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Dream Theater - Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence CD (album) cover

SIX DEGREES OF INNER TURBULENCE

Dream Theater

 

Progressive Metal

4.16 | 2201 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

The T
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
3 stars This is, for me, DT's worst album... in fact, were it not for the second disc, I would rarely, almost never hear it.

The problem I have with this record is not that DT changed, or tried to change, but HOW they did it. Yes, we all know change is good, we all know stale, the-same-album- over-and-over-again bands are not really talented and should not be considered prog...but one thing is trying to change, another thing is doing so by EMULATING LESSER BANDS....take MArillion, a good example: they were great, then they changed a little bit (in fact they got a new singer) and they were still great; then they were getting stale and tried to change, so they went in another direction, sounding like radiohead, popbrit, and we all know what they became after this....the same thing happens here with dream theater: they try to change by emulating less talented bands' sound, and the results are not good.

The first song, The Glass prison (5/10) for instance, is a sort of hommage to Metallica...Now, there was a time when that band was, if not really great, at least good, the time of MAster of Puppets, And Justice for all and even the Black Album....the problem is, DT chose to take influence not from those albums but from load, reload, I Dissapear (the song), and, probably it was not out yet, but somehow they managed to hear that awful, purenoise st. anger...and this is the result: noise, a vulgar, old thrash metal riff, non-stop, annoying double bass drums, distorted vocals (we all know not-melodious vocals are not LaBrie's strong point), and, at some point, they even have a nu-metal kind of bass line going on! Now, I can take even the metallica references, but nu-metal...that most despicable, mtv friendly, bastardized form of "music"....my God, the masters copying the ignorant ones....this song is really too much for me...I have to stop...and man is this song long!! (A change of seasons lasts 23 minutes but for me it goes by in a minute, this one l;asts 13 minutes but sounds like three hours!!) And a final point: Jordan rudess? You have such a genius keyboardist and give him THIS for him to play?!?!

Blind Faith (8/10) is a lot better and actually pretty decent even compared with songs in better DT albums. It has melody, it has a dreamy ambience... it's not overly complex but it's musical, La brie SINGS, at times sounding like he does in his band or in mullmuzzler....good track, but it could be better

Misunderstood (8/10), best track in the first half, melodic, mellow at times, good chorus, the ending is too long for me, long and not interesting, but it doesn't damage the song...

The great debate (7/10) is not that bad of a song, actually is decent enough, hard, complicated, dealing with an interesting subject...the problem is, well, two: i don't like those voice overs ala news broadcast, and above all, that it sounds a little bit like if DT were trying to mix their own sound with that of megadeth and tool. Tool is a good band, Megadeth, for metal, is pretty acceptable. But hey, they do exist already! And DT is better than those two, so why trying to lower yourself instead of taking sounds of bands in their same level like, say, progrockers like flower kings, or classics?

dissappear (7/10), a mellow song, I don't like the effect in the vocals too much, makes it sound radiohead-esque, and that particual band I just can not bear (especially when I see their name here in Progarchives.com).

That's what makes this album the lesser from DT. For, in a nutshell, the second disc is marvelous.

Six degrees of inner turbulence (9/10) is a symphonic effort by dream theater. It has everything we love about this band: virtuosism, technique, melody, great vocal parts (the Goodnight Kiss section has Labrie at his best EVER...he surpasses himself here in meloy singing, with heart, with emotion, with pure musical notes, pure tones, great), an introduction that returns near the end (much ala change of seasons), a sense of development, tension, building of that tension, resolution to that tension, complex structure but COHERENT structure, outstanding drumming, brilliant keyboards....moments of extreme peace, of love, moments of terror.... really a great track...if I don't give it a ten is because maybe I feel it's a few minutes too long... tracks CAN BE too long, you know? Because for me, this is a single song, not a kind of concept album within the whole album... and as a single song, it could be a couple of minutes shorter, for the final part is a little bit too repetitive....

So, that's my take on this album....I think is a decent one but not up to par with DT's best, specially considering that the album that came before this one (Scenes froma memory) is my all time favorite and probably their best. But there are some good moments here, and we can appreciate the effort to change directions, what we don't agree with is the direction they chose.

Recommended. But not essential. (Only to DT completionists, which we all should be, so, in the end: RECOMMENDED).

The T | 3/5 |

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