Dream Theater – On Track: Every Album, Every Song book review

Dream Theater – On Track: Every Album, Every Song

Rating: 3 out of 5

Sonicbond Publishing, £14.99

ISBN 9781789520507, 160 pages

Progressive metal pioneers dissected

“No other band has affected modern progressive metal as deeply or widely as American quintet Dream Theater,” claims US music journalist Jordan Blum, and in the latest On Track outing he backs up his assertion with the usual forensic examination which is the series’ backbone. Blum scrutinises the band’s 15 studio albums in some depth, and it will come as little surprise that it’s their sixth album (Blum rightly includes the 57-minute A Change Of Seasons “EP” in the chronology), Metropolis Pt 2: Scenes From A Memory, that comes out on top (“A magnificent tale overflowing with self-indulgently difficult music and an absorbing, inventive and emotional bit of fiction at its heart”). The author is not afraid to pin his colours to the mast, though, noting, for example, that 2003’s Train Of Thought is “perhaps the last truly great Dream Theater album.”

I’m not convinced, though, that Blum’s “ultimate playlist” or personal ranking of the band’s albums bring anything to the table, while detailed listings of official live bootlegs and fan club releases something of a cottage industry within this band – would have been of far greater value. A touch of levity to lighten the tone of the dry text wouldn’t have gone amiss, either.

—John Tucker