A long time has passed since Symphony X made their debut with the album of the same name, clearly neoclassical and marked by virtuosity typical of prog metal but with very strong influences of classical and choral music, and progressive symphonic Yes (or early Queen ). Already from the second album, however, the American band puts one of the greatest voices of the world metal and rock scene behind the microphone: Russell Allen.
With Michael romeo as mastermind of the band and guitarist more than virtuoso, Michael Pinnella classical keyboard pianist, Michael LePond to powerful bass, e Jason Roll to the very precise drums, Symphony X have certainly rewritten the history of the prog metal. However in recent years the band has definitely changed course, and the last three albums sound less and less prog neoclassical and more and more trash metal mixed with prog, starting with Paradise Lost, following with Iconoclast, and now with this latest work, Underworld.
The Underworld concept is none other than the Descent into Hell by Dante Alighieri, relived in a metallic key mainly by Romeo, author of the vast majority of the band's music. The disc opens with a rather "normal" Overture, made of sampled choirs e electric guitars, but immediately the dark and threatening atmospheres of the voices melt in the opening riff of Nevermore, the first song launched on the Internet (on YouTube). It is an almost "easy listening" piece, full of technical founds that punctuate a decidedly very low cantato for Russell Allen, who has accustomed us to other notes, but incisive and precise, while he warns "Nothing matters anymore ... plus, your silence tells me everything I need to know ”.
Underworld, the title track, recalls a lot the heavier songs of Paradise Lost (one of the characteristics of Symphony X is the continuous self-quotation, which can be appreciable or not depending on who listens to the band. I like it). The chorus of Underworld, however, brings us back a little to the old Symphony X, which I personally appreciate much more than the new ones, with harmonic openings and really beautiful keyboard arpeggios.
A rather heavy but dramatic ballad follows, with lots of acoustic guitar but without forgetting distortions e path of keyboard: Without you, which draws sad scenarios of solitude contrasted with decidedly pressing music. The refrain is really nice, "Sometimes I feel that with each passing day, life just slips away, without you", although the lyrics are a little banal, and the song is particularly "different" from the style of the SyX.
With Kiss of Fire we really go back to the days of Paradise Lost: in fact this song with a pressing double bass drum and sampled choirs seems to be taken directly from that album, remembering above all songs like Walls of Babylon. Allen's singing is as aggressive as ever, supported by LePond's bass and Rullo's drums which in unison support Romeo's shredding punctuated by Pinnella's keyboard choirs. It is a song that sets the band's clock back by about ten years, all in all pleasant but not the best on the album. The quotes of bridge choirs that sound like the band's most distant past are appreciable.
Charon, the ferryman of hell, is the title of the next track, introduced by Romeo's unmistakable guitars, but which evolves into a nice heavy, bad piece, and with a splendid performance by Allen on vocals, "you go up and down with the tide… let's sail on Charon's wings, take me to the distant coast ”. A really nice song, with a nice text and a great chorus, for one of the most beautiful pieces of this Underworld.
Charon takes us to the most prog track on the record, To hell and back, introduced by a very airy yet dramatic guitar riff, which will be resumed later (the piece lasts almost 10 minutes) from Allen's voice with a truly well-written text capable of recounting the desolation of the plains of the Abyss, and of human solitude. But the song is an exercise in prog metal, a bit like When all is lost by Iconoclast. In just under 10 minutes Symphony X take the chair and explain how to play prog. In my opinion, this is one of the three most beautiful pieces of the entire opera, songs "confined" to the disc finale. Elaborate, well built, well structured, and beautifully executed - I hope they play it live, because it's a really great piece.
In my darkest hour is another "new style" Symphony X song that wouldn't be out of place on the previous two albums. Here Allen's voice dominates the rhythmic interweaving of guitar, bass and drums, while the keyboards are the carpet, often with a single, obsessive note, until they flow into the harmonic openings of the refrain, "I put all the pieces back in place , nothing lasts forever… my darkest hour ”. And this is where there is one of the most beautiful guitar solos on the record, in my opinion - for heaven's sake, always seasoned with a quantity of notes that would be enough for any guitarist for months.
Run with the devil is in my opinion the song less successful than the album. Not that it's bad, but it looks like it's out ofAmerican hard rock of the '80s and' 90s, which has very little to do with the SyX. However Allen's voice can interpret practically any genre, and it proves it right here, however, with an interesting and well interpreted broken song. Only Romeo's virtuosities mark this piece as a SyX product, even if the introductory section of the chorus for a moment suggests a different evolution of the piece, only to open up in a chorus that seems taken from a piece of a movie soundtrack. "On the road". Run with the devil has the advantage, however, of introducing the two most beautiful songs of the album.
Let's start with Swansong: a beautiful piano arpegggio introduces a tearful and at the same time pressing song, with a sad and cruel text that tells of a broken heart - for love or for other reasons, the fact is that the other person has gone away. “And I keep singing… will it (my song) bring me all the things I want with you? I wouldn't change a thing, I'd do practically everything for you, but now you're gone, and my swan song is lost in the air ”. Thrilling interpretation by all instrumentalists, with a wonderful central section, almost a prayer to the Gods of the night. Swansong ends with Allen's heartbreaking song repeating the words of the chorus almost shouting them in the wind, while the piano slowly engulfs everything in a final arpeggio that buries the last hopes in the notes of a minor chord.
And finally, the most beautiful song of the disc: Legend. As much as you remember a little "Frontiers", The bonus tracks of the Japanese edition of The Odyssey, Legend it is simply a masterpiece. Synthesizer arpeggios in odd tempos with an epic cantato leading to the chorus: “Even if I fight like a fury, there are no certainties: my battlefields are furrowed with empty victories. I run away from the past, from a life of lies… but the Legend never dies ”. For fans of fantasy literature it seems almost a song dedicated to Druss by Drenai, but it is a really beautiful piece, in the typical Symphony X style of the "new course", certainly, but excellent in the arrangements, in the execution, and in the mood. There could not have been a more epic ending than this, for a record that tells a story as epic as the descent into hell.
FINAL CONSIDERATIONS
In short, Underworld is a great record. For a nostalgic of Symphony X of "V" (in my opinion the undisputed masterpiece of the band and one of the best records of symphonic prog metal of history) this record further distances the American band from their past of unthinkable virtuosity and harmonies, but at the same time it is a great job, it annilights forward to Paradise Lost, and in many ways even better than Iconoclast. Songwriting is heavily influenced by Romeo, who has now made SyX a kind of "guitar gym", but Pinnella feels much more than the previous album, and the variety of styles in Underworld echoes more Paradise Lost than Iconoclast .
If this is the course that Symphony X want to keep in the next albums, I hope that the level will remain like that of To Hell and back, Swansong and Legend, and more "commercial" songs like Without you or Run with the Devil can be "forgiven ”To a band that deserves much more consideration than it has (also due to the fact that the five musicians are really nice people, available and modest despite being among the best on the world scene). Excellent performance by Symphony X therefore, flavored by a dark and threatening packaging like the choirs of the record itself. A nice return of the great American band (which we will see in Milan on March 3, 2016).
THE PROPERTY
Symphony X Underworld
Label nuclear blast
TRACKLIST
01. Overtures (2:13)
02. Nevermore (5:30)
03. Underworld (5:48)
04. Without you - 5:51
05. Kiss of Fire (5:10)
06. Charon (6:07)
07. To Hell and back (9:23)
08. In my darkest hour (4:22)
09. Run with the Devil (5:38)
10. Swansong (7:29)
11. Legend (6:29)
Marco Lord
