SYMPHONY X have triumphed, creating a panoramic “album rock” experience in an era cursed with diminishing attention spans. “This new one is about the song, really crafting each one on its own, to be as strong as it could be” says Michael Romeo, chief writer in the band, and proprietor of The Dungeon, the tricked-out studio in which the album was crafted, newly equipped with the latest in technology required to execute the band’s famous symphonic and orchestrated touches. 

 

Although »Underworld« is not a concept album, Michael stated “like the last couple of records, there’s a theme that carries through, without it being storytelling. We try to find something to key in on and get the juices flowing, and here the goal was to find something a little dark but with emotional content. I started looking at Dante, and Orpheus in the underworld, where he’s going to go to Hades or hell to save this girl. So there’s the theme of going to hell and back for something or someone you care about.” Heavily inspired by the Italian poet Dante Alighieri, »Underworld« draws on the themes from »Divine Comedy« most notably the part on »Inferno«. As homage to Dante’s use of the number 3 and its multiples, the band utilizes this motif in its music either in a lyrical or melodic context. The first song on the album is a three syllable, three note melodic phrase, and in the verses there are three references to three songs on the bands third album, »The Divine Wings Of Tragedy«. "There's cool shit like this all over the record," Romeo reports. 

 

For »Underworld«’s cover art, SYMPHONY X went with their established illustrator Warren Flanagan (Watchmen, The Incredible Hulk, 2012), who similarly tapped into the “secret knowledge” vibe Michael and band embedded in the record. “Warren went with the masks, similar to the first record,” explains Romeo. “But when I discussed with him Dante and the underworld, he did his own research and designed a little symbol for each of the nine circles of hell. So there are these little geometric symbols that mean something. That’s just what he does. He gets in there and finds these things that maybe no one really besides us knows what it means and yet it has meaning.”