OCTAVARIUM

Ocatavarium is a long album - this is my only certainty related to this album. Not only it doesn't explore music in any way, it also gets monotonous at many points and sounds very unoriginal. For instance, Octavarium has many things in commune with the Cloudscape's self-titled that was released in 2005 as well. Perhaps the most notable innovation of Octavarium (is there are any) is the fact that during the recording process an orchestra was used... well ... the problem is that it never became useful in spite of having being used (if you know what i mean). The music isn't even symphonic metal although symphonic metal is based more on the instruments rather than the complexity. However, the word "bad" doesn't coincide with this release because we mustn't forget that this a Dream Theater album. I am not being snobbish, but since Dream Theater has used their fans with very complex and sophisticated music, this album might be underestimated by comparison with the other materials, instead of comparing it with the general musical context. The pluses of this record consist of the difference between the styles of the tracks and the oscillation of the atmosphere. For example, compare "The Root of All Evil" with "I Walk Beside You"! A summary of the record, as far as i see things, is:"The Root of all Evil" marks the beginning of the album and it continues the musical line of "Train of Thought", only this time with more feeling. It is followed by a simple piano/voice ballad entitled "The Answer Lies Within" - a very melancholic track indeed. The third song,"These Walls" is a sort of typical metal radio hit that is very dynamic and has some nice electronic key work. Then comes "I Walk Beside You", the opposite of the first melody. The second half of the record has an annoying groove metal guitar rhythm and it's called "Panic Attack", a suggestive name nonetheless, which is followed by "Never Enough",a obscure track with lots of "balls" (pardon my French). Finally some progressive rock can be heard on "Sacrificed Sons", but the enthusiasm of "Octavarium" takes my concentration away. Here we are then: OCTAVARIUM, a 24 minutes long song that can be spit in two:the first part is a ballad with psychedelic interventions while the second part is progressive metal all the way and has some interesting guitar/keyboard duet solo. At the end, the song returns to the melodic line of the debut only this time with a symphonic backup. In conclusion, eh, the least good album ever to be released by Dream Theater.