FALLING INTO INFINITY

This could have possibly been one of my favorite DT albums.I still play this just as much as my favorites of theirs, but there are many residing and inherent flaws. The album contains a bit of departure in sound.but the feeling is still there. This album reflects Dream Theater at their best and worst, which is why I must give it a three rating. This is the first album to feature Sherinian in the writing process. I liked his performance on the album.and it seemed he got a lot out of Dream Theater and made quite a successful solo career. Anyhow, here is the breakdown of the tracks.

'New Millennium' is such an awesome start to this album. The ambient guitar and keyboard opener just shows that this album is going to be different. The entire piece is atmospheric with a blend of styles topped off with some very creative solos. A true DT masterpiece.

'You Not Me' seemed pretty promising at first.but this was just a sweet illusion. I still like it but that's just coming from a fan and not somebody that is looking for a good first impression of this band. It's basically just any standard pop-rock song done well. It faces a lot of repetition and has really no direction making this a rather lacking piece.

'Peruvian Skies' grows on you after a while. It's another unique track brought to the table. Extremely slow in tempo, the beginning of mostly driven by an acoustic guitar and vocal work. The song gets very heavy in the end and has an awesome guitar solo that is followed by a very angry repetition of the chorus. This is yet another great song.

'Hollow Years' is a wonderfully crafted song. Another soft, slow tempo song here. This is where they did a slow song right. There was some repetition but it was in the name of progress of the song. The acoustic guitar solo is very nice and fluid. This track remains a favorite among DT's slower works.

'Burning My Soul' is a hunk of crap in my opinion and is part of the reason this album didn't get an incredible rating. This song is extremely boring, except for the little guitar line in the chorus. This one is mostly Petrucci repeating himself and the song structure contains nothing exotic out of the norm in regular rock music. All in all, this track is just ugly.

'Hell's Kitchen' is Petrucci at his highest. I think this song was written for his father as I have read somewhere, but I can't site the source, so don't take my word for it. The song is basically a solo spot for Petrucci and it is exceptionally beautiful. The keyboards also really hit their mark on this track for the first time on the album. This track is simply euphoric to experience, not to listen.

'Lines in the Sand'.yet another awesome classic that was created on this album. Atmospheric beginning.the intro is nearly 3 minutes of instrumental progression, which was just incredible. The chorus is really cool and features Doug Pinnick of King's X. This song is damn awesome.hard to describe, but this should be like by anyone.

'Take Away My Pain' is, for a lack of a more fitting adjective, decent. The intro is the best part.Portnoy does awesome, incredible drum dynamics. The chorus is catchy.but it's not much different from the other slow songs and is done just as well.. no better or worse.

'Just Let Me Breathe/Anne Lee' are a combo that I can't describe separately.I hate these songs. 'Just Let Me Breathe' just sounds like any pissy metal band and Anna Lee is just an extremely directionless slow song. It is very unprofessional not to go further into describing these songs but that is the best I can do.

'Trail of Tears' is one of my favorite DT tracks. This had everything you could ever want in a progressive song wrapped together in a nice package. This one kicks off with an atmospheric intro like 'New Millennium' and then is complimented with soothing vocal work through out the piece and remains some of the best work by LaBrie, at least in my personal opinion. The chorus is wonderful and fits well with this 'three-part' song. 'It's Raining in Heaven' contains the intro and just the verses and chorus which is beautifully crafted. 'Deep in Heaven' contains most of the solos and all the instrumental works after the vocals are finished and is followed by 'The Wasteland', which is possibly Dream Theater's most melancholic of all their depressing sections. Just one of the most diverse songs's done by Dream Theater or any other prog-metal band.

This is one of my favorite DT albums.yet has a lot of crap that the record company imposed on them. If you are a fan of this band in any way.5 stars.get it. If you aren't a 'fan' then maybe you should avoid it simply because of the crap that bogs down this effort. It's an extremely unique album in their repertoire to check out and features the great Derek Sherinian for the one and only time in the writing process. You can sense the frustration in the music at the time the band was going through some tough times, making this a very emotional record. Who knows, I could change this to a four someday.

Sources: 'Falling Into Infinity' album sleeve.

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