DREAM THEATER

No, "Dream Theater" is not a masterpiece. Objectively speaking, this album is not as good as their releases in the past. It seems their creativity is drained, which is evidently true with their eponymous album title. I had high hopes for this album, being a fan of DREAM THEATER, and was excited of the prospect of several instrumentals and an epic track. "Dream Theater" does have a few worthy tracks, but to find them you have to sift through all the mundane music they generated for this album.

"False Awakening Suite" and "Enigma Machine" are the two instrumentals on this album, and they're fairly decent. Not quite as good as "Erotomania", "Stream of Consciousness", or "The Dance of Eternity", but they have merit. "False Awakening Suite" is very symphonic, dark, and reminiscent of the mood in "Black Clouds & Silver Linings". "Enigma Machine" is also dark, very heavy, and has catchy riffs. Again, some of it sounds like "Black Clouds & Silver Linings". Overall, these two are fairly attractive songs.

The single, "The Enemy Inside", is also a pretty good track. Not quite as good as "On the Backs of Angels", but it's heavier and has elements thrash (MEGADETH). Vocals could use some work, the riffs are a little basic from what you'd expect from DREAM THEATER, but they're decent. The solo in this song is pretty awesome, which makes for one of the top tracks on the album.

The epic track, "Illumination Theory", is what I looked forward to the most. DREAM THEATER has always put out good epic tracks ("A Change Of Seasons", "SDOIT", "Octavarium", "The Count of Tuscany") so I was expecting something in that vein. "Illumination Theory" took a while to appreciate because the song structure was so different from their other epics. I'd say that this track, after giving it some thorough listens, is the least best among their epics. The atmospheric string section is awesome, it felt out of place in the song though. Riffs are fairly strong, but it's nothing special given earlier works. It sounds like their previous album, "A Dramatic Turn of Events". The so-called 'Easter egg' at the end is a nice touch, but again, out of place. In my mind the song is over, then that part comes in and it's just unnecessary.

All the other songs are just fluff, nothing special; just your average DREAM THEATER songs that they crank out to meet the needs of the fans. All in all, it's an average DREAM THEATER album that should satisfy the fans.