I arrived 2 hours early because when I arrived 1 hour early for Kamelot, there was already many ahead of me. Unfortunatly there aren't as many Symphony X fans around here as Kamelot so I could have arrived 1 hour early and still would have been one of the first there. While waiting I took some pictures of Ridglea Theater:
Once the doors finally opened I made my way to the front of the stage to the right from the middle. I started conversing with fellow metal heads and getting into some good disscusions about metal and even plugged in HOM and NLTM into the conversation. First up was Into Eternity. I was only familiar with one song that I heard over a year ago on an Identity compilation and despite liking what I heard I never picked up a CD although I did have a chance once. These guys were great live and played some fast death metal peppered with melody, good guitar solos, and fantastic vocals. Stu Block has an amazin falsetto which on the albums sounds similar to the guy from Three Inches Of Blood but is even more amazing live. I can't even describe it, youd' have to hear these guys live to get the full effect. The guitar work was real good and most of the solos I heard were from founding member Tim Roth (the other guitarist stayed toward the left of the stage along with the bassist). Tim is a great guitarist and (although not important to the music) appears to be a Christian because he had a shirt with a cross, a crown of thorns, and the logo: My Way Is The Highway. Stu and Tim had the most interaction (probalby due to them being the only origional members) and at one point Stu told us that they were going to do a ballad and Tim replied, "Stu, I don't think thats a good idea. We don't want to loose this audience with a ballad." and Stu assured him that they had the crowd and wasn't going to loose them. I don't remember which was the ballad but it was still a very heavy song. These guys were great live and I would love to see them again. I had the chance to hang out for a few minutes with the guys but I was starting to have a real bad migrane and my camera was out of power (more on that later) so I just got a t-shirt, a CD, and told the guys (mostly the other guitarist and the bassist, the other members were engaged at the mometn) that they did an awesome job. (The pictures for Into Eternity and Epica may be a little blurry, the rules of the theater was no flash-during Symphony X I realized nobody was obeying that rule so I turned on my flash)
Epica was next. Live the orchestation of Epica is merely background music and the heaviness is more prominent. This was closer to a death metal performance with female singing than a symphonic metal band (although guitar solos were almost non-existent except for a few songs here and there). Coen Janssen was an adequate keyboardist but not extremely impressive (at least not live), Yves Huts was a decent bassist (again nothing super impressive), and guitarist Ad Sluijter was again a good guitarist but like the others not super impressive). The most impressive members had to be drummer Ariën Van Weesenbeek (God Dethroned) and vocalist subsittute Amanda Somerville who vocally is a carbon copy of Simmone (physically she was pretty but not as stikingly so as Simmone nor as slender but not in a bad way). She did a great job filling in and although I prefer Epica on CD as oppossed to live they put on a good show. My pictures of them were not many except for Amanda, because she kept moving so much I couldn't get any non-blurry pictures of her (I finally succeeded but it took a lot out of my camera); guitarist/death vocalist Mark Jansen was on the other side of the stage and bassist Yves Huts was always right up in front of me and I could only get shot of him from the neck down.
Finally the band everyone came to see (including me), Symphony X. I wasn't expecting anything less than what these guys put on. Every single member showed me what a great group these guys are. Sir Russel Allen is truly one of the best vocalists in metal today (I already thought that but for the second time he showed how great he is even out of the studio). Guitarist Michael Romeo's guitar work was superb and equally so was keyboardist Micheal Pinnella. They traded off solos that were so close sounding that when I thought Pinnella was doing a solo, it was actually Romeo and vice versa. I was suprised to see that the drummer Jason Rullo only had one base drum (no double pedal) and a very basic drum set which reminded me of Nicko McBrain. What impressed me more than I thought it would, was Michael (
three members with the name Michael)Lepond's bass work. On albums the bass is not as noticable as it is live and I was suprised to see that he was a very good bass player (I since learned that he is heavily influenced by Steve Harris and Geezer Butler-even had Geezer's gotee). They opened with Set The World On Fire, Domination, Serpent's Kiss, and Mascarade. Russel started telling us how great is was to be back in the states and went on to talk about how long they've been on the road and asked the audience if they wanted them to continue touring. Everyone shouted yes and did the same when he asked us if we want them to skip resting and spending time with their families to continue touring. Just then the audience members started shouting out for them to play certain songs, "Accolade", "The Odyssey", etc. Russel yelled "Play some Skynard man!" and proceeded to do a Johnny Van Zant impersination. They continued with Paradise Lost, Walls Of Babylon, Inferno (Unleash The Fire), Smoke & Mirrors, and Sea Of Lies. Russel commented that Sunday is supposed to be for football then said "I guess since there is no football, metal will take it's place." Just then someone in the audience yelled, "F*ck Edgefest!" which got a good laugh (this festival was on the same night: The Edge is an alternative rock station that has a music festival every year full of bands who wish they had half the talent found in Symphony X). He then got into a long discussion about football and how everyone has to stick to their favorites (his was the LA Raiders because he likes people to hate him and loosing all the time). Romeo finally reminded him that they were here to put on a show, not talk sports. He wrapped up and they continued with Revelation and said goodnight. Of course this was the set up for the enchore that
ALL headlining bands do. We started to yell, "One more song!" and pounding our fists and feet. Russel came back out and asked us why we weren't ready to go home and prepare to return to work and we pretty much said "f*cj work" so they continued on with Eve Of Seduction and finally with Sins & Shadows and that was the end of another great cocert and I hope to do many more.
Subject: Dallas Black Review: Into Eternity/Epica/Symphony X Concert 
Wed Apr 30, 2008 5:04 pm
