THE DIVINE WINGS OF TRAGEDY

Symphony X is a prime example for what can happen, when a band don't know how to bring it's own musicianal genius straight up to marketing. The five musicians have the best songs of all US-prog-metal-bands of the post-Dream-Theater-generation in their repertoire, play live nearly the complete competitors into ground and bottom, have with Russell Allen the most charismatic and stage-compatible singer of the genre in their line-up and enjoy in insider-circles undeniable god-status. There is not in the least indication a breakthrough for the band in prospect though, because they appear on platform too rarely, need too much time to record their albums and since six years any album they release must take comparison with their magnum opus.

"The Divine Wings Of Tragedy" includes several SX-trademarks in accomplishment: the Queen-tributional choruses and quotations, the Malmsteen-alike highspeed guitar work by Michael Romeo, the overboarding bombast-prog (the 21 minutes long title track should be well known by any one who is familiar with the power/prog subgenre), the hardmetallic earworms ("Of Sins And Shadows", "Out Of The Ashes") and Michael Pinnellas heartwarming keyboard-licks ("The Accolade").

I couldn't think of where anywhere else sounds neoclassical prog metal more grandious and it doesn't seem that in the visible future (not even SYMPHONY X) can reach this ingenious release. One exception is, that the next album (the conceptual "V: The New Mythology Suite") has even outdone TDWOT in maturity and musical aspects, but the influential importance of this album stays unmatched in their catalogue.

album rating: 9.5/10 points = 94 % on MPV scale = 5/5 stars

point-system: 0 - 3 points = 1 star / 3.5 - 5.5 points = 2 stars / 6 - 7 points = 3 stars / 7.5 - 8.5 points = 4 stars / 9 - 10 points = 5 stars