Symphony X’s Michael Romeo Announces First Solo Album, Streams “Black” Single

Critically acclaimed shredder Michael Romeo is finally giving Symphony X fans what they’ve been waiting for since the band’s inception: a Michael Romeo solo axe-travaganza. The record is the first of a two-part project titled War of the Worlds, and will feature rising Long Island singer Rick Castellano, as well as fellow Jerseyans Macaluso and Black Label Society member John “JD” DeServio. 

The first single, “Black,” is almost exactly what you’d expect — six and a half minutes of proggy, orchestral, riffing madness. While “Black” isn’t anything too out of the ordinary for Symphony X fans, it will be interesting to see what the rest of War of the Worlds has to offer. There’s allegedly a cluster-fuck of different things happening throughout the record; Romeo says “It’s me putting all the things I love about music in a blender. Somebody might listen to it and say, ‘What is this guy thinking?’ But it’s all about being creative and having a good time with it.” Check out the futuristic, Black Mirror-esque music video below.

War of the Worlds Pt. 1 is due out July 27th on Music Theories Recording; pre-order here. And Romeo promises a sequel: “Most of Part II is already finished,” he says, “It just needs a few vocals, a couple solos, a few tweaks here and there. I want people to absorb the first one for a while, and then we’ll put out the second record. They’ll complement each other, but they’ll also be a bit different.”