SYSTEMATIC CHAOS

Dream Theater has been taking the easy way already for the previous two albums, Train Of Thought and Octavarium which essentially indicated lack of inspiration within the band. Still having compositionally strong moments there and here (like Endless Sacrifice and the epic Octavarium), the overall mood has been a little tired. It's like they've found the ultimate DT formula (technical stretching, basic pop/rock choruses, heavy riffs, etc.) and doing it in a very calculated way, mostly without inspiration. This time they did this album probably while listening to radio, there's absolutely nothing new here, only some "influences" (rip-offs in my opinion) from other bands. I wonder if they keep the band going anymore because of any other reason than money.

Well, perhaps I should say a few more detailed comment about the album. The first minutes of the first track actually promise a pretty good album (if not the most interesting), but right after them you come into the first vocal part, and it just gets boring as hell. This keeps going on for the rest of the album with the exception of The Dark Eternal Night which is listenable for the sake of heaviness (some decent double-bass drumming and seven-string riffing), but doesn't get too interesting either, and is equipped with the most embarrassing DT vocals ever (LaBrie has just too good technique to do such distorted vocals and should quit doing them before actually damaging his voice). Constant Motion has a nice chorus but most of the song is trashy Metallica rip-off (and who cares about Metallica anymore anyway?). Repentance is deadly BORING. The first six minutes of In The Presence Of The Enemies Pt.2 is OK with spacey vocal section, but the silly lyrics are disturbing ("Dark master, my guide, I will die for you", WHAT?!) and the rest of the song is unmemorable instrumental self-indulgence and in the ending section an unnecessary repeating of previous themes just for the sake of being an epic. The songs I left unmentioned are completely unessential in the DT catalogue as well. And there's one more complaint: now that LaBrie has regained his incredible range that we witnessed during the Octavarium world tour and especially on the Score live recording, why the hell isn't he using it? The vocal performance here is disappointing, it's like he had done the vocals without warming up, just doing some ordinary things. Probably it's because he's as tired as the rest of the band, not willing to explore and break his limits anymore.

If there would be one word to describe this album, it would be: TIRED.