Dream Theater

Octavarium (Atlantic Records)

With their previous release Train of Thought, Dream Theater inspired countless debates about what was perceived as an unusually heavy album that, some argued, led the band away from their strengths. Octavarium will no doubt bring about another round of debate; because it swings the pendulum back in the other direction, in that the album is proggier and less metallic than its predecessor. ‘The Root of All Evil’ rocks hard enough as the opener, and is the third part of Mike Portnoy’s Alcoholic’s Anonymous trilogy – the first two parts being ‘The Glass Prison’ & ‘This Dying Soul’. The album definitely shows its lighter moments with songs like the gorgeous ballad ‘The Answer Lies Within’ and ‘I Walk Beside You’; an oddity in the Dream Theater canon: a bona-fide single if it were marketed under a different band name. ‘Panic Attack’ is a ferocious rocker that is the hardest thing on Octavarium, and comes across as mantic as anything among the first half of Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence. ‘Sacrificed Sons’ is a grand and introspective look at the 9/11 disaster which features full orchestration... and leads to the 24-minute opus that doubles as the both the album title and closing track: ‘Octavarium’. Besides the track length, Octavarium really shows the band’s Prog roots: the opening is pure Pink Floyd, and John Petrucci’s guitar has more than one moment where he channels David Gilmour; other Prog luminaries that come to mind during this epic are IQ, The Flower Kings and ELP (naturally through Jordan Rudess’ keyboards – which seemed to take a back-seat on Train of Thought). As a die-hard Dream Theater fan from the very beginning, I’d say this is a very good album after multiple listenings - but only time will tell if it ranks among DT’s best.

—Michael Rosser