Customer Reviews

Prelude to the Milennium

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Made in JAP in 2002, Serial# TOCP-53216, Playing Time 77:59

I was introduced to SYMPHONY X thanks to other reviewers who couldn't stop praising this band!

If you're unfamiliar with this group, and enjoy classico-progressive-metal (I have to call it something!), be prepared to have the same reaction I did: WHOA !!! These guys can punch while still being melodic.

This CD probably targets 2 audiences:

1) people who don't know the band and don't want to take the risk of buying a "regular" album, so a "best of" could be a logical choice;

2) people who have every album wouldn't normally pick this up unless there was a "bonus"; here, we have a track originally released on their 1st offering, but re-recorded in 1998 ("Masquerade").

Beside track 1, the track selection lifts material from their 2nd, 3rd and 4th album ("The Damnation Game", "The Divine..." and "Twilight..." respectively.)

It's always easy to critize which tracks have been included/excluded in a compilation; what we get here is a mixture of shorter (less than 4 minutes) and longer (over 20 minutes) pieces, and I must say that either are fine with me.

This band is one of the best in its genre; no matter which album you pick up (the 1st album has a different vocalist), SYMPHONY X will treat you to some complex and challenging melodies. Pay close attention to the music, despite reading the included lyrics.

I originally came into contact with Symphony X when my friend bought their 2002 album, the Odyssey. While I wasn't bowled over by the album like some (or most), I thought it was pretty good and warranted looking further into their past releases. Like the Odyssey, I found the band had some really good songs, but not enough on one given album (maybe 2-4 songs per album) to really persuade me to make a purchase. Well, I may break down and buy the Divine Wings of Tragedy eventually, but for a casual fan that is conservative about his purchases, buying a album for just a few songs is not the way I do business.

For this reason, this compilation is perfect for someone such as myself. The track listing is pretty close to the songs I would pick from the band's first four albums if I was going to make a mixed CD, give or take a few songs. The re-recorded "Masquerade" from the band's debut is just awesome, though I would have loved to have heard Russell Allen on a remade version of "Taunting the Notorious" as well. From "The Damnation Game" we have "Dressed to Kill," which is just a savagely awesome song anyway you cut it, as is "The Damnation Game". The third song from the The Damnation Game is "A Winter's Dream ~ Prelude (Part I), is good as well, but I honestly would have but "Whispers" (one of my all-time Symphony X favorites) in place of it.

Tracks 5-9 cover what is probably the band's best and well known release, 1997's The Divine Wings of Tragedy. I really have no complaints with the choices here, but I think having five songs from this album is a bit much despite how good these songs are, especially considering "The Divine Wings of Tragedy" comes in at 20 min and 41 sec. I honestly would have left off "Candlelight Fantasia" to make room for "Church of the Machine" from Twilight in Olympus to help bolster the two final selections that appear from that album.

Other than my nick-picking over two of the songs choices, the only problem with this compilation is its price. It's an import, and of course, anything this good I would want to add to my metal CD collection would be (just because I'm me). Thirty dollars is steep, but I honestly would take the loss so I don't have to buy four different CD's that would probably average out to twice as much as this album costs.

So, if you're a modest Symphony X fan like me, this is a great purchase if you can swallow your pride and bite the bullet on the price.