OCTAVARIUM

Now, I know this review may seem bias to those who seem to hate DT, but rest assured, I am an life-long DT fan.

So, why the low rating. The reason is that I would only give five stars to one DT album (Scenes From A Memory Metropolis Part II ). Therefore, this albulm must take a lower standing. Many other reviewers have stated that this is not a good album to recomend to a first time DT listener. I must agree. It is no more worthy of being a great albulm then Tales From Topographic Oceans(btw I love that album). Simply put, it is to 'out-there' for a casual prog listener to pick up and immediatly enjoy. Furthermore, the music doesn't seem to flow as it did in other albums. Each song on this album can stand alone as a masterpiece (especially Octavarium, a true prog masterpiece that will stand the test of time), but each seems disjoint from the other tracks. There are attempts to tie the album together, but these symbols are there for the sake of being symbolic. There is no reason behind it. Some songs(more appropriately, sections of songs) are even a little too metal for my tastes, and they throw off the balance of the entire album. If one were to argue that parts of Octavarium sounded like Master of Puppets, I would have a hard time debating that point, flawed as it is. The truth is, I would love to give this album 3 stars, which I feel it more richly deserves. However, when I look at the discriptions for these rating, I must lower my selection to 2 stars. Yes, this is a good album. Yes, it is also non-essential. But when I think of who would enjoy this album most, it is not the average prog fan. This is an album that is meant to be appreciated by DT fans, not an attempt by DT to widen its listener range. Therefore Collectors/fans only is an appropriate choice. Just for all those looking to my review as a reason why not to listen to Octavarium, understand this is a good piece of music and on a purely numerical ranking of 1-10, 10 being the best, this album rates a solid 7.