Progarchives, the progressive rock ultimate discography
Dream Theater - Falling into Infinity CD (album) cover

FALLING INTO INFINITY

Dream Theater

 

Progressive Metal

3.35 | 1703 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

rpe9p
3 stars Insert joke about what dream theater is falling into with this album.

While this album was a low point for dream theater, it does have some excellent moments and does not deserve all of the hatred that it gets. The making of this album was a tough time for the band where they were being put under a lot of pressure by the record label which can be clearly seen in the music. Listeners can clearly hear the differences in the tracks where the band was allowed to expand on their ideas freely and creatively, and those where they were being forced to write something which would be more commercially marketable. For this reason, I think it is especially important to review this album on a song by song basis.

New millennium is a good opening to the album, in the vein of the heavier stuff we have seen from dream theater. This is a good prog metal song, with the quality playing we would expect from dream theater after their previous two albums. 8.5/10

You not me is just a bad song, one of my least favorite by the band. This was originally a song called you or me but the record label brought in Desmond Child to re-write the song and turn it into a marketable heavy-pop song. There is nothing progressive or interesting in this song at all, I normally just skip it. 1/10

Peruvian skies is a track that I have come to like a lot. The song starts off slowly with some emotional vocals, then transitions into a hard rocking part with a great solo by petrucci. We get to see some more great instrumentals by the band and some good emotional vocals in this powerful song. 9/10

Hollow years is another pop-oriented single, but dont let that turn you away. It is a beautiful acoustic ballad, and while it may not be prog at all it is a song I love to listen to. This song may make the album seem inconsistent, but if dream theater was going to be forced to write music to appeal to the mainstream audience, I am happy to see them make a beautiful song like this. 8.5/10

Burning my soul takes the album back to the metal side of dream theater. I am not a huge fan of metal and I can appreciate some of dream theater's heavier stuff, but this song does absolutely nothing for me. Even metal fans I expect will find this song to be uninteresting. 4/10

Hells kitchen is a fairly short instrumental song, but probably the high point of the album in my opinion. This song features great playing by petrucci and is a great example of the beautiful instrumentals that I love to hear from dream theater. 10/10

Lines in the sand continues right where hells kitchen left off with great powerful instrumentals and a hard rocking chorus. It is the second longest on the album and is just a great song in every way. While they may not have been able to control the direction of the entire album, the band was still allowed a chance to shine on songs like this. This is classic dream theater progressive metal. 9.5/10

Take away my pain is a song john petrucci wrote about the death of his father and it contains some very emotional lyrics. There is nothing complex or outstanding about this song, but I think it does a decent job of capturing the feeling of losing a loved one and while its nothing special, I cant criticize it. 7.5/10

Just let me breathe is another heavier song with lyrics that clearly express the band's frustration with the restrictions the record label was putting on their creativity. It references their previous song take the time by reversing the chorus saying they are being told to just close your mind you can find all you need with your eyes. This song doesnt do much for me, but it clearly shows the frustration of the band, specifically how portnoy felt about the album. 6/10

Anna lee is another softer song with piano and soft vocals from labrie. It is another ballad similar to take away my pain and similarly I have nothing particularly good or bad to say about it. 7.5/10

Trial of tears is the longest song on the album and another excellent prog song. It is a softer epic with more great playing by all members of the band. This really could have been a great album if the band was allowed to let loose like this throughout the whole thing. 9.5/10

Overall, this album is totally inconsistent, but that does not make it bad. There are several great songs on this album that make it worth listening to and I would recommend this album to someone who isn't a big metal fan over Train of Thought, Systematic Chaos, and Octavarium. I would like to give this album 4 stars just to indicate that I think it is underrated, but I think good, but non-essential is a perfect description of the album.

rpe9p | 3/5 |

MEMBERS LOGIN ZONE

As a registered member (register here if not), you can post rating/reviews (& edit later), comments reviews and submit new albums.

You are not logged, please complete authentication before continuing (use forum credentials).

Forum user
Forum password

Share this DREAM THEATER review

Social review comments () BETA







Review related links

Copyright Prog Archives, All rights reserved. | Legal Notice | Privacy Policy | Advertise | RSS + syndications

Other sites in the MAC network: JazzMusicArchives.com — jazz music reviews and archives | MetalMusicArchives.com — metal music reviews and archives

Donate monthly and keep PA fast-loading and ad-free forever.