Dream Theater
A Dramatic Turn Of Events

Starting from now, I will never give ratings to albums in my reviews (I risk not being very objective, giving hasty judgments that could change over time, and various other reasons...) I am also about to review the latest effort of the so gossiped-about Dream Theater, the first without the historic drummer Mike Portnoy, who left the band in September last year, replaced by Mike Mangini.

I used the term "gossiped-about" obviously referring to the countless and, in my opinion, unbearable criticisms that the band has been receiving consistently since "Train Of Thought". Personally, the most striking thing about the album's release was, aside from the album itself, the fact that it received mostly positive feedback, even from those fans who, for a couple of albums now, did nothing but bash them. It could be one of two things: either the trend of criticizing DT has simply passed (and we all know that trends eventually pass) or the band has indeed returned to playing with an approach that aligns their historic fans. While the first hypothesis is more debatable, the second is much more credible. Because if we listen carefully to the album and compare it with its predecessors, we can truly say that DT has returned to the approach that pleases their fans the most.

And on what basis can we say all this? By what criterion can we assert that DT has returned to make an album worthy of their name? From my personal analysis, it would seem that in this album, those excessive technical, metallic, and/or commercial overstretches that characterized the previous four works and didn't please many people as much, have been removed. When the heavy "Train Of Thought" was released, many accused Dream Theater of playing too much at being metalheads when instead metal should only constitute a slice of the Dream Theater sound, not to mention the excessive speed of the solos. The more melodic "Octavarium" ended up in the crosshairs for its too many blatant inspirations from various bands of the past and present and for its sometimes overly simple structures proposed by a band known instead for its compositional richness. "Systematic Chaos" also received criticism for sounding too little like Dream Theater due to overly commercial songs like "Forsaken" and "Prophets Of War" and metal forcing like "Constant Motion" and "The Dark Eternal Night". With "Black Clouds And Silver Linings," the reception was already more positive, likely due to a return to more clear prog-metal style structures with fewer commercial tracks, but there were still too many solos and too much thrash temptation demonstrated by songs like "A Nightmare To Remember" and "The Shattered Fortress."

And what happens here? Simple! We return, to the joy of many, to a greater balance among the elements, that balance which proved to be a real strength of albums like "Images And Words" and "Scenes From A Memory". All the typical elements of the Dream Theater sound find, in the various songs, the right space without any of them wanting to prevail over the others. The metal component is always present but in a moderate way, never suffocating the melody, the real strength of the album; if it seems to want to dominate at the beginning, as happens in "Bridges In The Sky", it is immediately scaled back. The technique here truly gives the impression of not being an end in itself: John Petrucci avoids firing excessively long, hyper-fast, and forced solos, the same goes for Jordan Rudess (the only case is in "Lost Not Forgotten," where one responds to the other excellently); technique thus returns to being at the service of creativity, and Rudess's keyboard performance is the best in several years: it had been a while since the maestro showed all his creativity fully; here it truly feels like listening to the Rudess of "Scenes From A Memory"; those imaginative sounds hadn't found so much space in years, probably because they were sacrificed in favor of solos; Petrucci and Rudess here can truly indulge in noteworthy dialogues. Lastly, not too many songs on the edge of commercialism appear; the only lighter and thus somewhat criticized episode is "Build Me Up, Break Me Down," where heavy metal riffs alternate with a Rudess in an unusual electronic guise and a good melodic chorus.

For the rest, the album strongly mirrors the approach DT had in the glorious '90s. If we pay attention, we can see how a good part of the songs quite evidently revisit the structures of some tracks from "Images And Words": "On The Back Of Angels" can be considered, for example, a new "Pull Me Under," with a regular pace without too many technicisms yet full of interesting ideas (especially from Rudess); "Lost Not Forgotten" has an almost entirely similar pace to "Under A Glass Moon." What to say about "Outcry": if it perhaps had a pinch more theatricality it could easily be considered a new "Metropolis"! Just as in the 1992 symbolic piece, the first minutes are relatively simple and melodic but give way to a long instrumental part where creativity and schizophrenia really skyrocket, with Petrucci and Rudess truly supreme. But for many, the standout piece is "Breaking All Illusions," for many a new "Learning To Live," perhaps a bit less original than the latter, okay, but still diverse in melodies; here, the central solo must be mentioned, which with its almost bluesy approach could closely recall that of "Lines In The Sand." "Bridges In The Sky" deserves a different discussion: the opening burps could have been avoided, the Gregorian opening is interesting, as well as the organ-style sounds Rudess proposes at times; a track that starts with very metal-oriented premises but the very melodic chorus and the not-too-long instrumental section seem to prevent the approach from becoming too much in the style of ToT.

And it's no less important to talk about the three splendid ballads the album gives us; it hadn't happened in over 10 years that a Dream Theater album contained up to three slow pieces. And I must say all three are very beautiful. In "This Is The Life" Petrucci shows his most emotional side, "Far From Heaven" is a splendid piano-and-voice track, truly able to touch the listener's heart; then there's my favorite, "Beneath The Surface," which offers an excellent combination between acoustic guitar and orchestral arrangements and features a truly splendid electronic solo by Jordan Rudess, very likely referencing that of "Lucky Man" by Emerson, Lake & Palmer.

Overall, I could describe the album as a perfect meeting point between old, intermediate, and recent Dream Theater: the sounds of a "Scenes From A Memory," the structures of "Images And Words," but also some more modern elements typical of the latest DT.

Perhaps we could define the album as a bit too self-referential and say it doesn't offer anything new, but one can't deny that it sounds a lot like Dream Theater, much more than its more recent predecessors (and this is coming from someone who also loves those DT). For me, it can be considered one of the best and most representative along with some of their albums from the '90s, and I know well what I am saying.

I must say that Portnoy's absence has benefited the band greatly: gone is the person who, in recent times, wanted to lead the band towards territories not well-liked by both fans and other band members, who considered him the main reason for the lack of compositional freedom within the band. Mike Mangini is a substitute absolutely worthy of note who in the album does a job perhaps still quite ordinary as the drum parts were already written when Portnoy was still around, but still well executed, and I think in the next albums he too could be an excellent inspirer who could also bring new ideas to the band. Myung's performance is without infamy nor praise, perhaps a bit anonymous. I've heard criticisms of James LaBrie that I didn't like very much; he may not be one of my all-time favorites, but on this album, his vocal performance is quietly valid and especially in the ballads, he truly gives his best, showing that he is far from done.

I'm finally happy to see my beloved DT pleasing almost everyone. Personally, I think they absolutely didn't deserve the criticism received with the previous albums, with which they attempted to deviate from the classic DT sound. But I knew this album had what it takes to make a splash.

However, I must also admit that this album captivated me immediately while with the previous ones it took me a while to understand what the band's approach and intentions were before fully appreciating them.

In any case, my mind is now there at the Assago Forum on February 21st: I will be super excited!!!