SIX DEGREES OF INNER TURBULENCE

"Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence" is the sixth studio album of Dream Theater that was released in 2002. Like their previous studio album "Metropolis Part 2: Scenes From A Memory" this is another conceptual album. It was released as a double disc and besides their EP "A Change Of Seasons", it's the first Dream Theater's album to feature a title track.

The title of the album may allude that each track could be as a different form of inner turbulence, with the six tracks making reference to the six degrees, with the apparent reference to the six degrees of separation. The six degrees of separation is the theory that everyone and everything is six steps away from any other person in the world. So, any two persons can be connected by a chain in a maximum of six steps. The theory was originally set out by Frigyes Karinthy.

The line up on the album is James LaBrie (lead vocals), John Petrucci (backing vocals and guitars), Jordan Rudess (keyboards), John Myung (bass and chapman stick) and Mike Portnoy (vocals, backing vocals and drums).

"Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence" can be divided into two parts, the CD 1 and the CD 2. The CD 1 is composed by five tracks "The Glass Prison" which is divided into three parts "Reflection", "Restoration" and "Revelation"; "Blind Faith"; "Misunderstood"; "The Great Debate" and "Disappear". These five songs explore different themes of lifetime struggle, such as alcoholism, loss of faith, self isolation, sanctity of life and death. The CD 2 has the title track which is divided into eight parts "Overture", "About To Crash", "War Inside My Head", "The Test That Stumped Them All", "Goodnight Kiss", "Solitary Shell", "About To Crash (Reprise)" and "Losing Time/Grand Finale". The track explores the stories of six characters suffering from several mental illnesses. Particularly represented is the bipolar and post-traumatic stress, the disorder, the schizophrenia, the post-partum depression, the autism and the dissociative personality disorder.

As we can see, the concept of the "Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence" deals with some of the most complicated but common things that we can live in our world. Many of us had certainly to deal with some of them and particularly one of them, the alcoholism, is very autobiographical for one of the band's members Mike Portnoy. The first track of the album "The Glass Prison" deals with Mike's story of rehabilitation from alcoholism that continues in tracks of the band's next studio albums such as "This Dying Soul" on their seventh studio album "Train Of Thought", "The Root Of All Evil" on their eighth studio album "Octavarium", "Repentance" on their ninth studio album "Systematic Chaos" and "The Shattered Fortress" on their tenth studio album "Black Clouds And Silver Linings", the last album with him in the band.

As happened with most Dream Theater's albums, "Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence" tends to be pretty controversial within their fan base. There's a pretty distinct split between those who consider it an experimental prog masterpiece, and those who think it's a kind of a hyper extended wankery. Personally, I think "Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence" is one of their best albums to the point that it can put many other albums to shame. Musically, "Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence" deals with many different styles because it suffers from many varied influences. Classical, folk, jazz and metal styles are present on the album. According to the band, influences for the album's writing include bands like Metallica, Radiohead, Pantera, Megadeth, U2, Tool, Nine Inch Nails, Soundgarden, Alice In Chains, Kevin Gilbert, King's X, Galactic Cowboys and Rage Against The Machine. It also suffers from some classical musical influences from Bela Bartok and Frederic Chopin. The final result is that Dream Theater creates a very strong, intense and moving sound. So, the music on the album balances between synthesizer leads and rhythms with heavy guitar riffs. Dream Theater is known to have some sweet and sometimes fast instrumental passages and this album isn't an exception. So, technically speaking there are some really great breakdowns in a lot of songs. Dream Theater is also known as always been the guys that make the lengthy songs. This is probably what many people think when they heard the name of the band. This album isn't an exception and this is particularly evident on the title track with about forty-two minutes long.

Conclusion: "Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence" is an astonishing album of Dream Theater. If you love "Scenes From A Memory" like me, you shouldn't have any problem in finding a place in your heart to this album. And now is the big question: Is this a better album than its predecessor? Well, to be honest I don't know. Sincerely, I think the answer is irrelevant. It's probably more a matter of taste. If you love and perceive both albums you immediately see that you are in the presence of a monumental testament of a band with two of the best prog albums ever made. The performance of Rudess is irreproachable and amazing. He proved to be one of the best keyboardists of our time and even of ever. When I reviewed "Scenes From A Memory" I wrote that it belongs to the very rare classic albums that we can rate with 6 stars and classify it as one of the greatest masterpieces of all time. For me, the same can be applied to this album too.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

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