SIX DEGREES OF INNER TURBULENCE

The sixth studio album from Dream Theater called Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence is a major piece of music. Spanning over two discs and over 95 minutes of music this one takes some time to swallow. The whole of disc 2 is one long epic track which doesn´t help to make the challenge smaller. Dream Theater has always pushed the boundaries in prog rock/ Metal and continues to do so on this release.

The music has changed a bit since Scenes From a Memory, as the melodies don´t seem as strong as on that one. Given some time the melodies does become more memorable though. The album starts with the very heavy The Glass Prison which is a favorite of mine on the album. John Petrucci really plays some nice inticate metal riffs on that one. Some insanely fast soloing is also done by Petrucci. The songs on disc 1 are generally very long but as usual when it comes to Dream Theater they never get boring. Blind Faith and Misunderstood are good Dream Theater songs but it´s with the fourth song on disc 1 that I get impressed. The Great Debate has in addition to some great music also some clever lyrics about stem cell research and the different opinions about it. Disappear is a mellow song. Personally I find it a bit boring but I guess some people enjoy it and that justefies it´s inclusion here.

Disc 2 is as mentioned one long epic song called Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence. It´s a concept story but even though it´s one long song there are different sub-tracks. These tracks all seque into each other to make a whole. Personally I think this is a typical epic build from lots of small songs and I must admit I like the REAL epic songs better. Those were you feel like the song was written in succesion. I don´t find Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence very exciting as a whole but some of the parts are really great. Most significant are the very heavy War Inside My Head which might be the most heavy song ever by Dream Theater. I find that one crushing. The Overture is even though it is competently composed not to my liking in style and mood. Symphony X also released and album in 2002 called the Odyssey which has a much better Overture IMO called Part I: Odysseus Theme / Overture.

Dream Theater are all outstanding musicians and they prove it again on Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence. There are many fantastic instrumental parts throughout the album and they are played with great conviction. Once again I have to mention that I miss Kevin Moore´s more melodic and simple keyboard style as I feel Jordan Rudess uses many sounds that are experimental and not nice to my ears. There is no doubt that Jordan Rudess is a great musician I´m just not that fond of his style.

The production is good even though I miss the old more clinical productions on Images and Words and Awake. The mix is much better than on Scenes from a Memory though.

All in all this is another excellent prog rock/ Metal album from Dream Theater and even though this is not one of my favorites from the band it´s still outstanding and unique. 4 stars from me and a warm recommendation.