SYSTEMATIC CHAOS

This album has caused a lot of discussion on this forum and the least I could do was to give it some time before I 'll try to write this. Being a constant fan of DT and after a couple of hearings I feel ready to review their new work.

Before Octavarium every DT album had a main direction. Some were harder, some a bit pop, some were more prog. Don't get me wrong, all albums are complex, multi-level and in their way masterpieces. But you feel that every record comes from somewhere and goes somewhere, leaving you with a gapping mouth. But with Octavarium DT took a strange turn. Everything was coming from different directions. That felt strange but also made this album quite interesting and one of their best. So the question was "How they will catch you this time?"

I confess, after hearing a very few parts of this album on the Internet I had a fear that a repetition of a well known recipy will come to surface. But I stopped right there! I waited till the official release of the album, not paying any attention to the various reviews here and all over the net. And when I first listened to the whole album I was awe struck.

This time DT took everything to a new level. They provided a darker, heavier, more atmospheric album. Yes, it sounds different. Regarding what I previously mentioned, in this album every song comes from a different direction, deservingly making this an actual trip. I don't like to get this song by song and it will be unfair to just focus in some of them. Every track has a role in here to create this masterpiece and words are poor. They still have virtuoso technical parts, as heavy as it gets but they also give you beautiful atmosphering moments that this time are more in length. And they also get more political in some of the lyrics expressing more openly their beliefs. And if you ask me they speak the truth.

Every aspect of their greatness is kept here. Great guitars, thunderous and well put solos. I also feel that in this album you can enjoy more Myung basslines. Everything I could say about Portnoy's drums will be futile. He is by far the best drummer of our time and this album is just one more chance to understand this. Keys are perfect, voice is once again perfect with diversity and interesting twists. Very fresh work

Once you think that this band has done everything and you don't know what to expect of them, they just keep on surprising you. This is their best work since "Six Degrees..." and being very prog it should be kept on the home page of this site for a long time!

I feel that sometimes the aren't enough stars to rate an album...I can only end this by saying that they are the greatest prog metal band, they actually invented the whole thing by influencing EVERYONE and they are back!