Dream Theater

Awake

ATCO 7567 901 262

**½

Progressive rock is basically a very adolescent notion of what ‘grown up’ music might sound like – more notes, longer solos and, best/worst of all, convoluted concepts. It’s no use telling a prog-rock fan that size doesn’t matter – he (and it’s almost always ‘he’ never ‘she’) is too busy getting a hard-on over the size of that bloke behind Rush’s drum kit.

For all their label’s efforts to make us think that Yank prog-rockers Dream Theater are some sort of ‘high-IQ Metallica’ the first name that comes to mind on ‘Awake’ is Marillion. In fact adding a metallic bite to the choppy riffs and clipped vocals of the Marillion-esque opener ‘6:00’, is a neat touch. But the album quickly descends into a full-on wank-fest of widdling guitars, parping keyboards and overblown, pomp-rock choruses. Their propensity for pomposity extends to the ballad ‘Silent Man’, which would probably like to be Queensrÿche’s ‘Silent Lucidity’ but in fact sounds like Stryper on a particularly pious day.

The closest they get to Metallica is on the plodding opening riff of ‘Mirror’, but the effect is quickly dispelled by hammy keyboards and a fidgety inability to stick with the same riff more than 10 seconds. Musical masturbation for sure, but that’s adolescents for you.