DREAM THEATER

It sucks when you find out you might just be wrong about your favourite band. When Portnoy left amid claims Dream Theater needed to take a break and freshen up, I thought it may have just been a bleep on the radar and this band would continue putting out awesome album after awesome album that they have done since Scenes From A Memory.

And then ADToE came along and it fell flat, but forgiven by me due to the robotic drumming making the album feel a little dull.

Two years later and I am so thankful that Petrucci didn't program the drum tracks for this eponymous release otherwise I think I would cry. Thankfully Mangini brings a little (albeit still robotic) humanity back into the rhythm section and restores some faith in this album for me.

It's not that the songs on here are bad - I actually find all of them great - the riffs are hard hitting, the melody is great, a couple of songs (THE LOOKING GLASS and ALONG FOR THE RIDE) are fantastic - it just feels like the band are going through the motions.

The epic ILLUMINATION THEORY feels more like 2 songs stuck together and a symphony to make the listener say "YAY 20 MINUTES!" than actually delivering something meaningful. Could it be that they're truly trapped inside this Octavarium?

It's not like I don't like this album. I am listening to it continuously, but would I introduce someone to the prog world using this album? Doubtful.

2.5 stars. It's good, not essential, and I think would only make fans of the band happy