Black Clouds & Silver Linings

After the last chord from ‘Octavarium’ echoed around the Puerto Rico Coliseo on the 4th June 2008, Dream Theater headed their separate ways to recover from the gruelling, year-long world tour to support their Systematic Chaos album. With the success of that fresh-sounding album putting the band on a higher stage, both those fans who have admired the band for decades and those relative newcomers had colossal expectations for the follow-up. The band returned at the beginning of October 2008 to the familiar surroundings of Avatar Studios in New York to begin work on the album that would eventually become Black Clouds & Silver Linings.

“After every album, we will reflect on what we’re going to do next,” discloses guitarist John Petrucci. “You know, working out what we did right on the last album, or what we did wrong. If there’s any criticism that I can give myself and the band with an album like Systematic Chaos, sometimes a song would stay too long in one direction as opposed to mixing it up during the song, which is what we honed in on more on the earlier albums. So a song like ‘Constant Motion’ is exciting but it kind of just stays in the metal style. That would be my only criticism in that maybe it could have been a bit more interesting and original if we mixed it up a bit. As we were kind of developing our sound, probably from Train Of Thought onwards, one of the things that we realized was that we had moved away from the mixing up of styles and textures. Not within the album as we were doing that, but within a song. A lot of our favourite songs from past albums did that and we decided to revisit it. We wanted to use what we’ve learned over the past several albums in terms of style, power and production, but marry it with the philosophy that we conceived of mixing things up a little bit and throwing in curveballs within a song.”

“Yeah, and I also felt it was the right time for Dream Theater to have an album almost like Rush’s Hemispheres or Yes’s Close To The Edge,” adds drummer Mike Portnoy. “In those albums, you had just three or four songs that were all long epics, but with them being twenty or thirty years old, they were only forty minute albums. I hoped we would do our version of that and just have five or six epic songs totalling seventy minutes. So really trying that kind of idea but obviously done on a more contemporary level. This was something that I felt we have never really done. If you look at the favourite song lists of fans that are polled or compiled, it’s always stuff like ‘A Change Of Seasons’, ‘Learning To Live’, ‘Octavarium’, ‘Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence’ or ‘In The Presence Of Enemies’. It’s always the epics. So I felt it would be really cool to make an album where you had a whole bunch of those. Usually we would only have one or two on an album but I thought it would be cool to have an album with four epics and maybe two shorter songs. I wasn’t going to force it and I was hoping it would naturally go that way, and that was ultimately what it ended up being.”

Released in June 2009, Black Clouds & Silver Linings is arguably their finest and most consistent release in over a decade and contains all the facets that Dream Theater fans have come to adore. ‘A Nightmare To Remember’ and ‘The Shattered Fortress’ manage to combine both a heavy, relentless approach with a keen progressive edge. ‘Wither’ is an enthralling ballad, ‘The Best Of Times’ is an accessible and beautifully moving musical tribute to Mike’s late father Howard, and in ‘A Rite Of Passage’ the band have created their most potent single since ‘Pull Me Under’ hit the charts in 1992. Running in at over nineteen minutes long, ‘The Count Of Tuscany’, with its numerous twists and unexpected turns is also destined to become a Dream Theater classic. The press reviews were also consistently favourable with Classic Rock Presents Prog claiming that “These songs will remain in setlists and ‘best of’ collections for years to come. There’s no doubt that Dream Theater have created yet another challenging and rewarding listen with some dazzling arrangements within. Even if you’re already a fan, prepare to be amazed.” Metal Hammer’s Dave Ling was similarly stunned, rating the album at 9/10 and writing that “Dream Theater have crafted an album that matches and occasionally surpasses past achievements” and Kerrang! adding that “When the book of prog metal is written, Dream Theater will be its cover stars.” Reviews such as those only cement the opinion that the album is undeniably one that will shine beaconlike in their back-catalogue.

“I can’t even be objective about it but I’m glad to hear you say that,” says Mike. “All I know is that we put our heart and soul into each album and try to make the best record that we can. But whether or not it is, or whether the fans will love it or hate it is out of our control. My take on it is that I love it, but I really can’t be truly objective, especially now. Maybe I can in a few years...”

With the vast array of styles contained within a song, the band had achieved their aim of returning to the approach that made songs like ‘Metropolis’ and ‘A Change Of Seasons’ so universally popular amongst their fans.

“Yeah I think it was more of a throwback in realising some of the magic and beauty that have existed in some of the earlier albums or years of the band,” agrees singer James LaBrie. “It was done by being able to take some of that direction but keeping it contemporary, besides incorporating the maturity that has come over the years writing-wise. I know I am guilty of saying this every single time we release an album, but once again I really think that this album is better than the previous one. The songs on here are extremely strong, they are very well written and very well constructed. It’s very powerful music. So I think we succeeded in capturing some of that earlier magic. It always amazes me how this band can just go in and all of a sudden all these ideas are just pouring out and it is very inspiring.”

Jordan Rudess: “I’m really excited about the album as it has got so much cool stuff on it. You know it’s funny. The music business is like many other businesses, you constantly have to try and prove yourself again! It’s sad but true. But the good side is that in this case, I think people will see that the band keeps on coming on strong! So it’s a great album, and everyone’s playing well.”

The album was also released as a limited edition which included instrumental mixes of the songs, and a bonus disc of cover songs that included the classics ‘Stargazer’ (Rainbow), Queen’s ‘Tenement Funster/Flick of the Wrist/Lily of the Valley’, ‘Odyssey’ by the Dixie Dregs, ‘Take Your Fingers From My Hair’ (Zebra), ‘Larks’ Tongues in Aspic, Part Two’ (King Crimson) and Iron Maiden’s ‘To Tame a Land’. Of all those tracks, the Queen suite is particularly notable and was undoubtedly enjoyable to put together as Mike explains.

“Those songs are from the Sheer Heart Attack album. I have always wanted to cover them and this seemed like the perfect opportunity,” he said. “When you’re covering Queen you want to be able to have the production as it would be very hard to play these songs live. So doing them in the studio was a great opportunity to really nail the Queen style. James did the lead Freddie Mercury vocal but all the other vocals are me. I just went nuts one day in the studio and did all the Roger Taylor and Brian May harmonies and just stacked them! It was a lot of fun.”

There aren’t many bands who, after almost twenty-five years in the business are continuing to meaningfully evolve their sound. Most are happy resting on their laurels, churning out similar albums and then hitting the road for a night of playing-just-the-hits nostalgia. Dream Theater’s constant striving to develop and progress has meant that they have retained their fanbase and added to it, with new younger fans coming to appreciate their creations.

“We’ve obviously been a band for a long time and we’re not the new young guys,” says John Petrucci. “So I think for a band who have been around as long as we have – and have the experience we have – to maintain credibility, viability and relevance, it’s essential that you have new generations of people being turned on to the music. I think it’s an awesome thing and I love it. I love that when we play there are a lot of young kids and young fans because it keeps our whole thing alive. It means that you’re not one of those bands where people say things like ‘Oh you remember those guys?’ So I think it’s really cool.”

James LaBrie: “Yeah, you do get people saying to you ‘I thought you would’ve been on the downslide by now.’ Which is kind of like, ‘Well thanks a lot! I really appreciate your optimism!’ But no it’s true. I think this is very apparent when we are on stage, and we are looking out, that the demographics are ridiculous. It’s anywhere from a 14-year-old to a 65-year-old. But then I think about it and it’s not unlike when I see a Rush, Pink Floyd or Roger Waters concert. It’s the same thing as you see every generation out there. But that is what this music really invokes in people, that once you become a fan, you stay a fan. You’re not moving on a couple of years later and I think that is one the most amazing things. People may say that mass acceptance of our style of music is very unlikely, but with a band like this, we’re putting out what we want and not releasing what we are told or what we think people want to hear. Everything we put out is on our own terms, and it is music that we can be proud of until the day we die. And that really pays off , because it results in longevity, and to me that is a career – a career that wasn’t over in the blink of an eye. So I think we’re very fortunate.”

That ever-expanding fan base was never more apparent than at the Download Festival at Donington Park in England in June 2009 when Dream Theater performed in front of an estimated audience of 80,000 people. Although not headlining the show, there will be many converts to the band’s cause following that show stealing appearance, and it can only be a matter of time before they are headlining there themselves. As if to emphasize the band’s transformation into major players, watching Dream Theater from stage right that afternoon was Queen guitarist Brian May who wrote on his website “It was a revelation. The whole band are virtuosos and I’m kind of ashamed I never discovered them before. They took their time mapping out their songs, which I can only say succulently drip with the best kind of complexity. Wonderful playing. I will be back for more and so will about 80,000 Classic Rock fans who gave them a great reception in the old ‘Monsters of Rock’ fields.”

It’s appearances and praise like that which have added to the band’s hunger and desire to continue to enjoy wherever this mammoth musical journey catapults them next.

“There’s just a real sense that everybody is doing what they do best, everyone feels that we’re all on the same page and we all really want to see nothing but the best happen for us,” says James. “We see how many bands come and go, and when you’re talking to certain colleagues within the industry, you’re realizing just how envious they are. And that’s when you’re able to take a step back and really put everything into perspective and understand just how amazing this thing is that we have, and how amazing the journey has been so far.”

The band were also somewhat shocked and delighted to discover that the album had, on the first week of release, rocketed to the number six spot in the US album chart. Representing Dream Theater’s highest ever album chart placing, Mike was understandably thrilled at the news, saying “This is truly amazing – that after almost 25 years together, this band is still growing and progressing and doing bigger and better numbers than ever. I can’t think of many bands that can claim that. Plus a progressive metal album with four songs over twelve minutes in the US Top 10? Hell must’ve frozen over!”

If this is your twentieth Dream Theater show, then welcome back. If it’s your first, then where the hell have you been? Either way, Dream Theater are one of the fi nest live acts on the planet as will be unquestionably demonstrated to you tonight. Sit back, prepare to be entertained and enjoy the ride...

Rich Wilson

Contributor

Classic Rock Magazine