Dream Theater
Systematic Chaos

What have Dream Theater given to the world of music? Some think a lot, others think nothing. I believe that starting from the '90s, the world of progressive rock has experienced significant development. Especially thanks to bands that, even if drawing from the big names of previous decades, have given a remarkable push to the genre. I'm talking about bands like Anglagard or Anekdoten from Sweden, or Echolyn and Miriodor in America, and in our country, very important realities like Finisterre. Even remote lands like Indonesia have produced bands of notable value like Discus. Not that all these groups necessarily said something new, but they have been very important for the developments and rediscovery of the genre and to give impetus to new bands to still express themselves with this language.

In these same '90s, America saw another movement, defined as "Progressive Metal" which had as its leading proponent, with dozens and dozens of followers, Dream Theater. They too did not say much new, but their HUGE sales volumes certainly favored an approach to progressive rock, especially from the most curious who, after listening to certain themes, wanted to delve deeper into the subject and projected themselves towards more definable progressive. So after the significant wave of the album "Images and Words," Dream Theater found themselves facing a strange market that demanded from the band, in a fragmented and confusing manner, prog, metal, and prog-metal together. From this strange fusion of demand arose a great fluctuation of results from the group, which seemed to swing based on requests expressed as if in a statistical survey.

The latest requests, I assume, have determined that from Dream Theater there is a desire for a heavy departure from progressive and that is what they have done. This new "Systematic Chaos," unlike the notable and, progressively speaking, good "Octavarium," has no more prog and has turned almost completely towards a modern Metal, heavy and difficult to listen to, especially for those who appreciated the previous work. Personally, as far as my opinion may be worth, I did not like "Systematic Chaos" at all. Everyone is off-key and, considering their great technical abilities, it is truly a shame. Especially Portnoy, who doesn't even do a tenth of what he could. LaBrie ventures into tones that border on annoying, not yet in growl territories, but certainly distant from his crystal-clear potential. Among the tracks, the only decent thing is "In The Presence of Enemies Pt. 1" a track that has sounds closer to Octavarium, although it seems like a leftover. "Constant Motion", also chosen as a video clip, is really a bad piece and, probably, the worst thing produced by this group.

My final verdict is absolutely negative, for an album that marks a decisive turn towards an audience increasingly close to modern Metal and increasingly distant from Prog. Some might wonder why bother to review an album you don't like. The answer is quite simple and obvious: because up to this point I really liked Dream Theater and I believe, for the reasons expressed above, that they have been quite important for a rediscovery of prog (in a general sense). This is a betrayal album, and that's why I think it's worth discussing.