SYSTEMATIC CHAOS

Unlike Octavarium, John Petrucci plays lots of solos, from slow emotional solos to downright shredding! The guitar solo on "In the precense of Enemies PT 1" in particular has some really good emotional playing by Petrucci.

John Myung´s bass has (at long last!) been turned up in the mix and is really noticeable on songs like "The dark eternal night"

James LaBrie experiments quite a bit on the most commercial song on the album, "Prophets of war" and there are parts where he does a brilliant Freddie Mercury imitation! The good news is that there are no songs as commercial as "I walk beside you" off Octavarium. On "Foresaken" his voive reminds me of the Images and Words album, he is on top form.

This album needs to be heard on headphones to fully appreciate. There is actually a lot of playing by Rudess (from ragtime piano to guitar soloing on keyboards) After a few listens I realize that Jordan Rudess plays a very strong role on this album.

Mike Portnoy is brilliant as usual, spectacular drumming throughout.

From the slow, almost Floydish "Repentance", to the bombastic "Dark eternal night", Dream Theater covers a lot of musical ground. Some call this "catering for everyone´s tastes" but I call it "musical diversity"

"The Ministry of lost souls" is my favourite track on this album, starting slowly and building up to an instrumental high, which reminds me of Metropolis in many ways.

Without a doubt, their strongest album since Scenes from a memory. Only time will tell which album is actually better.

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