Train of Thought review

Dream Theater

Rating: 4 out of 4

Dream Theater has just slapped Metallica with some St. Anger management. It has slain Slayer. And left Pantera panting.

Crushingly heavy and staggeringly complex, Train Of Thought will make headbangers lie down on the tracks and sacrifice themselves to the gods of metal.

Started in the late ‘80s by a handful of Berklee College of Music students, Dream Theater elevated technical proficiency to freakish heights. But the Dreamers’ interpretation of “progressive” metal has often translated into “pretentious and cheesy”: The minute you start getting off on a ferocious riff, consummate butt-rock vocalist James LaBrie regurgitates an ostentatious vibrato, or keyboardist Jordan Rudess goes for baroque and spews a melody fit for a European castle.

While LaBrie and Rudess still can grate, Train Of Thought is dominated by instrumental thunder, allowing Dream Theater to steamroll forward with an inhuman level of intensity. (And at some length, too: Most of the album’s seven songs exceed 10 minutes.)

Dominating guitarist John Petrucci plays so fast on ‘In The Name Of God’ that the ear really can’t detect where one note ends and the next begins.

And the precise rhythm attack of drummer Mike Portnoy and bassist John Myung is like an army of robots marching on your skull.

Metallica only wishes it could pull off ‘Honor Thy Father’ (which has flashes of Tool and, dare I say, Kid Rock?) or comprehend the frenzied ‘This Dying Soul’.

Train Of Thought is the classic metal album that no classic metal band could ever pull off. Wear earplugs if you must, but the rest of us will go deaf in bliss.

—Michael Deeds