SIX DEGREES OF INNER TURBULENCE

I've read a few of the reviews of this album and seen some of the conflicting opinions. In my own opinion, I love CD 2 of this and am quite indifferent to CD 1. On CD 2 they do that particular thing which they have done so well on other occasions - that is the epic storyline with some mental illness thrown into the mix. To my ears this is beautiful music whereas the tracks on CD 1 are merely average in terms of composition and the ability to hold the attention of the listener.

The musicianship on this album is as always second to none

This album has been on my playlist since the day it came out and is IMHO so far superior to both Systematic Chaos and Black Clouds which I think are both simply dreadful, although I think a large part of the blame for their dreadfulness probably lies with Mr Portnoy and his awful vocal growling thing. He really should stick to drums and "normal" backing vocals where he excels.

In conclusion I can only give this 3 stars due to the conflicting opinion I have on the 2 CDs. Having said that however, listening to CD 1 is not exactly torture and I would give it maybe 3 stars , it's just not quite as good as CD 2 which I would rate as a 5 star piece of classic DT perfection.