A dramatic turn of events --- Dream Theater --- 2011 (Roadrunner)
Now before anyone asks, no, I'm not a DT fan, in fact I only recently acquired their discography, and it will be some time before I even get to it, never mind through it, but this album, being a 2011 release, was originally intended to be featured in the “Meanwhile, back in the real world” slot, until time caught me up and 2011 became 2012. So now, though current, it does not fulfil the criteria to be in that section, but I would still like to review it, so here it is.
Fans will know of course (as will most musically-savvy people who read a rock mag or even casually peruse music forums) that this album is the first without founder member and drummer Mike Portnoy, a fact which will mean more to proper DT aficionados than it does to me. Talk to me about Fish leaving Marillion. Engage me in conversation about Genesis sans Gabriel, or go on at length about the departure of Roger Hodgson from Supertramp, but in this particular subject I am completely ambivalent. There's no doubt Portnoy was (is) a great drummer and was loved by the DT faithful, but as I've mentioned before, though I would not put down any drummer's abilities, I find it hard to see any real difference between even the greats. Cozy Powell or Carl Palmer? Phil Collins or Brian Downey? I just don't see it. I'm sure drumming is a great skill, and takes years to master, but I'm just not musically aware enough, I guess, to be able to pick out the nuances of a good drummer from those of a less good, or even a bad.
So I can't tell you how new drummer Mike Mangini compares to Portnoy, though I'm sure there was and is much heated debate about the subject on various DT forums. I also can't tell you how this album compares to their previous output, but I'm going to have a listen to it and review it on the basis of it being a new album by an established band. Hell, knowing little or even nothing of the music of a band prior to reviewing one of their albums has never stopped me before, so why start now?
So, it opens on the lead single, “On the backs of angels”, which has a nice acoustic start, echoey guitar and swirling synth, John Petrucci's fluid electric guitar work coming in as Mangini announces himself behind the drumkit. Choral vocals fill out the sound until Petrucci's guitar comes to the foreground, starting up a heavy rock riff while Jordan Rudess joins him on the keys, setting down the soundscape with Mangini providing the beat. Then James LaBrie's vocals come in, and I'm sure for Dream Theater fans it must seem like the band has never been away, despite the fact that this is their first album in two years. The song becomes a powerful epic rocker, with twiddly keyboard fills from Rudess dancing about with sharp riffs and solos from Petrucci.
A lovely piece of classical piano then from Rudess as the song nears its end, then we're into “Build me up, break me down”, with hard-edged almost muted guitar and synthesised vocals from LaBrie, a slower, moodier song with some solid synth work from Rudess, but riding mostly on Petrucci's growling guitar. Stabbing keyboard chords --- what are those called? Sound like samples --- also drive the song along, giving it an epic, dramatic feel, but there's a low-key, atmospheric ending which brings us to track three, one of the longer ones on the album.
Dream Theater, it seems, don't do short tracks, and many of the songs here are over eight, nine, even ten minutes, with one clocking it at a massive twelve, but “Lost not forgotten” just skims the ten minute mark, opening with deceptively soft piano before smashing into a fast power rocker as it takes off on twin rails of galloping keyboards and chugging guitars, Mangini's drums thundering behind them. However this track exhibits a trait I've heard, an accusation levelled at this band, that they tend to overindulge in showy demonstrations of how good they are on their particular instruments, and indeed here there are lengthy instrumental passages that seem, really, to be there just for the sake of it, leaving LaBrie with often very little input into the song. It's a point I'll be exploring as the album goes on.
Short, by their standards, at seven minutes, “This is the life” is the first ballad, played on sweet guitar and dreamy synth, with LaBrie getting into his stride as a vocalist. There's no doubting Petrucci's expertise on the guitar, as he shows here with a lovely restrained little solo. I'd just prefer his instrumental breaks to be there for a reason, as they sometimes seem to be out of place with the song. This is nice though, with what sounds like female backing vocals, though they're not credited as far as I can see. Nice piano work from Jordan Rudess again, and I can see this being a situation where lighters are called for when it's played live.
“Bridge in the sky” is another long one, eleven minutes, and opens on shimmering synth and choral voices, then Petrucci's guitar slams in and Mangini's drums punch out the rhythm, and the song gets heavier and harder as it leads up to LaBrie's vocal, which doesn't come in until about three minutes in. Like most songs of this kind of length, “Bridge in the sky” goes through a few changes, from hard rocker to prog epic, with lengthy keyboard solos and guitar solos peppering the song, so that it's kind of hard to pin down exactly what to describe it as. Near the end it slows down for a bit, then changes gear back up to its dramatic conclusion. Powerful, certainly, and varied without a doubt.
Another eleven-minuter, “Outcry” opens with synth again, this time deep and throaty, accompanied by a very bright piano line from Rudess, running along the melody like a skater on ice, before the whole thing explodes again --- the ice breaks? --- and big, booming, choral synth and powerful drums take the song off to new realms, Petrucci's guitar doing its bit but a little subsumed, for once, in the overall mix. Of course, he soon remedies that, and as the “overture”, as it were, dies away, he takes command, standing front and centre with his trusty guitar slung over his shoulder, master of all he surveys. Some pretty frantic and excellent keyboard and piano work from Rudess, but again the song becomes a pretty big part instrumental, and I again have to ask the question, is this necessary to the shape of the song or is it, to be rude, technical wankery, as DT have often been accused of? Are these songs too long, or more to the point, have they too much in them?
Frankly, eleven minute tracks followed by other eleven minute tracks are a little hard to digest, unless there's some real cohesive structure to them, or some story being told with the lyric, and I have to say I find evidence of neither here, nor in the previous. I think these songs are longer than they need to be, and on that basis it makes it a little hard to objectively review them.
An example of how Dream Theater can pull it all back and write a decent, short song is shown in “Far from Heaven”, a few seconds short of four minutes: miniscule in their terms, hardly a Petrucci solo! But it's really nice, another ballad, carried on Rudess's emotive piano and what sounds like violin but may be his keyboard, James LaBrie singing faultlessly and with a lot of wounded passion. See guys? Songs don't
have to be twenty minutes long... Oh, they're not listening to me, as the next one is the longest, at over twelve minutes. Oh well.
With a big, dirty guitar intro, “Breaking all illusions” is the only song on which bassist John Myung gets involved in the lyrics, co-writing them with Petrucci, who otherwise has iron control over the rest of the songs, bar the one just gone, which was written by LaBrie. Hey, have you noticed? Four out of five of the members of DT have first names that begin with the same letter?
James LaBrie,
Jordan Rudess,
John Petrucci and
John Myung. No, no, I'm not bored. Not at all...
There's a sort of swaying, half-ballad feel to this track, though as ever it doesn't stay that way, and within four minutes we're into faster, uptempo territory, with rocking choral synths and wild guitar, LaBrie getting more animated on the vocals, and now here comes the obligatory instrumental part. Lasts how long? Let's see... O-kay. Five and a half minutes. See what I mean? Admittedly, this time it did sound like the music was integral to the song, unlike previous ones where it really did seem just like showing off. Still, there's no reason why this song couldn't be half the length it is, without really losing anything. I'm all for long tracks and value for money, but DT seem to take overextension to new heights of indulgence.
The closer is at least not another monster. Coming in at a very respectable five and a half minutes, “Beneath the surface” starts on nice laidback acoustic guitar and those violins/keyboard sounds again, with LaBrie nicely restrained in his soft vocal delivery. A third ballad? So it would seem. A very simple song, quite fragile and very sincere, and a sweet and low-key ending that I didn't really expect.
As I said at the opening of this review, I'm not a fan of DT, so perhaps I'm missing something, but the overlong nature of many of their songs tends to drive me away rather than make me want to hear more. I'm no stranger to epics of course: I'm a big Genesis, Marillion, Rush and Pink Floyd fan, and there's nothing at all wrong with long songs, but they really do have to go somewhere, and I feel that, for the most part, Dream Theater's epics just tend to wander around, looking for some direction, and then kind of tail off. For me, it's more a trial to get through one of their longer songs than an enjoyable experience, and does indeed make it hard to review them fairly.
I shouldn't worry of course: DT fans will more than likely love this album, but if I'm to use it as a possible gateway into their world, a chance to get more into their music and a spur to listen to more of their albums, then I'm afraid for now, for me, it's a gate that remains more or less firmly shut.
But perhaps one day.
TRACKLISTING
1. On the backs of angels
2. Build me up, break me down
3. Lost not forgotten
4. This is the life
5. Bridges in the sky
6. Outcry
7. Far from Heaven
8. Breaking all illusions
9. Beneath the surface