OCTAVARIUM

I'll keep this short and simple, since we have plenty of long song-by-song reviews here.

I've been a Dream Theater fan for years and I've loved every album of theirs. However, the only albums I consider masterpieces are Awake and Scenes From A Memory. This new album outranks the 2 prior masterpieces. Very much so, in fact.

This CD builds up emotion with every track that plays and the climax (Octavarium) is so good it has been said to make people cry from its beauty.

Let me just say that Octavarium (The song) has some of DT's most creative lyrics (Especially Full Circle) and this song deserves the honor of being a title track.

This song also has tighter songs, fewer solos, and better vocal melodies than every previous DT album. To me, fewer solos is a good thing because it makes the solos that do happen that much more significant.

Octavarium is a new direction for DT and I can't wait for them to change it again with their next album.