THE ASTONISHING

Dream Theater's The Astonishing is a notable example of an album that requires a gestation period in order to appreciate. The album is long at over 2 hours long and seems extremely bloated on first listen, or even the first several listens. The story is easily understood with the lyrics, which include locations and characters, but the extensive amount of vocals can seem laborious to listen to. Isolated moments of melodic guitar solos and exciting ensemble playing by the band help break up the monotony, but don't seem to happen quite often enough. I imagine listeners could be too discouraged by an unsatisfying initial listen and the length to attempt to wade through the album again. However, after multiple listens, the various melodies start to stand out and, together with the interspersed instrumental parts, help give the album shape, and I find that I quite enjoy it.

First and foremost, I truly am glad Dream Theater challenged themselves by attempting another concept album - this time with a more of a musical vibe with a direct story and wide cast of characters. Whereas Scenes from a Memory delivered a power packed album of amazing playing that never seemed to take a back seat to the story, which itself is great, the goal of The Astonishing seems to be to allow the story to take center stage and let the band play the part of the orchestra. While it may not always work or please the fans, it is nice to see them inspired at this stage of their career and willing to take risks.

Despite the obstacles in accessing the album, I think there is a lot to enjoy. The band sounds great. In particular, tracks such as The Gift of Music, A Life Left Behind, and A New Beginning have passages of great ensemble playing that would stand out as highlights on other albums. LaBrie sounds great and succeeds in a difficult task of using different timbres with his voice for different characters without sounding silly; I find that each 'voice' is similar to inflections he uses on other albums. Petrucci shines with some intense and melodic guitar solos, such as on The Gift of Music, A Better Life, A Savior in the Squire, and When Your Time Has Come. I think Rudess plays a big part in the overall cinematic atmosphere of the album with his keyboard sounds and textures. He also has some great lead playing on When Your Time Has Come, A Life Left Behind, and Heaven's Cove. Several tracks have strong melodies and an unexpected emotional impact, such as When Your Time Has Come, Act of Faythe, A Life Left Behind, Chosen, The X Aspect, and A New Beginning.

The story itself is a bit unclear, if not underdeveloped. The overall plot is easy enough to follow along with and is an admirable attempt to place family struggles in the midst of a society level struggle, but a lot of questions remain. What exactly is Gabriel's power, and how does it relate to music? A lot of actions seem unearned and arbitrary. One character makes a hollow wish to trade his life for the survival of another character, but no such sacrifice is required for a happy ending. Another character is forgiven for murdering one character and almost murdering another character, without any growth. Other than a vague well wishing among the characters, it is hard to know what a listener is really supposed to get out of the story.

A few other flaws should be noted. The lyrics are often very blunt and can seem silly. Myung, unfortunately, seems as buried in the mix as ever. The second disc is notably weaker than the first disc with the best parts seeming to be reprises of themes from the first disc.

The bottom line is that this album provides an interesting experience of hearing a progressive metal band deliver a musical-style concept album and can reward the listener who chooses to dig into the album multiple times, even if the story is a bit underwhelming.