THE ASTONISHING

I get why a lot of people dislike this. Overused keyboards, a second act that mostly feels like a huge interlude, and a guy that interprets seven characters (Arjen Lucassen gets it). However, this album does deserve four stars anyway.

Dream Theater being a ***progressive*** band, they were really slow in their progression. They make a double concept album that clocks well over two hours with a story that, actually, I quite enjoy! Some moments like the music-player-bulls**t could have been better worked, but this is not a five-star album anyway. However, I get with this album something I get with Yes a lot: I need to listen to it numerous times to start to really grasp why the album is great. The problem is Yes' albums don't last more than two hours, so the number of times grows considerably.

Despite interpreting seven different people, LaBrie does an excellent job on that! Despite excessive keyboards, Rudess is brilliant here! Musicianship stays awesome, and that includes Mangini too! He's not Portnoy, get over it.

Personally, I saw this performed live. And it was one of the best shows of my life! Perhaps that is the reason I can really appreciate the album, for I saw the story being told by those who created it, in the way they wanted me to see it. Whenever I listen to the album, the show comes alive in my memory, and it feels really great!

The reason this doesn't get five stars are the ones I pointed at the beginning (and a couple more maybe), but four stars are definitely reasonable here.