As any prog fan should know by now, Dream Theater recently released a new album: A Dramatic Turn of Events. Who’s listened to it? What do you think?
To kick it off: My first impression is that this album does not recapture the magic of their early material (Images and Words, Awake, Scenes from a Memory), but it is a definitely a stronger effort than some of their more recent albums: Octavarium, Systematic Chaos, and Black Clouds and Silver Linings were all, in my humble opinion, just bundles of noise with a few decent numbers.
I think the weakest element of this album is Petrucci’s lyrics, with the exception of “Beneath the Surface”. A lot of the rhymes and subject matter seem forced and generic, particularly on “Outcry”. It saddens to me to think that he’s no longer writing from the heart, but instead just writing because the songs need lyrics and someone has to do it. LaBrie’s lyrics, which appear only on “Far From Heaven”, totally work for me, and that has already become my favorite song on the album. It’s an unstructured poem about the pressure that people feel to be the best, which is something I can definitely relate to. I’ve spent the last three Saturdays playing 8+ hours of guitar per day, and I will probably do the same thing tomorrow. It’s fulfilling to see myself learn and improve, but sometime I wish I could go back in time and allow myself to lead a more normal life.
Back to the album: I think the instrumental work is really excellent, even by Dream Theater’s standards. Fresh melodies, sexy solos, and some great interplay between the guitar and keyboards. I’m a bit puzzled by some of the choices that Jordan Rudess made in terms of keyboard tones. There are some gorgeous passages that sound like they may have been played on a classical grand piano, but there are also some sections that sound so synthetic and awkward that I want to cry and barf. The synth solo on “Beneath the Surface”, which is otherwise a great number, sounds like a 12-year-old tinkering with his first Casio keyboard. My brother has often made this complaint about Rudess’s style, but it was never really apparent to me until this album. Mike Mangini, the new drummer for the band, doesn’t do a whole lot that I find interesting, but I blame that on the way the album was recorded rather than him personally: he didn’t begin to lay down the drum tracks until all of the music had already been written.