Symphony X Bristol Bierkeller 18-02-16







Now 50 and my week continues and shows how different the music I love can be with another 3 band line up.

After the classic feel to Tuesday this is more metal and started with Melted Space from France who manage to pack 4 vocalists onto the small amount of room they have which at times meant they were alternating space.

2 female and 2 male singers with some very growly male vocals and some symphonic female too.I am told that one of the females used to be in Serenity and the only issue was the poor sound mix that was pure mud at times.

Next up was one I have waited for many years to see and that was Myrath from Tunisia.Most reviews will say Dream Theater with arabic tones.
I will agree with that and add plenty of time changes and strong vocals from Zaher Zorgatti and some excellent guitar soloing from Anis Jouini and pounding drums from Morgan Berthet too.
They went down well with the expanding crowd and the sound issues improved too.
With strong songs like Get Your Freedom Back and Believer they made a lasting impression and I am sure I am not the only one to hope to see them back in the UK soon.

































Last year's stand out cd for me was Symphony X's Underworld and this tour sees them playing an album in it's entirety for the first time.How cool is that?


So for 90 minutes we went on a journey with Symphony X with a few classics thrown in for good measure too.

Here is what they played.

Overture
Nevermore
Kiss Of Fire
Without You
Charon
To Hell And Back
In My Darkest Hour
Run With The Devil
Swan Song
The Death Of Balance

Out Of The Ashes
Sea Of Lies

Encores of 
Set The World On Fire
Legend

The Bierkeller was packed and the pace never dropped either on the stage or the crowd as Bristol and Symphony X united in the Underworld.

Words can not really do justice to the power and musicianship seen on the stage as centre stage Russell Allen shows us he is right at the top in the art of being a front man with his vocal prowess and bear like prowess.He is very theatrical and picks out people from the audience to sing to and you struggle to take your eyes of him as he never stops moving.

To his right Michael Romero shows his guitar chops with a stunning display of shredding and riffing which my ears can still hear today.His fingers dance across the strings and he is up there with the very best in any genre.

The rhythm team are outstanding too.Michael LePond on bass,Michael Pinnella on keyboards and the quite incredible Jason Rullo on drums who batters his kit into submission with a power very rarely seen.

Nevermore blows the roof off with a mesmeric light display and the sound luckily up to scratch and the intensity is mind blowing.

Without You for me was the AOR track of the year with a stunning Allen vocal and shows off his more melodic style and range off to perfection and is the only dip in intensity but is replaced with a passion and wonderful Romero solo too.

Charon takes it back up again before my personal favourite To Hell And Back that sees Allen wearing 2 masks of light and shade as the near 10 minute epic ebbs and flows from all out heaviness to the melodic chorus.Quite staggering.Play it again?

They play the album in order with Swan Song a fitting conclusion with more Allen vocal histrionics and a huge crowd vocal in the chorus too.

They dip into the back catalogue for a couple of songs with Romero laughing as he played one of the older riffs thinking who wrote this!!

Set The World On Fire was majestic with the crowd going nuts and Allen imploring more from the crowd before we go back to Underworld and Legend to finish that sums the evening up perfectly.

Symphony X were outstanding with an intensity and musicianship that was flawless in every aspect.

Wow just wow.
































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