SYSTEMATIC CHAOS

I was initially a little hesitant about the new Dream Theater album, but I'm always welcome to suprises. Systematic Chaos is DT's most cohesive work since 2002's Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence. Whereas Train of Thought was one long metal song with little diversity and Octavarium's diversity reached the point where the flow was greatly interrupted, Systematic Chaos flows quite nicely which makes quite an enjoyable listen. It is darker and heavier than Octavarium, but not like Train of Thought. Mike Portnoy's AA suite continues here with "Repentence," a much mellower and calmer song than the last installments have been. This is a great song and probably my favorite on the whole album. The spoken confessions in the second part of the song are rather eerie and make for a fun listen. "Prophets of War" (note the pun) is an updated version of "Never Enough" and works much better than the latter. And don't forget the sick riffs on "The Dark Eternal Night." In all, Systematic Chaos is a great album- one of DT's better works. It possess the dramatic and symphonic edge that I feel have been missing from their albums a bit lately which I feel kind of brings back the vibe from their older albums. It is also worth mentioning that "In The Presence Of Enemies" is a great song- DT never lets us down with their epics.

The special edition packaging was well done too. The slipcase art was a little weird, but who cares? I like slipcases anyway. The DVD documentary was well done and very informative, funny and entertaining. It's obvious they had a good time recording this album, which definitely shows on the final product. I have not heard the 5.1 mix because I don't have anything to play it on to hear how special it is, but whatever- just play this album loud and you're good.

Standout songs: "In The Presence Of Enemies," "The Dark Eternal Night," "Repentance" DT Cheese Moment: The "dark master" section of "In The Presence Of Enemies, Pt. 2