Taking a break from their current headlining North American tour, New Jersey’s progsters SYMPHONY X checked in from the House of Blues in Hollywood via a live chat last week to answer fan-submitted questions.
View the 38-minute footage – where the band discusses their most memorable show, the merits of Taco Bell, the significance of Ozzy Osbourne’s Blizzard Of Oz album, “sha-nahnah” rock and other musical labels here.
“The End Of Innocence,” a track off SYMPHONY X’s upcoming album Iconoclast, is now available for purchase as a digital single on Amazon.com & on iTunes. The single also includes an instrumental version of the track.
Iconoclast is SYMPHONY X’s eighth studio album and will be available in Europe on June 17th and in North America on June 21st. The new album is also the band’s Nuclear Blast debut and the follow-up to 2007’s Paradise Lost, which has sold over 60,000 copies in North America.
Illustrator and film concept artist Warren Flanagan (Watchmen, The Incredible Hulk, 2012) is the talent behind the album artwork. He shares his creative process on the new album’s artwork:
“The idea was to create imagery that was a little darker in tone to previous SYMPHONY X albums and to represent the overall theme of Iconoclast into the artwork. The whole concept came from Mike [Romeo], who had a strong idea of what the cover should represent based off the music. I just ran with it. When the album’s title was decided on, I focused the image based on the meaning of it. I also wanted to use the band’s signature ‘masks’ but present them in a way that connected to the new album.”
Symphony X founder & lead guitarist Michael Romeo has the following to say about Flanagan’s art:
“We worked with Warren on the last CD, Paradise Lost, and have a good relationship with him. When I talk to Warren about artwork ideas, a lot of times we end up making comparisons to films and movies. With the new CD, Iconoclast, the music and lyrics have a darker mechanical/technological theme, and I remember us talking about scenes from films like The Matrix and Terminator. From there, we sent him some song titles and lyrics (songs like ‘Dehumanized,’ ‘Bastards Of The Machine,’ ‘Electric Messiah’) and just let Warren run with the ball. He has a great imagination and style, and he totally gets what we are trying to convey with the music.”
Jewel Case Track Listing
01. Iconoclast
02. The End Of Innocence
03. Dehumanized
04. Bastards Of The Machine
05. Heretic
06. Children Of A Faceless God
07. Electric Messiah
08. Prometheus (I Am Alive)
09. When All Is Lost
2-CD Special Edition Digipack Track Listing
CD 1:
01. Iconoclast
02. The End Of Innocence
03. Dehumanized
04. Bastards Of The Machine
05. Heretic
06. Children Of A Faceless God
07. When All Is Lost
CD 2:
01. Electric Messiah
02. Prometheus (I Am Alive)
03. Light Up The Night
04. The Lords Of Chaos
05. Reign In Madness
