Symphony X
Symphony X is a progressive metal band from New Jersey, which was founded in 1994 by guitarist Michael Romeo.
Band History
In 1994, Michael Romeo, former guitarist of the band Gemini, on his demo tape The Dark Chapter. He quickly caught attention and soon founded along with bassist Thomas Miller, drummer Jason Rullo, vocalist Rod Tyler and keyboardist Michael Pinnella the band Symphony X.
The recording of their first album, Symphony X began in the same year; the album was first released exclusively in Japan under the Zero Corporation Label. Only after the release of their second album in 1995, the debut album was released worldwide. Their second album The Damnation Game followed six months later and was released on the label InsideOut world. Singer Rod Tyler had left the band and was replaced by Russell Allen, who had a significant influence on the band's style and his work set a rather neo -classical gravity.
The third album The Divine Wings of Tragedy is considered by many fans as her masterpiece. The recordings for this album lasted a relatively long time; The sessions started in 1996 and was completed only in 1997. With this album, she also achieved success in Europe, the success in Japan continued to grow. In contrast to previous albums stand on The Divine Wings of Tragedy especially the two long tracks out, so the 20-minute title track as well as the nearly ten minute "The Accolade ", which clearly are in form and structure in the tradition of progressive rock.
Towards the end of Jason Rullo had to leave for personal reasons, the band briefly. During this time he was replaced by Thomas Walling. With this lineup, the band played their fourth studio album Twilight in Olympus, which was published in 1998. On the album and the instrumental piece "Sonata" is to find that on the subject of the second movement of the Piano Sonata No. 8 Pathétique ( C minor, Op 13) is due by Ludwig van Beethoven. The remaining tracks on the album showed the band back a little more compact, longest title was 13 minutes, " Through the Looking Glass " and the nine -minute " Church of the Machine."
The first official appearance in the new line-up took place in 1998 in Japan, followed by a world tour. Bassist Thomas Miller was then replaced by Michael Lepond.
With Millennium Prelude to the end of the same year appeared a compilation of the previous four studio albums. In addition, this compilation contained a known as Masquerade '98 re-recording of a song from the debut album, this time sung by Russell Allen.
Drummer Jason Rullo returned prior to the start of the fifth album V: The New Mythology Suite back (2000 ) joined the band. The material of the album stemmed largely from ideas to a never realized long track called "Twilight in Olympus ", whose title had been assumed, however, for the previous album. It is at V to the first concept album by the band, the content it deals with the Atlantis myth and ancient Egyptian mythology and astrology. The intro names " Prelude " is an adaptation of the Dies Irae from the Requiem by Giuseppe Verdi.
The band went on tour and took it a live album, Live on the Edge of Forever on, which consists of recordings of several concerts.
In 2002, the band released their sixth studio album The Odyssey now, which contains the 24 -minute title track as the climax, which is a musical interpretation of the Greek legend of Odysseus. In addition to the more traditional title track of the rest of the album was considerably harder than usual. It contains less keyboard parts than before, and inspired some fans and journalists to compare with the Thrash Metal. Among the pieces is also a continuation of the fan - classic "The Accolade ", which is similar lasts as long as the first part and is thematically related to him. On the album followed in 2003 a successful tour with Stratovarius. In 2004, the band, apart from a few festival appearances, a rest period, which took advantage of Russell Allen and Michael Pinnella to solo albums. Michael Romeo was a guest on Timo Kotipelto 's second solo album, Mike Lepond played an album with a Distant Thunder.
In summer 2005, Symphony X took part in the Gigantour, a large summer festival with headliners Megadeth and Dream Theater. In order to bridge the time until the next album, a fan club CD was released containing demo versions of several older pieces, as well as an interpretation of the Star Wars theme song on the electric guitar.
In March 2006, Michael Romeo announced that five songs of a new album were completely absorbed and the album will finally completed in the following months. However, the publication was delayed because bassist Mike Lepond had to be treated for Crohn's disease. Finally, the album titled Paradise Lost was published on 22 June 2007. Paradise Lost, based thematically on the eponymous epic poem by the English poet John Milton, is a musical continuation of The Odyssey. The pieces are indeed got less thrashy, but similar hard as on the previous album. Only the title track has slightly ballad- trains and is strongly reminiscent of the song " Communion and the Oracle from the album V: The New Mythology Suite.