The Divine Wings of Tragedy is the only Symphony X album I own, and I think it is a great album. I didn’t like "new" bands that much until recently, and liked listening mostly to 70’s Hard Rock bands (like Deep Purple, Rainbow, Uriah Heep, etc.), Classical music (especially classical guitar), and Neoclassical Metal (like most of you probably as well :=) ). But, I got this album a few weeks ago, and there was hardly a day since, that I didn’t listen to it! Now, to each track…

Of Sins And Shadows - The first few seconds of this track, which consist of a low-volumed distroted guitar (Am I right about this? :=) ) don’t usually fit to these kinds of albums, but in this case, they just fitted right, and the increase in volume immediately gives the great heavy-progressive feeling of the entire album. Of course, like most songs in this album, this one contains some small choir affects, that just can’t be ignored… I have to say that these choir effects fill the songs with a medieval-oratoric sound which I think adds a great deal of quality to the tracks. Russell Allen’s voice just sweeps from a clean singing tone (in the first part of song) to a hard, aggressive tone (in the second part of the song, and in the second chorus) that leaves no question about his range of voices. Grade for this song: 9.5 , a Rainbow / Dream Theater one…

Sea Of Lies - Good combination of Guitar/Bass in the introduction (above the background of the "usual" keyboards’ heaven-sound), and then a change into a Malmsteenlike passage. After that introduction, there’s a jump into a progressive riff, that just changes anytime it chooses to… :=) Anyway, a very good song, with a lot of stuff worth listening to, and especially the ending solo, that repeats itself - A masterpiece of a solo :=) Grade for this song: 9, a progressive one… The first track is better, though :=)

Out Of The Ashes - Probably the best instrumental intro of this album is of this song - I can call it nothing but "Neoclassical" and it really gives an Orcish/Trollish feel (I can almost see the monsters dance around the fire…). Again, Russell Allen jumps from an aggressive tone ("In the house of my master…") to a gentle, clean voice with just a bit of wickedness in it ("Mother will you help me…") :=). The Chorus of course, is absolutely perfect! It is an example to what melody is! :=) Grade for this song: 9.5, along with Of Sins And Shadows, this song is a big candidate for the title of "The Best Song of the album". A Rainbow / Malmsteen one!

The Accolade - The intro is a bit longer than the usual, and quieter than the other ones (even though there are parts of it with a very heavy guitar distortion). Some of the parts of this track are an attempt towards a more classical sound, and in most cases the attempts were successful :=) Grade for this song: 8, Hmm… I don’t why, but this is the song that I least liked of the album. Maybe I ought to listen to it more. I don’t know how to define this song…

Pharaoh - Oriental and very powerful song. Allen sings in a different tone than most other songs in the album, and Romeo tries a lot of guitar "tricks" (especially in the chorus). A quiet interlude of Allen singing softly is placed just before the peak of the song, when Pharaoh "comes back to life" :=) Grade for this song: 9, The Gates Of Babylon in a more heavy version? Superb song!

The Eyes Of Medusa - A very heavy song. A unique and very good chorus, with Allen’s voice getting into the evil-tones. The instrumental solo - "The Isle of Deadly Shores" - is in a medieval style, and it is almost graphical, as it just sounds like some "Isle of Deadly Shores" and the picture comes up only by listening. Grade for this song: 8.5, heavy… heavy… but very good!

The Witching Hour - Wow! What a great track! An intro with an east-European neoclassical shred, that reminds a Goblin running away from a magician (or something else in a fantasy style ;-)). Fast singing, great guitar work, lots of voices in the chorus, and a lot of other stuff! There’s almost nothing to say about this song, except "Great!!!". Grade for this song: 9, one of the best songs of this album!

The Divine Wings Of Tragedy - The title track, and this song deserves to be the title track, as it might be the best one of the album. The special first part of the song consists of choir singing, immediately adds the heavenly feeling (which IS the song’s subject after all), and sets the way for the second part - "In the Room Of The Thrones". This part sounds like two armies heading for war, and are about to collide… This song is so complex and has so many parts, that I can’t just describe all of them, and all I can say is that song might be entitled to be called "Masterpiece". Each part is great, and especially the instrumental ones, and the lyrical "The Wrath Divine". Grade for this song: 9.5, well even a masterpiece isn’t perfect so I can’t give it a 10. This song is the only competition that "Of Sins And Shadows", and "Out Of The Ashes" have in this album…

Candlelight Fantasia - The ballad, or at least it’s a ballad at the beginning of the track. Savatage-like bell sounds appear after the two first paragraphs of singing, and they create some sort of an anticipation for what’s going to come next. Allen sounds very similar to Joe Lynn Turner in a certain part of the song ("Winds of change bring songs…"). Then, the rhythm changes, and begins to "jump", along with brilliant singing by Allen and guitar by Romeo ("I can’t escape this captive misery…")! Grade for this song: 9, Savatage / Dream Theater one…

This review is credited to:
Avi