Symphony X - The Odyssey - First Listen/Reaction

The drums have always been the stand-out to this track for me. I don't know how he does it. So creative. If you wanna check out their first real epic track, check "The Divine Wings of Tragedy". It's a totally different vibe with some incredible vocals and it's what I view as the precursor to "The Odyssey". I'd argue their "best" song is "Sea Of Lies".

“Thrashing and slashing down all my foes, to claim the throoooone!” - Champion of Itihica

This is one of the best prog songs every made imo. Pure masterpiece. The divine wings of tragedy (Symphony X), Octavarium (Dream theater) and The 1st Chapter (Circus Maximus) are other great pieces worth checking out if you liked this song. Wish i could hear them all for the first time again too!

Michael Romeo is a musical genius I believe he wrote all the music composed all the parts not sure if he wrote vocal parts of tge drum parts but it’s amazing

I miss this era of Symphony X! Their concept album V: The New Mythology Suite is even better imo, really taking the greek mythology angle to the max. It'd be neat to see a reaction to that!

If you ever listen to their album V: The New Mythology Suite, I highly recommend listening to the whole album start to finish. The whole song tells a single story and each song blends into the next, so picking a random one from the middle will pretty much null that experience.

This song is based on the epic poem The Odyssey by Homer. The lyrics are telling the story, but the real beauty is in the musical cues to signify different parts of the journey and the emotions. My friend and I listened to this a bunch in high school, had a pop quiz on The Odyssey we hadn't read yet, but got an A because we knew the song so well. Their discography starts out very neo classical, malmsteen-esque and the newer albums have been much more progressive metal and straight metal at times with a bit of symphonic elements still in there. Personally their album Paradise Lost is their best, but their new albums have all been good and the production is great.

Champion of Ithaca still gives me the goose bumps. It's hard to think of a more victorious anthem Triumphant champion of ithaca i will right all the wrongs let the Gods hear my song!

Wow, u did it! thanks for this. This song gets better every time u listen to it, there's too much stuff going on. I'm still enjoying it for different reasons since 2004 when I first heard it and youtube reactions are a great excuse for me to listen to it again and again... lol It's already been recommended, so... The divine wings of tragedy is a must listen for Symphony X enjoyers and to know more about the idea of how Michael Romeo likes to write. Cheers

This and Octivarium by DT are my favorite songs of all time. The whole song tells the story of Odysseus from Homer's Epic poem The Odyssey, even the musical movement are set to certain scenes and battles and you can follow along for it to really tell the whole story. Their guitarist Michael Romeo is the main composer/writer and he writes all the symphony parts as well. They have one vocalist Russell Allen who is probably my favorite vocalist of all time, you can hear his on Ayreon a bunch, he sings for Trans-Siberian Orchestra as well and he has done a few solo albums and countless guest appearances outside of Symphony X. Romeo has actually released 2 solo record The War of the Worlds Part 1 and part 2 where he flexes his symphony/orchestration muscles a bit more with a much more modern sound and much better production. I would recommend the song Hybrids from his part 2 record or Djinn from his part 1 record. Lots of good symphony X to listen to.

Excellent.

This is the pinnacle of Symphony X, in my opinion. It's when they actually lived up to their name and didn't go full on speed metal. Though I do find it ridiculous that the movie Troy, missed using any of this in its soundtrack :/ And despite me being a massively huge Rush fan, this song alone tops my epic "Prog Rock" list, by miles. The guitarist alone is a musical genius who also wrote the orchestral arrangements.

One of my favourites from this band. I'm not into most of the stuff I have heard though. I think I liked Iconoclast a lot as well.

Classic epic! Theyve been around for 25 years lol just enjoy 🖖🏽🖖🏽🖖🏽🖖🏽

There's a good bit of bass, but a lot of times it's playing along with the guitar and keyboard so it's hard to pick out over those two. The more you listen the more you can pick out.

Now you should listen to their other epic song The Divine wings of tragedy.

Boy, oh boy. And to think Michael Romeo composed the entire orchestration in his man-cave 🤣 btw Romeo released a fresh new solo album a few weeks ago, you should check it out too... If you enjoyed Russell Allen's runs, you will enjoy Dino Jelusick as well (singer of the new Michael Romeo album). And of course, more Symphony X is always welcome. Let's go heavy now, The Walls of Babylon :)