, neo- classic rock (most of time thanks to someone like Swedish guitar virtuoso Yngwie Malmsteen), metal and of course, by progressive music.

In some moments along their career they have been pretentious but their musical ability is a proof they're beyond the barricades from simple and ordinary music, especially in progressive fields. Using all the magic that they possessed in their hands and minds, they created one of the most stunning progressive metal albums from all the times (according to my point of view). I would even dare to say that "The Divine Wings of Tragedy" it's probably the main reference about the fusion between progressive music (in terms of song's structure) and classical music's influences.

A doubtless factor that guided them to getting the sound formula they would perfect years later was the powerful and charismatic voice in the person of Russell Allen. He gave identity to each one of the songs and took them to an overwhelming level. The band assumes a lyric orientation to exploring mythology themes mostly but some times they dare to blend them with poetry a little bit.

Not only Allen makes the "dirty" work here, also the rhythmic section (Mr. Miller on bass and Mr. Rullo on drums) makes a classy performance and taking the music to a higher place with constant tempo's changes... and last but not least, the absolute neo-classic trademark is imposed as much on keyboards' labor by Mr. Pinnella as on electric guitar by the great Michael Romeo and being him the notorious virtuosity face in Symphony X since its early days until nowadays.

Finally I wouldn't like to mention songs one by one this time, because this is a masterpiece that speaks by itself. However I advice just go to the nearest music store and buy it!.

By: Epsilon.