Dream Theater

Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence

Elektra Records (62742-2) (Two discs)

Many progressive-metal bands have used the distinct sound of Dream Theater – one of the genre’s most successful American acts, thanks to major-label support for much of its 14-year career – as a model for their own music. As if to eschew that endless emulation, though, Dream Theater continues to evolve at a fast pace.

Witness 1999’s complex Scenes From A Memory concept album and last year’s mammoth three-CD Live Scenes From New York. But neither of those records captures Dream Theater’s sheer beauty and brutality, its light and dark extremes, that are at the essence of Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence – a stunning two-disc set that defies categorization and offers new revelations with each listen.

Disc one (which clocks in at about 54 minutes and contains only five songs) kicks off with ‘The Glass Prison,’ an exploration of addiction bundled into an amalgam of distorted vocals, speed-metal riffs and syncopated rhythms. Elsewhere, ‘The Great Debate’ seethes with overtly political commentary about stem-cell research, a rousing chorus and a cacophony of news-coverage sound bites.

‘Blind Faith’ is perhaps the first disc’s most typical Dream Theater song, featuring a vocal performance by James LaBrie that runs from the pleasant to the extreme, complemented by multiple time changes and some extensive heavy grooving courtesy of guitarist John Petrucci, bassist John Myung, drummer Mike Portnoy and keyboard player Jordan Rudess. The remaining two tracks on the first CD, ‘Misunderstood’ and ‘Disappear,’ showcase elements of Dream Theater’s more atmospheric side.

Then comes disc two, which consists solely of the 42-minute title track, divided into eight titled parts that explore the tragedy of mental illness through the minds of six individuals, hence, the name of the album. Dream Theater last broached this touchy topic on 1994’s Awake but certainly not to this extent. ‘Overture’ boasts classical music influences reminiscent of Trans-Siberian Orchestra, while ‘About To Crash’ and ‘Solitary Shell’ flow with melodic quirkiness. ‘War Inside My Head’ and ‘The Test That Stumped Them All’ rank among the album's most intense and heavy, with LaBrie spewing vitriol. The disc concludes with a sweeping finale that doesn't outlast its welcome.

As they did with Scenes From A Memory, Petrucci and Portnoy have proven as adept at producing as they are at playing, making Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence that much more thrilling. This is the sound of a band just now reaching its creative zenith; this is Dream Theater's finest hour.

—Michael Popke