Dream Theater: Black Clouds & Silver Linings (2009)
July 9, 2009
(Roadrunner Records)
- “A Nightmare to Remember” – 16:11
- “A Rite of Passage” – 8:36
- “Wither” – 5:26
- “The Shattered Fortress” – 12:49
- “The Best of Times” – 13:09
- “The Count of Tuscany” – 19:16
So Dream Theater’s latest album finally came out. After the horrible letdown that was Systematic Chaos, I couldn’t wait to see how hard they’d fail on their next attempt. I remembered eagerly waiting for Systematic Chaos’s release way back when, only to be horribly, horribly let down. It almost felt like Dream Theater had trolled me. It was a kind of disappointment that I simply couldn’t handle again. As a result, I listened to this new one expecting to be disappointed. Let me talk about this for a bit…
Dream Theater is a Progressive Metal band. They feature some of the most talented musicians on the planet: John Petrucci on guitar, John Myung on bass, Jordan Rudess on keyboards (and sometimes lap steel guitar), and Mike Portnoy on drums. It’s like a dream team, the likes of which you only see on all-star lineups that usually only release a cover song or something and then never work with each other again. Fortunately for us, Dream Theater has been together for more than twenty five years now and we have just now been blessed with their eleventh offering.
However, Dream Theater, since the release of Scenes from a Memory (1999), had noticeably been heading away from the “progressive” and more into the “metal”. They got heavier and heavier with each passing album with odd detours in one direction or another with each one. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence (2002) was a heavier rather experimental album considering its direct predecessor that never liked to stay in one place. They then took a nose-dive into the Thrashy end of the metal pool with Train of Thought (2003). Octavarium (2005) went back in the more Alternative direction with a lot of influence from the likes of Muse and a lot of very standard and relatively unimaginative song structures. Systematic Chaos (2007) sort of mixed Train and Octavarium together, featuring both more accessible sounds (“Prophets of War”, “Forsaken”) as well as the heavy metal explored in Train (“Constant Motion”, “The Dark Eternal Night”).
To be honest, despite being a metalhead, I was fearing for Dream Theater. Their trend towards getting heavier and heavier was wearing me thin. In addition, they didn’t seem to understand that LaBrie’s voice was getting progressively worse and that he cannot pull off the James Hetfieldesque raspy thrash voice they so desperately want him to be able to. LaBrie’s last great performance on an album was Scenes From a Memory. His last decent one was Six Degrees. Since then, DT fans have been polarized into those in denial who cannot accept that DT has a weak link and declares LaBrie still a wonderful vocalist and those who have simply learned to tolerate him.
Like any other fan, I was anticipating DT’s newest release eagerly. However, I also expected them to fail and was even making predictions as to exactly how DT would fail this time around. The time finally came. I put on my headphones and hit play.
The first listen through blew me away. Let me be straight. This is, in my opinion, Dream Theater’s strongest release since Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence. It’s as if they took every mistake they made between then and now and actually learned from them. This is a great album. Every song feels complete and whole and each is unique and stands out on its own. The songs are all epic ballads with complete concepts in and of themselves.
One of the things I love the most about bands like Dream Theater is that they absolutely refuse to put a filler song on an album. For this reason, I’ll briefly take a closer look at each song.
The album opens with the sixteen-minute epic, “A Nightmare to Remember”. It is apparently about a car crash John Petrucci experienced. The song chronicles it in dramatic exaggeration. It is, for the most part, a heavier and darker song with a lot of blast beats and fast solos. There is one part, however, where Portnoy does this cute little rap that nearly destroys the song. Barring that, however, it’s a great and energetic opener that, in trademark Dream Theater style, takes you on a journey.
The second song is the shorter, “A Rite of Passage”. In my opinion, this is the weakest song on the album that is half the length of the first track and is half as enjoyable. If you don’t listen closely, the song passes by in relative monotony and doesn’t really feel like it goes anywhere…but at eight minutes, a song like this HAS to do something with itself. It’s still not bad, but is disappointing compared to the punch in the face that “Nightmare” was.
We then move on to “Wither”. This is, thankfully, a good song. It has a very alternative rock sound and even a very alternative rock length. While it’s short for a Dream Theater song, it is short because it needs to be. It does not overstay its welcome. Lyrically, it apparently talks about the frustrations of writers block, and is the strongest on the album in that regard, in my opinion. This song is a good and relatively soft intermission, so to speak, on the album.
The final song in Portnoy’s Twelve Step/alcoholism series is, “The Shattered Fortress”. This is the most fun song on the album solely because we finally get to see the series end. It has been years and years, and it has finally been concluded. It is a lot of fun and very nostalgic to hear melodies and riffs from all the previous songs play out together seamlessly in this one.
Next up, we have the melancholic yet light-hearted, “The Best of Times”. Written in honor of Portnoy’s father, who had been battling cancer and unfortunately passed away during the making of Black Clouds & Silver Linings, this song on the surface feels very light and happy. However, the melancholy written into the notes and lyrics makes itself evident. It is another longer song, clocking in at thirteen minutes, but most of that comes from the very long acoustic instrumental intro at the beginning.
The finisher on the album is definitely one of the strongest songs Dream Theater has ever released. “The Count of Tuscany” is an amazing nineteen-minute epic, telling the story of an encounter Petrucci had with an eccentric man while in Tuscany. The lyrics are equally quirky and entertaining. This song is a true journey in and of itself. The song is broken into four sections. The first and third are instrumental sections, the first reminiscent of “Hell’s Kitchen” from Falling into Infinity, and the second being a Rudess-centered one like the intro to “Octavarium” off of the album of the same name. The second and third sections are the parts with lyrics that tell the story. This is such a great song, I don’t know how I can do it justice in a single paragraph…it deserves a review on its own. Give it a listen, and you’ll know what I mean.
One of the things I enjoyed the most about this album was the amount of noticeable growth in Petrucci’s guitar playing. He has clearly gotten better and cleaner between Systematic Chaos and now, and it really shows. While his solos were less diverse than they have been in the past few albums, they are all still very enjoyable. His tones, however, are nothing but impressive on this album. I absolutely loved them all, and was taken aback by the amount of impact they had.
Portnoy’s drumming also matured a bit. It’s less showy than it was on Octavarium and Systematic Chaos. It’s a breath of fresh air, really, and makes the album feel a bit more balanced. Normally, I complain about drumming in metal having too little character and being too predictable. I can complain about the opposite only with a drummer of Portnoy’s caliber, who is unmatched in the world.
Myung is…Myung. His bass had its peak on “Metropolis” with his one solo and since then has stayed pretty much the same. This album is no different, though we do see more parts where the bass plays a melody independent from the guitar.
Rudess’s tones improve with every album, and this one is no exception. The tones he uses on solos on this album are particularly remarkable. The solos themselves are, as always, in trademark manic and abstract Rudess style, and they are fun as they always are. Everyone talks shit when a guitarist spews out too many notes, but never when a keyboardist does. Rudess knows that and abuses the hell out of that double standard.
LaBrie’s vocals have improved slightly from Systematic Chaos (where he was abysmal), but is nowhere near Octavarium’s level, while Images/Scenes/Six Degrees feel like a distant dream from another life.
I’ve said it already, but I’ll say it again. This is one of Dream Theater’s best albums. It’s difficult to rank them in any linear order, but it’s definitely up there with Scenes and Six Degrees. It is an epic album full of ballads. It maintains the heavier tendency DT has leaned towards since Six Degrees, but brings back the progressive all DT fans have been missing. I am so glad this album turned out this way, and so will you, if you haven’t listened to it already. Go pick it up right now.
This is an extraordinarily long review, I realize, and I apologize…but there’s just too much to say about this wonderful album.
Stephen’s mostly inane and irrelevant rating:
***** 5/5 Stars.
Cynic: Traced in Air (2008)
May 24, 2009
- “Nunc Fluens” – 2:56
- “The Space for This” – 5:46
- “Evolutionary Sleeper” – 3:35
- “Integral Birth” – 3:53
- “The Unknown Guest” – 4:13
- “Adam’s Murmur” – 3:29
- “King of Those Who Know” – 6:09
- “Nunc Stans” – 4:13
Now I’ve stated somewhere around this blog before that my tastes are most firmly rooted in metal and progressive music. I love metal music; I love progressive music. What I love even more is progressive metal music done well. That is why whenever you see me listing my top favorite bands, Opeth and Dream Theater are usually in my top two, and the likes of Meshuggah and Tool in my top 5. I have a strange affinity for heavy, dark and epic music. You get heavy in metal, dark in most metal and some progressive, and lots of epic in progressive and some metal. In addition, in metal you get lots of intricate and technical musicianship, as well as a raw intensity you just don’t really find in other genres. In progressive music (nowadays), you get even more technical (albeit not necessarily intricate) musicianship, innovation, and a sense of discovery and wonder built into the arrangements and composition.
Despite my being in utter love with progressive metal, I gave up on finding too much music in the area. There’s good metal, there’s good progressive, but nine out of ten progressive metal bands are complete shit. They plug the progressive tag into their music by adding in some keyboards, half-assed “orchestra” or “classical” arrangements, lots of fast-played scales, dissonant chords, clean vocals, and seven to eight minute songs. I’m sorry, but that doesn’t cut it.
Progressive is a pretentious term intrinsically; there’s no escaping that, I suppose. But if you’re going to label your music with a pretentious tag, at least be able to back that up. You need to write music that makes sense. It doesn’t need to be technical–it needs to be smart. It needs to be mature. It needs to instill that feeling that you’re listening to something interesting and fresh (without needing to actually be fresh). Experiment, be daring and adventurous in your music, for god’s sake. When you start writing and playing technical music for technicality’s sake, you get today’s Yngwie Malsteem, and we all know how that turned out (in case you don’t know, he’s washed up now; even Mikael Åkerfeldt of Opeth agrees with me: Read his blog on Yngwie Malsteem).
This is where Cynic comes in. I went on a spree recently, getting all sorts of new music; mostly doom, death/doom, and some old progressive and progressive metal music. I was suggested Cynic as well when I was searching through progressive metal stuffs. I had heard of them when they supported Meshuggah on one of their past tours, and being from the Tampa Bay, Florida area, I had previously brushed them off as another run of the mill death metal band. This time I took them a bit more seriously and actually took a good listen to one of their albums.
Let me sum up the impression this album left on me after I’d finished listening through it in as few words as I can: “Holy fucking shit”. Now let me elaborate. This is an absolutely amazing album. It is one of the best metal albums I have ever heard. It is fun to listen to, it is refreshing, and it is unpredictable. Most impressive is the way the entire album comes together. Throughout your listen, nothing ever feels out of place, and the concept is delivered flawlessly. I’m not the biggest fan of innovation/new things. I prefer a solid and well-written album to one that goes out of its way to be “new” and “innovative”.
Traced in Air, however, innovates and tries new things without messing it up. It is an absolute wonder of an album. From the get go, you’re drawn in with a fast intro track that builds up tension with each passage. By the end, you’re on the edge of your seat before it abruptly tapers off and leads into the next track. From there, you’re on a journey. It pulls you through measure after measure of fast paced and heavy melodies. It is heavy in its intensity, not its speed or its tone. The musicianship is perfect. Cynic does not add in extra notes where they’re not needed. The guitars are intricate and balanced (Paul Masvidal, Tymon Kruidenier). You can actually hear the bass (Robin Zielhorst, Sean Malone). The drum work is perfectly fitting yet has a manic personality of its own (Sean Reinert). Traced in Air grabs a hold of you and doesn’t let you go until you reach the end.
Perhaps the most interesting part of this album is the vocal work. It predominantly uses clean vocals fed through a synthesizer of some kind. It gives the vocalist (Paul Masvidal) a robotic and sort of inhuman feel. While generally when the vocals do appear, they still hold the leading melody, this effect really brings the instruments to the forefront. The vocals become another instrument in the band that only happens to narrate, and you are more easily able to focus on the music as a whole.
The perhaps weakest part of the album are the death growls added in now and then to back up the clean vocals. They simply are not that strong. Handled by guitarist Tymon Kruidenier, they lack any real impact or punch. However, they appear very sparsely on the album, and they never have a leading role, so I suppose it is forgivable.
In any case, Traced in Air is an absolute treat for the fan of progressive music, metal music, and progressive metal music. I absolutely did not expect to find a band of this quality ever in my lifetime; especially one that goes in such an unexpected direction such as this. I cannot recommend this album enough. It is beautiful, it is engaging, it is absolutely engrossing.
Cynic produces a sound not easily described in detail, but can be easily summarized in the album’s title. It has an esoteric and transcendental feel to it. The songs flow seamlessly from one to the next, taking you with them to some place unknown, but somewhere you know you want to be. The songs truly do feel like they were Traced in Air.
Stephen’s mostly inane and irrelevant rating:
***** 5/5 Stars.
Opeth: Watershed (2008)
June 3, 2008
Roadrunner Records
- “Coil” – 3:10
- “Heir Apparent” – 8:50
- “The Lotus Eater” – 8:50
- “Burden” – 7:41
- “Porcelain Heart” (Åkerfeldt, Åkesson) – 8:00
- “Hessian Peel” – 11:25
- “Hex Omega” – 7:00
I cannot lie. I am a huge Opeth fan. In fact, I would go so far as to say they are among my very top favorite bands of all time. And so I write and put up this review the very day their latest offering comes out in the US.
Opeth is quite unlike any other band out there, I think. I would classify them under Progressive Metal (if genre classification counts for anything), but they are not like most bands that would get grouped together with them. They are known for their rather maximalist songwriting style and for never really following trends in music. Song lengths often exceed ten minutes in length, and albums last for more than an hour. Within those ten minutes, they explore whatever song idea is presented fully, leaving nothing behind and nothing left out. Watershed, however, is a slightly different take on Opeth as a whole.
This is the first album since nearly the inception of the band to not feature Peter Lindgren and Martin Lopez on guitar and drums respectively. While I’d nearly cried when I first heard that announcement, Fredrik Åkesson and Martin Axenrot are great additions to the band that have both contributed to shaping Opeth’s ever developing sound.
Watershed overall is a very different album when compared to the rest of their catalog. The album is a concept album; if I recall correctly (there isn’t much on this floating around), the album was written with a focus on the darker tendencies of man and the darker aspects of the human mind. Either way, when you listen through the album, the songs are quite diverse. Some are heavier, others more epic, or brutal, or melodic or even calming. Each song is unique and feels like an individual vignette into a different idea or concept. Splendid song writing and overall album composition, in my honest opinion.
And as thus, every song deserves a closer look.
The album opens up with the shorter song, “Coil”, clocking in at 3:10. This is a very short, pleasant song featuring epic-sounding acoustic guitar and Per Wiberg’s new keyboard samples. Nathalie Lorichs, a progressive singer local to Sweden, lends her voice talent on this track. It is a beautiful piece; simple, elegant, emotional and most importantly, sets up the reflective nature of the entire album.
“Heir Apparent” opens up with some soul-ripping and brutal tone in sharp contrast to the soothing previous track. This is the heaviest and most brutal song on the album, and is a throwback to the darker aesthetic found on Opeth’s first two albums. There are no clean vocals to be found here, and while there is a broad dynamic range in the songs (going from intense and heavy riffs to calmer keyboard driven interludes) as is Opeth’s trademark, the song never travels so far so it can be considered “soft” at any point. In addition, we see a Fredrik Åkesson solo in this one. His style shows through quite obviously, and is a sharp contrast to Mikael Åkerfeldt’s. “Heir Apparent” is the headbanging, metal-horns-waving song of the album.
Next, up is “The Lotus Eater”. This is the most energetic song of the album. Not so much like the grating aggression found on the previous track, but simply moves fast, has groove, and lots of fucking energy. It opens up with an odd duet with Mikael Åkerfeldt humming counterpoint with a bassoon…but then opens up with an in-your-face power riff backed up with, of all things, a blast beat from Axe. This was a surprise, as Åkerfeldt once swore to never write blast beats into his music after Heavy Metal had beaten them down to a pulp and then some at that point. However, it fits very well, and it’s nice to see that Opeth are not limiting themselves musically because of others at the expense of themselves. This song features one of the coolest passages I’ve ever heard. After a dramatic drop in speed and mood, the song builds up into this almost funky and jazzy melody, featuring every member of Opeth prominently all at the same time. It must be heard, otherwise you’ll just think I’m spouting off like a fanboy.
The album then takes a breather, and slows down with “Burden”. This is a simpler song, it is fairly straightforward. The style is reminiscent of old classic rock ballads. It is structured similarly to “Coil”, but having three verses (though all sung by Mikael), with a series of solos intermixed in between played by both Mikael and Fredrik. It ends with a clean guitar part, however as the part is repeated, the guitar is slowly de-tuned. It is one of the coolest little tricks (if you can even call it that) I’ve ever heard, and just trips you out.
“Porcelain Heart” is the big epic piece. Rather straightforward in structure as well, it opens with a huge, pounding and epic riff, then suddenly drops down into a softer clean guitar verse. This song has constant dynamic changes, going from the huge and epic to the very intimate. There are surprisingly only clean vocals on this song, considering its length and heaviness. The voicework also features some really cool vocal arrangements obviously influenced from Steven Wilson’s time with them on the Deliverance/Damnation albums. This is a great, powerful song, and is perhaps the most dramatic and epic off of the album. They released a music video for this song as well. The video isn’t bad, but the song was edited to be about half of its original length, and cuts out an entire solo…ridiculous. The song is much better uncut.
The album takes a step back towards the more intimate with “Hessian Peel”. This song opens very soft and relatively slowly, featuring some neat clean guitar playing. It then moves into a more groove-oriented and keyboard dominated section. “Hessian Peel” is perhaps the most like Opeth’s previous work out of the entire album. It is the longest song on the album, clocking in at 11:25. It covers many different musical ideas, and develops and alters itself many times over. You hear some really cool and epic guitar playing, then the song softens and calms in aesthetic. The song then builds up, breaking into a section as heavy and brutal as Opeth has ever done, then proceeds to bounce around and back and forth between many different song styles.
The album ends with “Hex Omega”. This is another ballad-esque song of the epic variety, and is a great album closer. There are no dirty vocals on this one either, and is, in fact, mostly instrumental. It’s a relatively slower song, and caps the entire album with some grand riffs.
This album is a wonderful listen. I suggest, if you have the time, to sit down and start it from the beginning, and listen to it all the way through the end. Every song is quite different, and they all explore something different. If you already know and are a fan of Opeth, you may be thrown off with how short the songs are (still longer than My Arms Your Hearse, but you know what I mean), but just give it a couple listens, and you’ll realize they haven’t lost any of their songwriting edge, but are simply trying different things.
Opeth, starting arguably with Damnation, and even more arguably with Deliverance, moving into Ghost Reveries and now Watershed has been moving away from their Death Metal and Black Metal roots, and more towards their Progressive side. This album is much less “Metal” than their previous offerings, but it will still find a home in the hearts of many a metalhead (perhaps save the bonehead Death Metal idiots).
Opeth has always had a thing for combining beauty in with brutality, and this album is a shining epitome of
how that can be done, and not just done, but done so well, you can feel it, and not just think it.
I highly recommend this album.
Stephen’s mostly inane and irrelevant Rating:
***** 5/5 Stars.
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