Long album, long review…get over it.
Verdict: Fork in the road
7/10
Since the word “octavarium” was nowhere to be found in the dictionary or the encyclopedia, those crazy proggers obviously made it up. Now onto the music!
It all starts off with “The Root of All Evil,” a nice little ditty that will get your head nodding and that, in the Dream Theater fashion, has some lyrical and musical references to past albums. The more obvious one I caught was “This Dying Soul” from 2003’s Train Of Thought. If there were any more in this song or the rest of the album, I didn’t catch them. (Stop laughing, nerd.) I was even treated to a nice masturbatory guitar-keyboard solo, the first “Holy $#!+” moment on the album. Unfortunately, this was one of only a few of those moments.
You know as well as I do that the way you introduced Dream Theater to all your buds was “check these guys out, they’re INSANE!!” It seems that the five fingers of the prog-metal fist known as Dream Theater might be slowly steering away from this reputation, or maybe just trying to appeal to more people. Masturbatory and endless prog sections and complicated, unpredictable song structures are eschewed in favor of verse-chorus formulas with a set solo section. A common thing for reviewers to say when a band cuts back on technical flash, starts making things simpler and more commercial, and puts a greater emphasis on lyrical content, is that they are “focusing more on writing songs.” Well, as far as lyrics go on this album, a lot of them aren’t really anything to write home about. Poetic metaphors, thought-provoking symbolism, and detailed imagery only show up on a few songs. Everything else is either very literal or questionably simple (“What would you say/if I walked away?”). However, the lyrics are sung with such emotion and variation that is characteristic of (lead vocalist) James LaBrie that it’s easy to forgive their sometimes inane content.
One thing that is hard to forgive, though, is the fact that Theater seems to not only be taking cues from various other, more mainstream bands, but in some cases sounding almost exactly like them! “I Walk Beside You” sounds extremely U2-y. I wouldn’t have even known that it was by Dream Theater if I just heard it by itself. “These Walls,” with its really low ([guitarist] John Petrucci is down to A now!) 7-string ringing-to-prove-just-how-low-they-really-are chords and soft verse/earthshaking chorus formula sounds like Linkin Park with keyboards and guitar solos, and with singing instead of a whining/rapping combination. But seriously, if it weren’t for (keyboardist) Jordan Rudess adding his musical two cents I would have thought this song was Linkin Park with James LaBrie singing. Dream Theater pulls these copycat moves off very well, however. By the end of “These Walls,” I found myself singing along, which either says something about me and my being a sucker for hooks, or their gift for being able to sucker in people like me with hooks (and so damn easily, I might add).
Now before you prepare to avenge my comparison of a Dream Theater song with Linkin Park, I was about to get to the compliment section. So move your red dot away from my forehead, you nerd. They might have made a few missteps with this album, but there is also proof on this same album that they still have everything that ever made Dream Theater great in them. “Panic Attack,” a song about, well, a panic attack, not only only has truckloads of epic grandeur and technical prowess that is typical of progressive metal, but it features a brief blast beat!!! That’s right, kiddies. It’s about time Mike Portnoy’s thrash roots really strut their stuff. “Sacrificed Sons,” while 9/11-themed (what year is this? How many albums have they released since 9/11?), is frighteningly apocalyptic in its diminished dissonance, an effect that is enhanced by the awesome friggin’ orchestra featured on it (which reminds you just how big of a budget they had to work with). And the last song on the album, the 24-minute “Octavarium” is basically everything that Dream Theater excels in spread out into a thoroughly amazing song.
When they hit the mark, they hit it right in the cajones. When they miss the mark, well, it can either be predictable, boring, repetitive, or all of the above, which we all know Dream Theater has too much talent to ever be associated with. The bad news is that some of those traits can describe parts of this album. The good news is that there’s enough essence of Theater to satisfy the cravings of a rabid fan base. It also reminds them why they have shrines of the mighty band in their closets that they sacrifice little Britney Spears dolls to every day. Even though the bad elements are side-by-side with the good and this album isn’t exactly destined to be one of their classics, I know it’s in your collection by now anyway, you nerd.
