I already listened to most of it... Except the title track.. but here is a brief review... (BEFORE PEOPLE THINK ITS ELEMENTS OF PERSUASION, ITS NOT; THIS IS THE REAL ALBUM, PEOPLE AT THE Dreamtheater.net ALREADY LISTENED TO IT, ITS OFICIAL BY TH FORUM ADMINISTRATORS)

SPOILERS!!!!

The Root of All Evil:  Its a straight forward Progresive Metal song, not typically what you would expect from DT, it has less shredding and crazy solos, but a nice chorus and nice continuation to This Dying Soul/The Glass Prison.

The Answer Lies Within:  A beautifull ballad, probably the best they've made since Anna Lee in FII.  Great Sound, Great Orchestra... great singing by LaBrie..

These Walls:  A powerfull song..if you heard the radio edit, prepare for the REAL song, its very nice, a great chorus.

I walk beside you:  Probably the most controversial song of the album, a POP song by DT.  Very U2ish... very diferent, reminds me of Cover my Eyes or Speak to me (unreleased songs in the us but Bonus in the japanese version of Falling in to infinity).   But its good.. dont get me wrong, its just Happy, some may not dig it (specially the ones who love ToT and 6Doit)

Panic Attack:  The heaviest song of the album , much like things from Awake and ToT.  Its probably the best song of the album for some... its really powerfull.

Never Enough:   Strange Song!  The most unusual song in DT history, but its good to hear diferent things, Jordan Rudess really shines in this song.

Sacrified Sons:   Anti-Bush song.   Very emotional, Epic Dream Theater song.  Nice intro, nice outro.   Nice instrumental section, very Dreamtheater like.

OVerall (without hearing the main track)  its very diferent from what they have released.  Not many solos (surprise!),  its more like they made SONGS (finally!!!).   its a very very good album, not one to be missed by fans of the band and progresive fans in general.  (Trust me, its that good).

Just finished listening to the Title Track... Octavarium... 24 minutes of the most masterfull piece of  performance by dream theater yet...

It has everything a prog fan would like, it has king crimson influences, beatles, yes, rush, its very very good.  It even has an orcheestra...it ends in the most unusual way...

i was blown away by this song...  You got to listen to it... its one of their best albums so far... still need to give it more listening time, but its awesome...

Some things to notice:

Jordan Rudess really shines in this album, its mostly HIS album.. HE uses the new keyboard Continuum,  it sound so awesome, its a very modern instrument.

John Petrucci only does 3 solos in the whole album!  and one of them is very The Edge like.. simple but sweet... the other one is in Panic Attack, a crazy over the top solo.

John Myung probably has one of his best songs ever in Octavarium, his bass playing really stands out (finally!!!)

James LaBrie literally screams in the last song... He does one of his best performances in this album .. he totally obliturates his previous work.

There is an Orchestra in two songs.

Mike Portnoy does his usual work, nothing diferent (i think he did a better job in Neal Morse's One)

Overall it must be one of the best albums i've heard (of course it needs at least a month so i can give a complete review, but until know it really is more than i expected).

Go to http://www.dreamtheater.net/bb - www.dreamtheater.net/bb ,  so you can see people are talking about it,  it leaked last night about 7 pm pacific time...

or if you want email me, and ill give you the link ...

[email protected]

I'll never understand why less solos is a good thing, but I'll listen to the new album anyway.