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Dream Theater - Systematic Chaos CD (album) cover

SYSTEMATIC CHAOS

Dream Theater

 

Progressive Metal

3.33 | 1895 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

kerio
4 stars First of all I think every time a band like DT (representative for their style) releases a new album everyone is expecting a good product.

For me this album is a good one, not their best but a good one. The first impression was, like others reviewers observed, that the album combines different styles and every song is distinctive to other. The long intro on the first track is very well chosen and creates a good start for the album.La Brie voice sounds very interesting and more adequate on experimentation than on Octavarium (Bono style on some tracks) and gives a strong personality to the songs. I like very much the new sound of John Myung bass, sound who reminds me the sound of Warwick bass guitars,a sound very well balanced on tracks (distinctive but not pregnant).Jordan Rudess is also present ,but his presence is more subtle and gives the atmosphere of the tracks by difference to Octavarium where his presence was more evident.Portnoy ,as usual great ,impressive double-drumming (heavier than Train of Thought) , remains the soul of DT and one of the best drummers of his generation.Petrucci completes the circle with good guitar playing in the same manner as he did on previous albums, nothing unusual to me. As highlights I would pick In The Presence Of Enemies, Constant Motion and Repentance. A weak point, a song that sounds totally inappropriate to this album is in my opinion Prophets of war. Overall the album is dark with strong riffs, very quick drumming and with a huge production. Again the technique won over the sensibility of interpretation,wich is not a bad thing after all, but I think the good times for DT are about to begin once again.

kerio | 4/5 |

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