This was really the first masterwork by Symphony X. Always a band brimming over with talent and potential, they had produced a slew of interesting but uneven albums up to this point like Divine Wings of Tragedy and Twilight On Olympus, but had never managed to put it all together. V: The New Mythology Suite is where this great US band really took off.

Everything you expect from Symphony X is here, from the tight, innovative playing of Micheal Romeo to Russell Allen's superlative vocal work, but here the songs are more coherent and memorable, with no weak spots. The unified theme of the album is less a straight concept album and more of a sort of...well...a suite of ideas and moods, but it gives the album a solid foundation that really brings it up a notch. Powerful songs like "Fallen", "Communion and the Oracle" and the epic closing track are what this band is all about, and cemented this band as a prime force in Prog Metal. Like a lot of albums in this genre, V takes more than an average number of spins to get into it — it is nowhere near as direct and immediate as Paradise Lost, for example — but those who pay attention will be rewarded. A metal classic, not to be overlooked.