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Dream Theater: Octavarium

27/11/09 || InquisitorGeneralis

You either like Dream Theater or you like midget gangbang bukkake porn. No wait, I love both of those! No wait, I love one of those and like the other quite a bit. You can figure that out yourself, just come over to my place with a VHS player and a towel.

Anywho, being a Dream Theater fan but not total fanboy who collects pieces of James Labrie’s heavily fanned-in-concert locks I can acknowledge when the band is not always up to form. Octavarium is one of those moments. I have really tried hard to get into this album but except for a few tracks that really are awesome I find myself skipping over most of the offerings on here for older material. I do not own either “Systematic Gayos” or “Crack Smoke Clouds and Silver Pipings” so this is the newest piece of Dream Theater I own.

Ok, so what is wrong with “Octavarium”? It is certainly not the skill of the band. Dream Theater are good, too fucken good sometimes. Case in point, the twenty minute long title track. Obviously you have to be damn good at what you do to play and compose a piece of music like this. However, to this guy, it just seem bloated and overdone. Too much Pink Floyd going on here. Does “Octavarium” the song suck? Nope, not at all but you will rarely catch me listening to it and in the end that’s all that matters folks.

There is some damn fine material on here though. “The route of all evil” is a good opener but could use a little more kick. It is clear that DT is going for a lighter, more melodic approach on “Octavarium” than as seen on its predecessor “Train of Thought”. This in itself is not a bad thing, no one expects a Necrophagist level of brutality from Dream Theater on every release. However, I did enjoy the slightly harder feel of “Train of Thought” (even though most die-hard Dream Theater buttlovers did not) and I find that extra pop missing here on “Octavarium”.

“Sacrificed sons” is this album’s redeeming value. Now here is a slower, melodic, progtastic song done fucken right. Although the September 11th subject matter is a few years too late the lyrics are pretty damn cool and manage to be emotional but not whiny; meaningful but not obnoxious. The song builds up nicely and the expected rocking-out section in the middle is enjoyable. Jordan Rudess and his sticky fingers really do add to this track and LaBrie’s whininess also is a good fit. “Sacrificed sons” is what aging, maturing Dream Theatre is supposed to sound like.

You’re probably done reading about McDreamy Peniseater…and I am definitely done writing about them. “Octavarium” is not a bad release at all: it sounds great (should, considering it was self-produced), the band is on point, and it has several enjoyable tracks. However, standout it does not and it seems to already have been surpassed by better, newer output.

Considering it already was behind the classics from the 90s it looks like “Octavarium” is destined to play third fiddle in the wispy, whimsical, whack world of Dream Theater. Cool cover though, that’s a plus. I have no idea what it fucken means but I like it.

6,5

Information
Released: 2005
Label: Atlantic
Website: www.dreamtheater.net
Band
James LaBrie: vocals
John Myung: bass
John Petrucci: guitar
Mike Portnoy: drums
Jordan Rudess: keyboards

Tracklist
01. The Root Of All Evil
02. The Answer Lies Within
03. These Walls
04. I Walk Beside You
05. Panic Attack
06. Never Enough
07. Sacrificed Sons
08. Octavarium

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