SYSTEMATIC CHAOS

Octavarium was an album that caused extreme controversy among many fans. And I'm sure Systematic Chaos will be also a heated and debated topic, but most of these discussions will all turn to the bright side and many people will notice the brilliance of the album DT put this time. If Octavarium was a surprise, this my friends, is a shocking and brilliant surprise.

I heard previously both Constant Motion and The Dark Eternal Night, and ever since then I was sure we were in for a threat. Constat Motion contained some aggressive Metallica- esque vocals from JLB with keyboards backing the dynamic melody, and The Dark Eternal Night contained some of DT's heaviest riffing and drumming ever. But for my surprise, these 2 tracks didn't prove to be a worthy representation of the album. These 2 songs are great, but they are far from the best pieces of music found in this album. Let me ellaborate.

The album opens with the first part of the face-melting new DT epic, "In the Presence of Enemies", it starts with some classic DT instrumental work, well-crafted and well-paced. We are shown glimpses of the beautiful melodies that will be found in the song later on. After the 5-minute mark, James LaBrie makes his appereance with some focused and awesome singing. His voice is completely healed and it's shown here. From this point, the song starts to build up in a way only DT can tell with their instruments. The lyrics are very dark and LaBrie's vocal delivery adds to the mood of the song. After a great build up and some complex DT instrumental passages the song ends with just wind blowing, the same way In The Presence of Enemies Pt.2 begins, but for now the wind just fades out, and leaves us some chance to enjoy the other tracks on the album.

"Forsaken" is a pleasant surprise, it begins with some great piano work from Jordan, and later on it starts to build up to become a powerful pop metal assault. James LaBrie's delivery here is awesome as well, the chorus is the best part on the song, the guitar solo is well placed and well timed, and the lyrics really fit the general atmosphere of the song. After 5 minutes, we will listen to a familiar guitar riff.

"Constant Motion" caused some controversy between fans when it was released by Roadrunner Records for a free download. It reminded everyone of "As I Am", but this my friends, is indeed quite a tribute to old Metallica, but delivered in classic DT style. The guitar riff is heavy, the drums are fast and furious and JLB delivers the verses with some James Hetfield influence. The chorus is great, and it reminded me of "Awake" in some ways, for example, the patch Jordan Rudess uses in the background of the chorus, great stuff. The instrumental section at the middle is DT at it's most classical representation, with a memorable guitar solo from Mr. John Petrucci. 3 for 3, we move on to another previously listened track.

"The Dark Eternal Night" is arguably one of DT's heaviest songs ever. As Portnoy said, this album will contain "skull-crushing riffs", and I'm sure that this my friends, is what he was talking about. The verses are unlike anything DT's done, but I'm glad, as one of the things that got me so deep into DT is the ability to experiment with various sounds, and do it well. The chorus is quite catchy, and the instrumental passages in the middle remind me a lot of "The Dance of Eternity" from Scenes from a Memory. There's even a rag-time piano section! The song ends with some great continuum work from Jordan and heavy riffing in the background. As I said earlier, this is far from the best songs on the album, but it's a great song on it's own.

We move on to another great surprise "Repentance" the 4th delivery in the AA saga. The song opens with an extremely familiar bass line (Yes This Dying Soul, I'm looking at you), and it even quotes the first lines of the lyrics of the previously mentioned song (Yes, This Dying Soul, you cannot avoid your destiny MWHAHAHAHA) but afterwards, it carries on with a haunting piano driven piece, very Pink Floyd and Porcupine Tree-esque. LaBrie's delivery is perfect, and after a few minutes we get to listen to a lot of spoken passages by many people, including Steven Wilson from Porcupine Tree. the song ends with a haunting chorus from Jordan leading the rest of the band into a spine-tingling finale with a spoken passage. Worthy addition to the saga, and truly a chance to breathe fresh air when the full suite is performed live.

Immideately, we get to listen a familiar synth/piano line from the gift video from Mike Portnoy, only that this time with vocals. "Prophets of War" may be the "Never Enough" of Systematic Chaos, in terms it is kind of Muse influenced. But fear not my friends, this track is awesome, far better than Never Enough. The riff is catchy, and the chorus chord progression is well-crafted. The chants work perfectly in the heavier sections of the song. The verses has some"Disco Queen" from Pain of Salvation influence. The song is well written, and it seems lyrics tell us something too, as the topic is the war from Iraq the world is living today.

Then we move on to the last 2 tracks of the CD, and arguably, some of the best music Dream Theater has ever done. "The Ministry of Lost Souls" opens with a simple, yet awesome string melody driven by Jordan. Then it begins to develop as a piano/guitar driven ballad with beautiful lyrics, one of Petrucci's best efforts in the last years. "Remember me, I gave you life" chorus is truly gorgeous, but you might say "A 15 minutes ballad? Boring..." Fear not friends, after some minutes the song takes classic Dream Theater direction, great solos by Jordan and John, followed by a "out of this world" keyboard-guitar unison and later on the reprise of the beginning theme. The song takes a much more epic and melodic atmosphere, and ends truly grand. A memorable guitar solo by John Petrucci at the end, with some tasteful Jordan string and piano playing in the background. This song is destined to be a Dream Theater, as it reminded me of the Images and Words days.

It's time for the grand finale, we get to hear a familiar wind blowing sequence. It's time to complete the face-melting epic that began a few tracks ago. After some haunting instrumental work, LaBrie enters scene with some memorable vocal lines, until the song takes a dark path into the creeping chorus "Dark Master inside..." that makes my skin chill to no end. The song starts to build-up, the lyrics become darker and darker, until we get another classic Dream Theater instrumental passage. Later on the main ITPOE theme is reprised, and the song achieves it's maximum glory, by closing in a grand and epic way, just like "Octavarium" the song. This song is also destined to become a top 10 Dream Theater song, and a departing point for the new progressive rock and metal in future generations to come.

This was a pleasant CD my friends, it shows Dream Theater, after 21 years is still on form, they can still make memorable music and surprise us. I had an enormous smile after listening to all of the songs contained in here, and I'm sure most of you will be just the same.