2003 marked the
last release with Train of Thought. The album had the technical
wizardry of what some consider the best musicians in the
business. That being said, the long awaited Octavarium had
some big shoes to fill.
I have to say that I was pretty stoked about this album
because being a Dream Theater fan is all about "what
are they gonna think of next". The Root of all Evil
opens the album with what you expect from DT, hard driving
riffs and even a little revisit to the last albums This
Dying Soul. The Answer Lies Within is a slower tune but
what I like most about it is the vocals. LaBrie serves this
song with some of the best sounding vocals I have heard
from him to date. These Walls gets up and makes you think
you are about to hear some of the baddest riffs to date
but 32 seconds into the song you're let down with mediocre
garbage that seems to break the DT mold and that's moving
forward with their music. My previous statement is pretty
much what the rest of the album is: mediocre garbage. There's
nothing that jumps out at me at all on this whole album.
I expected a lot more from these guys with the talent they
have, I should have been wow'd like I've been every other
album they've put out. Usually there's something they do
in every album that would make the hair stand on the back
of my neck but in their latest offering I am utterly disappointed.
Being a fan I have come to love everything they have done
but Octavarium seems to me as the "Van Halen III"
of their repertoire. I would recommend Awake, Images and
Words or Live at the Budokan for the guy who really wants
to hear the spectrum with which they're capable of because
this latest cd is nothing less than an album filler.
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