SYSTEMATIC CHAOS

The best way to rate an overhyped album is to look on it through a prism of time. Obsession of first months sapped, and now we can listen to it without this emotional overdose (positive or negative ? choose the one side you like most). The truth is always somewhere in the middle.

OK, it's stupid to expect for a new SFAM or I&W. Times are changing, and DT have new idols now ? MUSE instead of YES and METALLICA instead of RUSH. Floydian notes didn't go anywhere, but they're less noticeable (thanks God they haven't ripped another PF stuff this time). Some songs are great (25 minutes of epic are quite impressive despite some obvious clichés thrown here and there), some are not ("Forsaken", "Repentance" and "Prophets of War"), but it's all so subjective, you know?"Dark Eternal Night" and "Constant Motion" both sound extremely cool (yes, I kept my ears closed to the fact of blatant METALLICA rip- off and still do), and La Brie is better than he had ever been since "Awake"! "The Ministry of Lost Souls" is another good song, with predictable structure (ballad/instrumental vvackery/ballad coda) and earworm-like tune.

The problem is that I didn't like the album. I listen to it from time to time, but it's hardly my fave release (one of the worst from DT, to be fairly honest). It's better than "Octavarium", but it's the same way 'poorly average' in the same time. Not recommended for beginners, not recommended for early DT fans - feel free to pass it by.

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