SYSTEMATIC CHAOS

The production and mixing on this album blew me away.. i honestly feel that this is their best sounding CD to date (sonically).

Now that those two points are aside lets move on to the actual review:

In the Presence of Enemies PT 1: What a great opener.... the first 5 minutes are what makes me love this band, pure instrumental chaos...... even though a riff sounds a bit like a riff from "Sacrificed Sons" in the beginning.... From the vocal melody to the bass line, this song really kicks ARSE and when conjoined with PT 2 it really can stand up to "A Change of Seasons" or "Octavarium". I can say I was blown away the first time I heard this song, just because everything about it though not entirely new or different was so refreshing to my ears. Hard to explain I guess.

Forsaken: I love the piano line into the typical alternative metal gutiar riff..... James sounds amazing... perhaps the lyrics in the chorus are cheesey.. however great vocal melodies and huge chorus followed by a really beautifully phrased guitar solo... overall solid track from Dream theater, just nothing especially special...

Constant Motion: By now, everyone and their mother has heard this track... besides the obvious "hetfield" inspired vocals and metallica esque parts this song again was refreshing to hear, atleast to me. You can really hear the bass punch through on this track... The second verse has a great groove and feel, the chorus while isnt their best, is different and listenable.... the instrumental part is where this song really shines.. great groove between the drums and bass, followed by a really well written guitar solo, compared to the likes of "Lie" or even "under a glass moon". I kind of like this keyboard solo, except for the odd middle section.... doesn't make sense in this song... decent track, nothing special... not a good representation of dream theater as a single... people may get the wrong idea about they're about..

The Dark Eternal Night: A lot of bass drumming from Mike Portnoy, heavy 7-string riffing, Very Phil Collins sounding chorus, long instrumental break, a la heavier dance of eternity or something, followed by a super wank fest by JP, outro is like misunderstood, unnecessary... good track at best

Repetance: Very eerie, dark, spacey sounding song, with the Riff from this dying soul's verse serving as the main musical Motif throughout... I like the lyrics, chorus is good, middle section is long with a lot of voices (repenting??), followed by OOOOs and AAAh's and a thick ass bass tone, i like it... great track

The Prophets of War: WELL, this track will probably be flamed by a lot of dream theater fans. I personally like it. Maybe it is muse influenced?? I don't listen to them so I wouldn't know... but the song instantly connected with me... with the shouts in the chorus, to the mellow, acoustic strumming breakdown with james..... and the odd-ball verse... its all gravy to my ears...

The Ministry of Lost Souls: You know the beginning reminded me a lot of the title track (8vm).... with a beautiful chorus.. at the 7 minute mark it turns into complete Dream Theater mode very reminiscent of trading of solos a la..... Six Degrees and Scenes...... then into a very Liquid Tension eqsue unison... this is perhaps one of my favorites.. Mike Portnoy said he wanted this ablum to have balls, but this track is just a beautiful piece of music, very graceful..

In the Presence of Enemies PT 2: Starts slow, instantly picks up, soaring chorus.....followed by like the middle riffing found in "the glass prison", then a long instrumental breakdown and the JP solo in this song made me a smile for some reason.....good closer and a great conclusion to this 25 minute epic...

This is a great way to start off on RoadRunner, everything on this album in some ways is a new and refreshing departure for Dream Theater even though it is your typical Dream Theater.. the album has their best mixes by far.. and i can honestly say, it might be their best cd since dare I say, Images and Words. I am not some ranting fanboy.... because it took me awhile for me to warm up to ToT and 8vm, which are well below, Images & Words, Awake, and Scenes...

kudos dream theater

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