Should anyone ever doubt the brilliance of Symphony X, they need only listen to the band?s latest release, The Odyssey (Inside Out Music), a gorgeous-sounding album that glistens with sonic clarity from end to end. Whether the Kansas-like ?Accolades II,? the silver screen elements of ?Incantations Of The Apprentice,? or the vastness of the closing, title track, The Odyssey is a release that will surely be spoken of in reverent tones for years to come.

I caught up with SX?s Michael Romeo almost literally on the eve of the band?s U.S. tour with Blind Guardian, a trip he seemed eager to go on and one that is sure to be one of the more memorable pairings in metal/progressive history.

JB: The Odyssey is one of those albums that?s very well-produced but not too well-produced. Can you talk about the line you walk when you?re thinking about production.

MR: It varies from album to album. It depends on the song, too. We were going for something heavier, a little rawer, and we wanted you to hear what?s happening, to hear very clearly what everyone?s doing. For this album we kept saying ?in your face.? Make it sound good but make it sound like it?s right there.

JB: When you finish an album do you say, ?I want do x,y,z,? or does that stuff reveal itself as you?re starting to write songs?

MR: We always try to have a plan. We always want to be interested in what we?re doing. We want the listener to be too. So, before we even start to write we try to get a certain game plan. Obviously, with the last album, we said, ?Let?s do a concept album. Let?s do it like this, let?s focus.? This time we said, ?Okay, so we don?t want to do a concept album again, what if get back into the stuff we grew up with, go a little heavier?? We thought we could maybe have some heavy riffs like Sabbath but still have the progressive influence in there.

JB: When did you interest in 20th Century Classical music and film score begin?

MR: Over the years have pushed it. I remember seeing the first Star Wars movie as a kid and thinking how cool the music was. You sometimes you?ll hear a classical piece you?re not familiar with and it is something more modern and it starts to grow on you. The first time I heard The Rite Of Spring, I probably didn?t like it. But you start to listen to them, you get a little older, and I think you start to appreciate different things in music.

JB: When do you think you really able to appreciate classical music?

MR: I played piano when I was younger, so I was introduced to some of that stuff when I was fairly young. I don?t know that I was totally into it or not. I probably wasn?t. I think that it started to really appeal to me as I was getting into the guitar and listening to Randy Rhoads. Then I listened to Uli Roth, Malmsteen and other players who expanded that type of playing. But, it really was listening to Randy Rhoads that got me back into playing the classical stuff, which was fairly early. I was probably only playing guitar for a couple of years then.

JB: Are there instruments that you listen to, then try to adapt those ideas to the guitar or piano?

MR: I definitely do that with the early classical stuff. Usually, you?ll find some violin music or cello music that will translate pretty well. I remember that for a time the big thing was to study Paganini?s 24 Caprices, totally sick, insane violin thing. And for guitar, that stuff?s pretty tough. But you?re just trying to get your chops up and it?s good practice for sight reading. But sometimes you?re just listening to a piece and you hear something you?d like to learn, a cool line and it doesn?t matter if it?s oboe or whatever, you just try to figure it out. Then you have Alan Holdsworth. I?ll try to figure out some of his stuff. But he?s trying to imitate a sax player or horn player, so it becomes a second generation imitation thing. Any musical line translates. Just find it and see how it works. It?s more than just figuring it out. You have to understand the theory behind what?s going on.

JB: How hard do you work at creating cohesive statements with your albums?

MR: With this album, there were a couple of songs that we were still working on, one we had actually finished that didn?t make it. It wasn?t that it was a good song or a bad song but then as were looking at the album and how we?d set it up, that song didn?t fit, so we listen to record, find the right order, find the right flow and if something doesn?t work, we won?t use it. It all goes back to when we start writing, start developing our plan, one that will allow us to make something that is cohesive.

JB: Do you share your songs with people outside the band as you?re working, ask for their opinions, or do you pretty much keep it within the band?

MR: We keep it between us. We?re pretty sure we know what we?re after and I think, over the years, that?s gotten better. We do all of the recording here at my place and all the writing. I think that even with the liberty of being able to change stuff because we?re recording with computers, we?re very conservative. You can start chasing yourself in circles with that stuff. We know what we?re after and once we decide on the direction, we?re all there together and we?re all good at focusing on that final goal.

JB: ?Incantations Of The Apprentice? has a really great atmosphere to it. What can you tell me about the recording of that?

MR: There?s a lot to say about that song. I remember seeing Disney?s Fantasia when I was a kid and hearing ?The Sorcerer?s Apprentice,? the part with Mickey Mouse and the broomsticks. That always stuck in my mind as something very cool and I always loved that great visual thing that happens with the music there. So we were in the studio, I think it was just me and Russell and I had a few different pieces I was working on. He was taking a break and he put in Fantasia. He knew I liked that part of the movie and he said, ?I?ll write some lyrics, let?s do something with this.? At one time, we actually had some of the music from the score in the song but, after, we listened to it, it just kind of dropped into this dead weight thing. The song had better momentum without it.

JB: ?Accolades II? is of course a continuation of a previous tune but what strikes me about is the overwhelming sense of melody there.

MR: That song was kind of an accident. I think me and Pinella were working on some things and we started to talk about the last album and how we had a lot of fun using the same melody over, playing the melody backwards, in different keys, different time signatures, really working the variations. We had a ball with that. We said, ?What if we took ?Accolades,? which has really distinctive melodies and gave it the same treatment?? That was it.

JB: ?King Of Terrors? is based on Edgar Allan Poe?s ?The Pit In The Pendulum,? what else do we need to know about it?

MR: That song is definitely very heavy, it has some very dark parts. It came together very quickly. That?s about all I really remember about it.

JB: Then we have the title track which is 24 minutes long but never feels that way.

MR: I agree. It keeps your interest.

JB: What are some challenges that you face when you?re putting together a song of that scope?

MR: You know the song is going to be long but you never know how long it?s going to be until it?s done. We just thought it would be a cool thing to approach: we did some reading, watched the movies and picked out the cool parts that we wanted to use and some parts that we could really make happen in the instrumental sections. Especially the big, dark bombastic things. Once you have the story line and the lyrics done, you start with the music and try to keep the flow, move the story along. I won?t say it?s easy but I was totally into it. And what you hear is very close to what we did in pre-production.

JB: Would you like to do more symphonic things?

MR: If I ever had the opportunity to score a film, I?d be into it. But the band is the priority, you?ve got to have some of the heavy riffs of else it?s not fun anymore. It would be cool. I love that stuff. I do it a lot of home: I?ll practice guitar for a couple of hours, then go do the orchestral stuff, try ideas. I?m always writing different stuff.

JB: How basic do you start out when you?re practicing guitar?

MR: It depends. If I feel like I?m sucking and I haven?t practiced in a while, then I?ll go back to some of the usual things I?ve done in the past: chromatic things, different picking things with the metronome, different patterns to limber up. For practice I?ll usually put on rhythm tracks with different tempos, different keys, different chord changes, it gets very tough. I find that doing that, I sometimes come across a lick that I can?t quite do, so I take out the metronome and try to build up speed. I like playing to the tracks more than the metronome. I try to to play rather than do exercises.

JB: How do you prepare for a tour, what are some things you tell yourself?

MR: There?s always going to be something that goes wrong, so I?ll usually just acknowledge that. We?re pretty mellow. If things don?t work out, you just have to be cool and laugh at it later, though at the time you never laugh.