TRAIN OF THOUGHT

So this is the latest Dream Theater output. As a kind of Dream Theater fan I bought it right after it's release. What can I say about it? Yes, I was and still are kind of disappointed about "Train of Thought" and I have several reasons.

First of all, yes after "Six Degrees..." everybody could imagine that their style could become a bit "heavier" but who really thought about such a change? I really liked the heavier (in comparison to other DT songs of course) songs on "Six Degrees..." such as "The Glass Prison" but after hearing "As I am" I got the impression that Dream Theater is trying to approach a Metallica style and sound. "As I am" definitely reminds me of Metallica, refering to the instrumental and the vocal parts. No Dream Theater typical instrumental breakouts on the first song and James LaBrie works as a Metal "shouter". The second song "This Dying Soul" seems to be a kind of continuation of "The Glass Prison" from "Six Degrees..." because you can find several quotations or whole parts of this song in here. And just like the first song, this one as well is missing some real instrumental jams and solos. I even think that the "shouter" parts on this one can be really annoying, too metal, different to former Dream Theater songs. The third song finally brings the long awaited instrumental part I was hoping for. In general "Endless Sacrifice" is one of the best songs on this album not only because of the cool instrumental jam wich lasts for several minutes. Also the rest of the song is more remeniscent of former DT releases. A good song and the instrumental part is really great, one of Dream Theater's best so far but unfotunately vey rare on this album. "Honor thy father" begins with being silmilar to Metallica again then comes a short break with a typical DT solo and again, Metallica and normal Metal at the end. "Vacant" is a short acoustic introduction to the following highlight of the album. "Stream of Consciousness" is a 11 minute instrumental and one of Dream Theaters best songs of all time, at least in my opinion. The term "stream" is not incidentally chosen, the whole song is structured like a stream, one main melody that carries through the song wich constantly raises. The guitar solo by John Petrucci always makes my wonder: how fast can a guitar be played? Mike Portnoy seems to be on some strange substance because his drumming is more than awesome on this song, maybe his best performance so far. "In the name of God" is also one of these songs that seem to be pure metal, at least most of the time, the last minutes, approximately 4, are very good and just like I got to know and like Dream Theater.

In conclusion we note that one really awesome "Stream of Consciousness", a really long amazing instrumental part and a good second half of a song is not enough for 4 Stars. And comparing to other Dream Theater releases this one for sure is one of the weaker ones. It's simply not what I have in mind when thinking about Dream Theater, with some memorable exceptions like mentioned above. It's a pity...Dream Theater is able to sound much better. Leave this one out and begin with "Metropolis Pt. II" or "Imags and Words". Maybe later you can also buy this one but please don't start with this one...