Symphony X - Iconoclast

RazielSR · Post by **RazielSR** » Mon Apr 25, 2011 3:03 pm

Can't wait to get the album. Holy shit!!!!!!!!! And knowing it is a double cd makes me :crazy2: :crazy2: :crazy2: :crazy2: :crazy2: :crazy2:

This track is just amazing!!!

RazielSR · Post by **RazielSR** » Tue May 03, 2011 6:00 pm

another song for streaming, Dehumanized: http://soundcloud.com/nuclearblastrecor ... ehumanized

robocop656 · Post by **robocop656** » Wed May 04, 2011 12:17 am

HIT THE SWITCH, YOU SON OF A BITCH!!!

That is fucking retarded!!!

RazielSR · Post by **RazielSR** » Wed May 04, 2011 12:26 am

robocop656 wrote:HIT THE SWITCH, YOU SON OF A BITCH!!!

That is fucking retarded!!!

The lyrics in this song are really insane

RazielSR · Post by **RazielSR** » Thu May 05, 2011 11:29 pm

A review of the album (based just in the single disc version ) :

Progressive metal is not my favorite metal genre. I am far from being an expert on it and I don’t care for most progressive metal bands. However, when it comes to Symphony X, it’s a total different story as they are perhaps my favorite band within this genre. My first experience with them was in 1998 with their “Twilight in Olympus” album, a great album. But I loved even more the ones that followed, “V: The New Mythology Suite” and their masterpiece until that point “The Odyssey”. Those two albums are darker and more epic than anything they have done, and while 2007’s “Paradise Lost” is a great album, it lacks the darkness and “epicness” factors. In an interview I had with vocalist Russell Allen in late January, when I asked about the new album, not only did he reveal the title “Iconoclast” for the first time, he also revealed the concept behind the album (i.e. machines taking over the world) and what to expect in terms of musical direction. Basically, Russell said that “Iconoclast” will be the most dynamic and explosive album of their career. Well, three months later I finally had the chance to listen to “Iconoclast” and Russell was absolutely correct about this, but his words still did not prepare me for what I was about to experience.

“Iconoclast” is plain and simple the best Symphony X album of their brilliant career. From the epic 10+ minutes album-title opening track to the 9+ minutes closing track “When All is Lost”, you get a dose of absolute perfection track after track. Those two, the opening and closing tracks, are the longest songs on the album and they feel like two parts of the same song, although both are very different musically. In this album, they act like a wrapper that envelops the rest of the songs, and it works in a phenomenal way.

Track 2 and 3 are “The End of Innocence” and “Dehumanized”. Those are the two songs that the band has already made available online. Both are great tracks but not the best ones in the album. Track 4 and 5 are “Bastards of the Machine” and “Heretic”, two of the heaviest songs on the album filled with plenty of fast parts; killer, killer songs.

After the heavy “Heretic”, the band drops on us “Children of a Faceless God”, a mid-paced song with the catchiest chorus in the whole album. “Can’t you see, you and me, we’re children of a faceless Gooood!”; epic chorus of an epic song. Right afterwards, BOOM! Heavy and fast stuff again, this time with “Electric Messiah”, a song filled with an avalanche of riffs and a godly chorus and one of the album’s highlights. Iconoclast follows with “Prometheus (I Am Alive)”, another heavy tune with a very modern vibe that, in its first 2 minutes reminded me of Dream Theater’s “The Glass Prison”, before dropping another monster of a chorus. But the band left the best to the end: The closing track “When All is Lost” acts like a shorter version of the song “The Odyssey”. The epicness surrounding this song is indescribable. The piano interlude during the first minute, the riffs, the tempo changes, all combined with what in my opinion is Russell’s best vocal performance ever makes “When All is Lost” a very emotive and memorable listening experience. Once this track ends, it leaves the listener with a smile on the face and one word coming to the mind: Wow!

As I previously said, “Iconoclast” is in my opinion Symphony X’s best album so far. It has the elements that made ‘The Odyssey” such a masterpiece, plus a big amount of heavy chunks that they’ve put into the album. Michael Romeo is simply impressive. Every solo is memorable and the riffs slay. The rest of the band sounds tighter than ever, and Jason’s drumming leaves the listener wondering why he is not mentioned in every list involving the best drummers around. But the best aspect of “Iconoclast” is Russell Allen’s vocal performance. Russell has been very busy handling vocals for projects like Star One and Allen/Lande, but on “Iconoclast” he gave us his best performance ever. He covered every single range and put a lot of emotion into his performance. His vocals carry so much emotion that there is no way the listener would not feel what Russell is singing about. “Iconoclast” is perfect. I would consider it 2011’s top album so far. This is a trademark album that will stand the test of time and will be regarded as a classic in the years to come.

http://heavymetalthunder6.wordpress.com ... last-2011/

RazielSR · Post by **RazielSR** » Thu May 12, 2011 1:09 pm

Cool interview!

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icecab21 · Post by **icecab21** » Fri May 13, 2011 12:30 am

interesting seeing them live, played a few of the new songs as part of the set and they were great. also cool to hear odyssey. it was a shame that romeo was on the other side of the stage the whole show and even for shaking hands after the show did not come to the other side.

RazielSR · Post by **RazielSR** » Fri May 13, 2011 1:15 pm

icecab21 wrote:interesting seeing them live, played a few of the new songs as part of the set and they were great. also cool to hear odyssey. it was a shame that romeo was on the other side of the stage the whole show and even for shaking hands after the show did not come to the other side.

They are beasts!

RazielSR · Post by **RazielSR** » Fri May 27, 2011 12:57 pm

robocop656 · Post by **robocop656** » Fri May 27, 2011 6:09 pm

The first song just blew my dick off!!! I'm waiting till it comes out now to fully get my balls blown off and listen to the rest.

Balu · Post by **Balu** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 9:44 pm

Haven't listened yet, but it's leaked.

rikkertje · Post by **rikkertje** » Sat Jun 11, 2011 11:43 am

Downloading the 2CD edition right now. Let's see what they have to offer us this time.

J- さ& · Post by **J- さ&** » Sat Jun 11, 2011 1:20 pm

I have the deluxe edition. Wow, I should say that the guys were becoming Meshuggah-like style. I'll just wait if they got a Japanese bonus track next month on their release.

robocop656 · Post by **robocop656** » Sat Jun 11, 2011 5:03 pm

I got the double cassette tape with multicolored headband and shoelaces edition!!!

pneumonia · Post by **pneumonia** » Sun Jun 12, 2011 8:52 pm

Nothing special...

RazielSR · Post by **RazielSR** » Sun Jun 12, 2011 10:26 pm

Wow, incredible album!! It is maybe theier heaviest album. I like it a lot!
Robolol, I think you'll like this album!
How I love this band!!!

VictorTDD · Post by **VictorTDD** » Mon Jun 13, 2011 2:56 am

J- さ&#1241 wrote:I have the deluxe edition. Wow, I should say that the guys were becoming Meshuggah-like style. I'll just wait if they got a Japanese bonus track next month on their release.

Japan edition will be released on June 22nd, no bonus track.

robocop656 · Post by **robocop656** » Mon Jun 13, 2011 5:49 am

RazielSR wrote:Wow, incredible album!! It is maybe theier heaviest album. I like it a lot!
Robolol, I think you'll like this album!
How I love this band!!!

Yes, you are right!! I was just joking, again, like always. It is a good one. Long and good. The first riff from the first song is still just, wow, it blew my socks off. I wasn't expecting that!! Anyway, yep, the only thing that made me laugh is that song with the piano intro sounded just like dream theater to me, or am I hearing things? I still need to buy it.

RazielSR · Post by **RazielSR** » Mon Jun 13, 2011 10:35 am

robocop656 wrote:
RazielSR wrote:Wow, incredible album!! It is maybe theier heaviest album. I like it a lot!
Robolol, I think you'll like this album!
How I love this band!!!

Yes, you are right!! I was just joking, again, like always. It is a good one. Long and good. The first riff from the first song is still just, wow, it blew my socks off. I wasn't expecting that!! Anyway, yep, the only thing that made me laugh is that song with the piano intro sounded just like dream theater to me, or am I hearing things? I still need to buy it.

Well, they sounded sometimes like DT in the past.
This album is following the pattern created in Paradise Lost, heavier and darker sound. anyway, there's an amazing "ballad": When all is lost. There are some power metal choruses too

. I like a lot the album, sounds really mechanic in some parts, as Romeo said, like the album's concept. There are some incredible solos, it's always a pleasure to hear Romeo playing. There are a lot of keys too, at least a lot more than in Paradise Lost. There are some ass kicking key solos.
And again, I'm sold with Allen's voice! Looking forward to get the special edition to see the package.

J- さ& · Post by **J- さ&** » Mon Jun 13, 2011 10:54 am

VictorTDD wrote:
J- さ&#1241 wrote:I have the deluxe edition. Wow, I should say that the guys were becoming Meshuggah-like style. I'll just wait if they got a Japanese bonus track next month on their release.
Japan edition will be released on June 22nd, no bonus track.

Thanks for the info, no need to wait now.

robocop656 · Post by **robocop656** » Mon Jun 13, 2011 11:34 am

Yes, the more keyboards the merrier.

:bounce1: :bounce1: :bounce1: :bounce1:

LOOK! Even some guy who plays with that pop singer copies the stand from Jens! Except it's a fucking drum rack. Or made by the drum rack company.

Does that 2 chord song require 88 keys?

RazielSR · Post by **RazielSR** » Mon Jun 13, 2011 1:18 pm

Yes, that is like when in a pop song you see a man with a 7 string guitar playing in "playback" the simulated sinth guitar

But seriously, Pinella has been always imo the most similar keyboardist to Jens while playing and in this album there are some solos that could be Jenso!

robocop656 · Post by **robocop656** » Mon Jun 13, 2011 8:09 pm

This CD, it's hard to believe it's Symphony X. It's..... crushingly heavy as hell and the riffs and solos are fucking out of this world awesome.

That guitar tone crushes my skull!! I need to listen to it more and on good headphones and buy it but, the drums sound massive and crushing and Russ sounds angry as hell. Must have been that jersey shore show on Mtv. It made them really pissed and they had to make an angry album because of it.

rikkertje is gonna be pissed, I can just feel it.

P.S. I don't know the lyrics but it sounded like some of the lyrics for the one song were kind of christian for a second. :bounce1:

RazielSR · Post by **RazielSR** » Mon Jun 13, 2011 10:36 pm

Robo, hard to believe? In Paradise Lost they went to a heavier direction, now it is just even more

. About christian lyrics sometimes, well that is common in many Symphony X songs. Allen 's voice was always really angry in some songs, but again, since Paradise Lost the band is trying heavier stuff. When you hear it with headphones, full volume...damn...sounds fantastic!

robocop656 · Post by **robocop656** » Tue Jun 14, 2011 10:59 am

The first 20 seconds of the 1st song sounds nothing like Symphony X to me! It sounds like Symphony X on steroids!! But of course, there are moments all over the CD that it sounds like old Symphony X. What I meant was: Mostly all power metal like the old stuff. I like both anyway, don't worry about that...but maybe some fans might think WTF! But.......is rikkertje going to complain about his voice? That's all I'm waiting for!!! :drop: :drop: :drop:

RazielSR · Post by **RazielSR** » Tue Jun 14, 2011 1:10 pm

robocop656 wrote:The first 20 seconds of the 1st song sounds nothing like Symphony X to me! It sounds like Symphony X on steroids!! But of course, there are moments all over the CD that it sounds like old Symphony X. What I meant was: Mostly all power metal like the old stuff. I like both anyway, don't worry about that...but maybe some fans might think WTF! But.......is rikkertje going to complain about his voice? That's all I'm waiting for!!! :drop: :drop: :drop:

I understand what you mean. Some people loves the album, some other hate it because it is too heavy and Allen sounds angrey as hell, but well, it is one of the spectrums of his voice, as you know, this man can sing whatever he wants witouht problem.
But hey, it's normal, they had their classical and neoclassical thing in many albums, now they are in a more heavy path...I like the album a lot and I enjoy it, and of course I can see that if the new album had been somekind of neoclassical stuff like the past ones, many people would say..."aaaah, they are copying the old albums!".

robocop656 · Post by **robocop656** » Tue Jun 14, 2011 2:09 pm

Good point. I am pretty blown away with how they "reinvented" themselves on this one. Well, what I mean is, they didn't repeat themselves much of what I have heard so far. It's great, fresh, delicious. What I was thinking was maybe they were trying to appeal to the younger kids, from the one part that sounded like a "breakdown" with chug chug chug riffs, but I mean, I'm not worried about it. That is just one thing I thought maybe they thought about when they recorded it. Trying to appeal to a different crowd perhaps?
Ramble ramble ramble ramble.

RazielSR · Post by **RazielSR** » Tue Jun 14, 2011 4:32 pm

robocop656 wrote:Good point. I am pretty blown away with how they "reinvented" themselves on this one. Well, what I mean is, they didn't repeat themselves much of what I have heard so far. It's great, fresh, delicious. What I was thinking was maybe they were trying to appeal to the younger kids, from the one part that sounded like a "breakdown" with chug chug chug riffs, but I mean, I'm not worried about it. That is just one thing I thought maybe they thought about when they recorded it. Trying to appeal to a different crowd perhaps?
Ramble ramble ramble ramble.

Well, maybe. Bands always try to get some new listeners. But I think that songs like Smoke and Mirrors or Sea of Lies are a lot more mainstream than the ones in this album for example...who knows!

rikkertje · Post by **rikkertje** » Thu Jun 16, 2011 11:33 am

robocop656 wrote:. rikkertje is gonna be pissed, I can just feel it.

Why would I be pissed? I really like the album.

robocop656 · Post by **robocop656** » Thu Jun 16, 2011 6:28 pm

rikkertje wrote:
robocop656 wrote:. rikkertje is gonna be pissed, I can just feel it.
Why would I be pissed? I really like the album.

HAH! I don't know. I just had a feeling. You are picky about vocals so...I thought maybe Russ' more aggressive approach this time might make you say, I DON'T LIKE IT.

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