THE DIVINE WINGS OF TRAGEDY

...I'm always amazed to see how many people who are supposed to know music (at least a little to be able to appreciate progressive stuff ) say the most ridiculous nonsense by comparing Dream Theater to Symphony X... ...but I really piss in my pants when I hear them say symphony x is a dream theater rip-off... Everybody who knows music knows that dream theater have a more prog-rock (yes,Rush,Kansas,Genesis) to bluesy(petrucci soft soloing) influence with some sporadic touch of classical here and there in come instrumental parts....(though they are a prog metal-band) Symphony X is a more neo-classical inspired prog-metal band that also have a few progrock inflences like kansas but the are mostly neo-classical driven... Not to say they sound like neo-classical power-metal, they are too progressive for that, too many time signatures and melody transitions.... To take them seriously and fully appreciate their music you have to revisit your childhood memories...when you were in school enjoying storytelling by a good teacher or a good story you were reading at the librairy or for a homework...mythology or legends or a good folk story ...or even the castlevania video game one has referred to ,,..in short anything to stimulate a kids imagination to travel through time and space through the mood and ambience these formidable musicians create..... There's nothing cheesy about that....their telling a story ,,,and u listen....... ....listening being a bliss because of this bands unparallelled composition skills....(mostly Romeo's as many speculate) thats right, although these guys and dream theater are my two favorite bands syx is number one for me because of the overall quasi-flawlessness of their songs that never dip into 20 seconds strait boring episode....michael romeo is the most original guitar soloist but he is also just really fucking mean ...he really kills....petrucci too...there's no doubt...their my too favorite....but Romeo's distorsion sounds like 10 000 violins from hell...wich I prefer over the libanez-ernie ball sound petrucci has (wich is still awseome). And his phrasing is so out of this world...he creates monstrous groove out of really fucked up weirdo scales no one would have thought using... ....and syx...damn...the compositions also have such CLEVER transitions....Technically Musically....Syx maintain it self in the catchy yet intricate complexe Ear-Candy zone throughout entire albums wich is very hard after 3 albums...they now have 6...

For me, music is all about 'ear candy' as a mean to escape...an evasion from reality...yes ...like a drug. And let me tell you Divine Wings of Tragedy is really fuc$%??&ing potent...yes 'the odyssey' with its awseome production will pound your ears really hard and V the mythology suit will transport u in another world (atlantis and egypt and so on and so forth...etc) but DOT remains the most technical (I'm a guitar solo nut...) and yet the most balanced masterpiece this band has created...(by the way.. they've only created masterpieces...yeah thats right even there very first one with the shitty production is a masterpiece...if u know music and u look at the composition (tabs) u know I'm right...pure genius...these guys were destined for success from the begining)

the only minor flaw of this album is its production...wich is still pretty damn good for the time and budget these guys had at that time...the computer's 'synth' orchestra and choir are more realistic nowadays ...but guitar drum bass keys and voice are well balanced and I'm sure they didnt have a star studio enginneer and a fancy upscale studio to begin with...wich makes my respect for them that much greater...

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