TWILIGHT IN OLYMPUS

Quite a nice effort after The Divine Wings of Tragedy. This album was strung together fairly quickly after its predecessor because of pressure from the label. The result, however, is still pretty good despite the fact that the album could flow better. I am willing to discount this, though, because of the amount of time it took to make this album. Opening with Smoke and Mirrors, which has become one of Symphony X's most highly regarded songs, the album kicks off immediately. The first few tracks of the album are very good and are fun to listen to, but after Through the Looking Glass, a remarkable 13 minute piece based off of Lewis Caroll's novel of the same name, the album starts to lose a bit of its quality. The Relic is not up to the same standard as the songs that precede it, and Orion the Hunter has a nice riff and some good vocals by Russell Allen, but in the end it's unsatisfying. Lady of the Snow wraps the album up very nicely, though, and has a very Eastern feel to it. This album has some of the band's finest moments and achievements, including opener Smoke and Mirrors and the epic Through the Looking Glass, which is one of my personal favorites from the band, but in the end is not up to the standard that The Divine Wings of Tragedy set a year before Twilight in Olympus.