Symphony X - Symphony X

"Everything starts somewhere..."

This album marks the humble roots of one of today's leading progressive metal bands. But you wouldn't see their potential judging them solely according to this release. Guitarist Michael Romeo's talent is astonishing, with the best neoclassical leads since this side of Malmsteen. Aside from the occasional great song, this album is mostly weak. Three things are responsible:
(a) Rod Tyler can't sing, and he can't even compensate for lack of skill with a cool sounding voice. He was ditched for the next album, where the mighty metal vocalist Russell Allen would step in.

(b) The production is _really_ bad. The next album's production is pretty weak too, but this is just rotten. The band themselves say it sounds like a demo. Since the production can't underscore the band's fervor, the good songwriting present is basically unappreciable.

(c) Some of the songwriting is just _wild_. But not the fun kind of wild that you see with Liquid Tension Experiment (I hate to compare, but I had to)... this is just wild in a weird way. It's sort of like what happens when a band tries to cram too many ideas into their music and it just sounds messed up.

But if you're a Symphony X fan, it's good to have this in the collection, because there's some good moments.