Wanderlust in a Paradise Lost

This is the third time I'm going to write this post due to crashing web browsers, so hopefully it'll take this time…

I mentioned earlier that I was going to talk about Symphony X's new album Paradise Lost which I picked up over the weekend. I also found a new, smaller band called Little Atlas that I'm really liking right now, so I'll mention them a bit later.

First, Symphony X. This album has really grown on me. The first time I listened to it was in my car and the speakers really didn't do it justice. It came across sounding kinda muddy and I really didn't get to hear many of the nuances that were there. But after repeated listens I'm happy to say I'm really enjoying it.

Symphony X, historically, is known for their over the top orchestral inspired song arrangements, their fantasy based lyrics, Michael Romeo's guitar work and Russell Allen's vocals. This album, though is slightly different from their previous efforts in that it's so, so heavy that a lot of the orchestral arrangement is lost here, although on occasion it does shine through. The guitars on this album are probably some of the best (and most technical) playing that Michael Romeo has done for the band. A heavy album really helps to showcase the guy playing guitars.

My one major complaint is in Russell Allen's vocals. Russell is an amazing, versatile singer. He can sing with a variety of vocal styles such as a very beautiful (I believe that would be the correct word) "clean" type of vocal with a lot of emotion and power as well as being able to switch into more of a growling metal type vocal (not death metal of course). He can hit the high notes…he can go low…he can do everything in between. However, on this latest album, his vocals are fairly one dimensional, in the metal growling style. Don't get me wrong, it fits in with the heavier musical style, and he does switch things up occasionally, but I would have liked to hear him sing more clean vocals.

Right now though Paradise Lost is my second favorite album released this year, behind Porcupine Tree's Fear of a Dark Planet.

Now, moving off Symphony X and into a completely different style of music, we get to Little Atlas, a local band from Miami Florida. They're in the category of band that's very hard for me to explain. I guess I'd just label them as Progressive Rock, featuring a lot of experimentation and analog keyboards and such, but with a modern touch. It's really a unique and interesting sound. The arrangements are also worth mentioning. There's a lot going on, as there is in a lot of prog rock, but it never sounds too busy or too much like a wall of randomness while the song is bouncing all over the place between different feels. The entire album is extremely well constructed.

I listened to two songs on their MySpace page and I ended up placing an order for the CD, which was a good move on my part because this CD hasn't left the CD player in my car since I got it.

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