"Paradise lost" CD by Symphony X

by Oliver Kube (14.07.2007) Bombastic Progressive Metal has been the trademark of Symphony X for 13 years now. Also the seventh studio album of the US quintet, "Paradise lost", makes no exception, beginning with the Wagnerian, monumental "Oculus ex inferni", which later culminates in an edgy rocker, called "Set the world on fire". Highlight on the album is the epic, melodic title track run through by brilliant piano passages. However, some of the other songs appear as if the guys ran out of big ideas. Compared to the current masterpieces of genre colleagues like Dream Theater, Threshold and Pain Of Salvation, Symphony X sometimes appear a bit stale. And it doesn't work, either, to make up this lack of ideas by increased pace and/or more heaviness. The dull killer sounds accompanied by aggressively tuned vocals in "Domination" and "Seven" serve as negative examples, here. Fans of the band will find good to very good moments, yet "Paradise lost" has unfortunately not become the masterpiece everybody was hoping for.