Symphony X "Paradise Lost"

Drama, quality, intelligence and integrity. These are words long and reverently used in conjunction with America's premiere power/progressive metal act Symphony X. For 13 years, guitarist Michael Romeo has been toiling away to keep the superlatives flowing, and the situation gets headier every year. "Paradise Lost", the band's seventh record - and third in a row with the same stellar lineup - is a masterpiece of scintillating performances feeding the metal monster. Hard to believe, but it's been five years since "The Odyssey" vaulted Symphony X into their current and exalted level of metal success - Nevermore, Iced Earth, Evergrey, Symphony X have had their contemporaries and comparatives, but once "The Odyssey" had been assimilated by the band's growing legions, scholars of metal started talking about this band as eventual equals to Dream Theater and even Rush. No surprise that Romeo had already long since been considered one of America's great neo-classical metal guitar gods, and that Russell Allen was to prove himself a singer of stadium rock quality.