Dream Theater

Falling Into Infinity (EastWest)

Petrucci and company are back with more of their visionary prog-metal. Unfortunately though, rather than push the genre forward, by some sinister invention they seem to have under gone a musical regression. Sure, the technical aspects of their sound are as brilliant as ever, but musically they're harking back to '70s prog-bands more than ever before. Gone is the brilliance of Images and Words and the inventiveness of Awake, replaced by the power-rock-by-numbers approach of ‘You Not Me’, ‘Burning My Soul’ and ‘Hell's Kitchen’. Petrucci's guitar shines but vehicles such as ‘Take Away My Pain’ leave you feeling that Mike and The Mechanics could have done a better job.

—Jon Jannaway

Rating: 2 out of 5 (Pretty poor)