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Rating:
Preface:
Those who frequent DeBaser regularly might be wondering, more or less politely: "was there really a need for another review on Dream Theater?" You'll find the answer at the end.
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I just finished listening to "Misunderstood" with headphones, brushed my teeth, and tucked myself into bed under the soft duvet, slowly drifting to sleep with the memory of John Petrucci & Company's notes. I'm lying on my back, and I feel my mind wander to the latest comment I read on DeBaser, while the solo notes grow increasingly softer, giving way to an ethereal mist that heralds sleep... "Damn!" The exclamation is simultaneous with my eyes flying open towards the dark ceiling. "But I've never written a review on Dream Theater!!"And there clarity returns all at once. And along with the frustration of not being able to jump out of bed and write something immediately – because tomorrow morning the alarm goes off at 6 – there is the anger of having already lost that blonde who was running semi-naked through the woods at the beginning of the night's first dream. But serenity returns shortly after. After deciding that tomorrow I’ll write about... well... about which album?
One of those containing the romantic and sweet "Wait for Sleep", "Anna Lee", "Through Her Eyes", "The Ministry of Lost Soul", or one of those with the muscular yet melodic "The Mirror", "Metropolis part 1", "In the Presence of Enemies"? Or one of those with the more neo-progressive "Lines in the Sand" with that moving solo, "Learning to Live" beautiful, or the triptych "Erotomania - Voices - The Silent Man"? Write about the entire concept-album "Metropolis part 2" or the one containing the pinkfloydian-genesisian-yessian suite "Octavarium", a homage to the greats of the past??
Those with guitar solos stunning in technique and originality like "Trial of Tears", "Surrounded", "The Spirit Carries On", or the already mentioned suite "Octavarium" for one of the most beautiful keyboard prog solos I've ever heard?
A stroke of genius!: a wonderful album, one of their best that contains all these forms: "Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence". Yes, decided, because this encompasses all the facets of their style. It has a really beautiful cover! The only flaw is that it's poorly recorded, the worst audio in a production almost always above average of what's out there. Don't ask me why this time it's like this, I don't know.
Dream Theater is either loved or hated, there are no middle grounds, almost like Juventus.
I admit that sometimes they've let themselves go in albums full of purely technical displays (Train of Thought for example) but it is also true that at the pinnacle of their artistic curve, they have gifted history with prog-metal masterpieces that have inspired many others. And even afterward they managed, at least until Portnoy's departure.
Now, onto the Work: almost everyone knows it is a double album and that it begins with the crackle of a stylus having left the groove of a vinyl, a connection with the previous record which ended just like that. Then, after a recognizable beginning among millions of records made of bell, bass, and arpeggiated guitar, it powerfully kicks off with "The Glass Prison". "Blind Faith" follows, which represents the low point of the production, light, catchy, and therefore tiresome after 10 listens. Misunderstood is a great melodic piece and precedes the best in my opinion, the dense "The Great Debate", which, beyond the content that may or may not agree on, dealing with the theme of abortion, is a phantasmagoric kaleidoscope of times, rhythms, original notes but with a classic aftertaste, the pinnacle of progressive interpretation in modern key. With the initial rhythm of an insistent bass, it carries and the John Petrucci solo at the end touches the peaks of originality and technical quality, literally gives me chills every time. You wait for it, after the keyboard solo, and when it arrives, it is pure ecstasy. The first CD concludes with a beautifully poignant "Disappear", which creates an atmosphere, enhanced by those notes at the beginning and end seemingly off-key.
At first listen, the suite seems like a joke, with that swirling of symphonic and 19th-century sounds; but then no, you understand they mean business, that it's a playful overture that preludes to a suite worthy of the Founding Fathers of prog. A suite that, after passing through six splendid chambers, returns at the finale to the initial theme this time in a rock key, to then conclude with a well-placed gong strike that reverberates, floats in the air, goes from left to right, fills the room you’re in, fading slowly to zero but leaving in the air the palpable soul of the whole complex precious composition.
It may be that much has already been written about DM on our DeBaser, that many will say more or less 'politely': "here’s yet another superfluous review". But I, a good Tuscan, preemptively respond: m'importanasega, this time I did it yes also for you, but above all for me.
Tracklist and Lyrics
02 Blind Faith (10:21)
Hear me, speaking
Asking why I even bother
Tell me, how you
Live from day to day
Take your time and look around
Is this utopia you've found
Sick of all of this
The suffering and we just carry on
Isn't it time we care and lose the hate
Understand our fears
But we do all that we can
Justify the means to an end
Sorry you must excuse me
I've painted my own Mona Lisa
She's fixed everything
Now I'm spoiled beyond my wildest dreams
Blind faith we have in you
Invisible
Which direction do we choose
Predictable
Take the streets, the beaten path
Our system works for whom I ask
Yeah I have it all
The bigger house
An iron fence to keep you out
When did we all let you down
So come Messiah show us how how
Our human spirit drowns
Don't think you hear me now
No sign of you around
What is it you hope to see
Blind faith we have in you
Invisible
Which direction do we choose
Predictable
Give us something we can use
Desirable
Cause you've done all you can do
Regrettable
And still life pushes on
With or without you
We've got to carry on
Our will, will guide us to
A place where we belong
Know there lies the truth
I am the believer who gives purpose on to you
I don't think we let you down
So come Messiah show us how how
Throw us a pure lifeline
I hope that you hear me
Too proud to be around
There's more to us than we see now
Blind faith we have in you
Invisible
Which direction do we choose
Predictable
Self ignorance, abuse
Desirable
Cause you've done all you can do
Incredible
03 Misunderstood (09:32)
Waiting
In the calm of desolation
Wanting to break
From this circle of confusion
Sleeping
In the depths of isolation
Trying to wake
From this daydream of illusion
How can I feel abandoned even when the world surrounds me
How can I bite the hand that feeds the strangers all around me
How can I know so many
Never really knowing anyone
If I seem superhuman
I have been
Misunderstood
It challenges the essence of my soul
And leaves me in a state of disconnection
As I navigate the maze of self control
Playing a lion being led to a cage
I turn from a thief to a beggar
From a god to God save me
How can I feel abandoned even when the world surrounds me
How can I bite the hand that feeds the strangers all around me
How can I know so many
Never really knowing anyone
If I seem superhuman
I have been
Misunderstood
Playing a lion being led to a cage
I turn from surreal to seclusion
From love to disdain
From belief to delusion
From a thief to a beggar
From a god to God save me
How can I feel abandoned even when the world surrounds me
How can I bite the hand that feeds the strangers all around me
How can I know so many
Never really knowing anyone
If I seem superhuman
I have been
Misunderstood
04 The Great Debate (13:45)
What if someone said
Promise lies ahead
Hopes are high in certain scientific circles
Life won't have to end
You could walk again
What if someone said
Problems lie ahead
They've uncovered something highly controversial
The right to life is strong
Can't you see it's wrong
Human kind has reached a turning point
Poised for conflict at ground zero
Ready for a war
Do we look to our unearthly guide
Or to white coat heroes
Searching for a cure
Turn to the light
Don't be frightened of the shadows it creates
Turn to the light
Turning away would be a terrible mistake
Anarchistic moral vision
Industries of death
Facing violent opposition
Unmolested breaths
Ethic inquisitions breed
Antagonistic views
Right wing sound bite premonitions
In a labyrinth of rules
Are you justified
Are you justified
Are you justified
Justified in taking
Life to save life
Life to save life
Taking life to save life
This embryonic clay
Wrapped in fierce debate
Would be thrown away
Or otherwise discarded
Some of us believe
It may hold the key
To treatment of disease
And secrets highly guarded
Are you justified
Are you justified
Are you justified
Justified in taking
Life to save life
Life to save life
Life to save life
Human kind has reached a turning point
Poised for conflict at ground zero
Ready for a war
Do we look to our unearthly guide
Or to white coat heroes
Searching for a cure
Turn to the light
Don't be frightened of the shadows it creates
Turn to the light
Turning away would be a terrible mistake
We're reaching
But have we gone too far
Harvesting existence
Only to destroy
Carelessly together
We are sliding
Someone else's future
Four days frozen still
Someone else's fate
We are deciding
Miracle potential
Sanctity of life
Faced against each other
We're divided
Should we push the boundaries
Or should we condemn
Moral guilt and science
Have collided
Turn to the light
We defy our own mortality these days
Turn to the light
Pay attention to the questions we have raised
05 Disappear (06:45)
Why, tell me the reasons why
Try, still I don't understand
Will I ever feel this again
Blue sky, I'll meet you in the end
Free them, free the memories of you
Free me, and rest 'til I'm with you
A day like today
My whole world has been changed
Nothing you say
Will help ease my pain
Turn, I'll turn this slowly round
Burn, burn to feel alive again
She, she'd want me to move on
See me, this place I still belong
Give chase, to find more than I have found
And face, this time now on my own
Days disappear
And my world keeps changing
I feel you here
And it keeps me sane
So I'm moving on
I'll never forget
As you lay there and watched me
Accepting the end
I knew you were scared
You were strong, I was trying
I gave you my hand
I said it's okay letting go time to leave here
And I'll carry on
The best that I can without you here beside me
Let him come take you home
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Other reviews
By Coelum
"'The Glass Prison' is powerful and fast and leads the listening to the beautiful 'Blind Faith,' which then gives way to the calmer 'Misunderstood.'"
"The album is 'too much,' and this time the quantity somewhat annoys the quality."
By Piccio
I believe this is an album worthy of being purchased, but it’s also true that only after many listens can its beauty be grasped.
It starts with a sequence of piano chords from the great Jordan Rudess that gives you chills on the spine from the very first listen.
By Dreamtheater
"Only after many hearings can you appreciate the beauty of this double effort."
"The final track is worth the price of the CD — beautiful, truly fascinating with a melancholic atmosphere."
By splinter
"Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence marks a serious turning point in Dream Theater’s music."
"An album worthy of the best Dream Theater, almost on par with Images And Words, Awake, and Scenes From A Memory."
