SIX DEGREES OF INNER TURBULENCE

And this time they tried to modernize their music leaving a bit the typical 90's feeling of their past albums. For that they acquired influences from nu-metal and alternative metal, and even other prog metal acts like Tool (the chorus from The Great Debate sounds just like the great Los Angeles's band) with mixed results in the first CD of the album. Some tracks like The Glass Prison deserves to be remembered as true Dream Theater's classic, while others like Misunderstood and Disappear are totally forgettable. So, despite this CD showed some new paths for the band, I could never give it more than three stars.

And what about the long epic included in the second CD of the album? Here Dream Theater tried to continue the style of Metropolis Pt.2 with success, but without reaching the incredible levels of that album. Some tracks are impressive like the symphonic Overture and the great and catchy Solitary Shell, while other parts of the suite like the bit disappointing Grand Finale are not enough to consider this CD a masterpiece. For this reason, I would give this second part of the album four solid stars.

In addition, I must give a special mention to the musicians. Pretrucci and Portnoy made their most fierce work yet, while Rudess demonstrated that he is the definitive keyboard player for this band.

Best Tracks: The Glass Prison (the initial riff is impressive, and the song contains some interesting new elements) and The Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence suite.

Conclusion: Dream Theater entered in the new millennium with the desire of adding new textures to their music, which revolves between nu-metal, alternative metal, rap and some Tool sounding passages. Nevertheless, they did not forget their past with the symphonic and very prog sounding suite included in the second disc of the album.

The result is a convoluted album with some impressive moments and incredible playing from all the members of the band, but which failed to reach the levels of albums like Images and Words, Awake and Scenes from a Memory despite showing surprising new and interesting capabilities of the band.

My rating: ***

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