Dream Theater
Falling Into Infinity

THE REVIEW

Released in 1997, "Falling Into Infinity" is the most controversial album in the history of Dream Theater. The album in question was heavily criticized by fans because it features much more commercial sounds compared to their previous masterpieces "Images And Words" (1992) and "Awake" (1994).

I must say it's true, many easy-listening tracks were composed during the album's recording sessions (as you can tell by listening to the fan club album Cleaning Out The Closet), such as the ballads "Take Away My Pain", one of the most beautiful tracks on the album, and "Hollow Years" (which honestly I've never liked as it is too "sugary"), "You Not Me", which, without exaggeration, I define as one of the worst pieces ever written by Dream Theater, and "Just Let Me Breathe", which presents good hard rock, but ultimately proves a bit boring and repetitive.

The best songs on the album are those that highlight the group's progressive vein (except for the opener "New Millennium", which is listenable, but doesn't leave a mark). I'm talking about "Peruvian Skies", a slow song that creates very suggestive atmospheres, the aggressive "Burning My Soul", and the short instrumental "Hell's Kitchen", which alternates the virtuosity of the four instrumentalists with goosebump-inducing emotions (which, unfortunately, Dream Theater will no longer be able to give us after the album "Metropolis Pt.II", except in rare cases).

But the true masterpieces are found in the two suites of the album: "Lines In The Sand" and "Trial Of Tears".
The first is opened by an excellent keyboard part by Derek Sherinian, and alternates prog elements with the commercial elements of the previously mentioned songs for twelve minutes, never resulting in predictability, thanks also to a guitar riff played for almost the entire song, fast keyboard scales, and drum rolls.
Despite this, the best song on the album is the concluding "Trial Of Tears", one of the few songs to feature lyrics by bassist John Myung, who writes true poems for each of his songs (see "Learning To Live" and "Lifting Shadows Off A Dream"). In this song, incredibly high peaks of emotion are reached, especially in the middle part "Wasteland" and the wonderful chorus. After hearing this song, you are left with a feeling of emptiness...

In conclusion, we are facing a very good album, certainly not the best by Dream Theater, but still very enjoyable. The actual rating would be a 3.5, but I leave it at 3 because of the many mediocre songs present within it.