Dream Theater
Octavarium

THE REVIEW

They're back. After the fantastic 'Train Of Thought,' the masters return to the scene with an album that has been described as a summary of their entire career, also being the last one with the Atlantic label.

But setting aside the aura of mystery surrounding this project (talks of the golden ratio used in the songs, various self-celebratory citations in the lyrics, and more) what truly interests us is the music. The music, which has rendered the DTs immortal since the first loved/hated album with Dominici on vocals, in this 'Octavarium' leaves one a bit puzzled. The first two tracks slip by without a trace, and in fact, "Answer Lies Within" is downright annoying with its overly sweet chorus. With the third track, "These Walls," a smile returns, only to plunge into the sheer mediocrity of "I Walk Beside You" which wouldn't look out of place (and that's not a compliment) on MTV. The fifth track is by far the best moment of the album, "Panic Attack" opens with a compelling bass riff from the unfortunate Myung, who until now had hardly been heard, carrying on with truly enjoyable vocal experiments accompanied by consistently powerful riffing. It moves on to "Never Enough" which musically contains some interesting moments (an excellent stopped harmonics riff that accompanies the effected vocals in the middle of the song, as well as the lengthy instrumental passage, almost a solo, leading to the final verses) but whose vocal lines did not completely convince me.

A prologue of vaguely hypnotic radio voices leads into the penultimate song "Sacrificed Sons." 10 minutes or more that could easily have been 6 if the DTs hadn't overly stretched the first part of the track; in the end, a track that despite containing some nice passages scattered here and there, doesn't leave much for the listener. And finally, the title track, "Octavarium," with its 24 minutes. The beginning is in Pink Floyd style, with highly stretched atmospheres and a seventies guitar, but for the first 4-5 minutes, there's very little of a song, and even later, the piece drags out wearily with vocal lines repeated ad nauseam. In short, it is not "A Change of Seasons" but an ordinary DT song with verses pedantically repeated until you wish to turn off the player; you have to wait until the 12th minute to hear a variation, a nice Petrucci solo that introduces a more rhythmically sung second part. From here until the 20th minute there's the best part of the piece, almost entirely instrumental with Petrucci's guitar weaving threads of 70s prog flavor. The conclusion is once again slow and drawn-out, but you can do without listening and stop at the 20th minute because after there's a long solo accompanied by a keyboard orchestration that adds nothing to the rest.

In conclusion, it cannot be said that it is a bad album, but one was obliged to expect something better.