OCTAVARIUM

Being a very casual DT fan (though I do own all albums from Scenes to this one, with the exception of Train Of Thought which I have not heard........and Score, but no other live stuff), I have a pretty objective view of this band. I like some things, dislike others, and am fairly indifferent on some things. I appreciate, and often really like, their technical skill at playing their instruments. I also like their bombast and more complex writing. I do find, however, that they lack emotion much of the time, and when they do try to inject emotional parts or songs, they come off sounding trite and contrived.

This album fits with all that. The first track is pretty much typical DT and does little for me as it is just more of the same "formula", if you will. But not a bad song really. I actually find that These Walls and I Walk Beside You are refreshingly different for DT, and I kind of like them. Sure, they are being a bit too obvious with the influences for these songs, but at least they are trying something different. Panic Attack is quite good to my ears, being the first thing on the album that really shows off their ability to pull off quite complex and dexterous playing. Never Enough is Mike Portnoy's swipe at picky DT fans, and as such just seems to give them more ammunition to complain, in my opinion. A fairly dull metallic number that doesn't reach the complexity of the previous number and just kind of bludgeons you with heavy drumming and riffs. The next track, despite it's rather poor lyrics, is pretty good and brings in the symphonic side of DT. A song that I have grown to like and is certainly leaning more towards my more preferred style of prog rock (I'm not a big fan of prog metal overall to being with).

The title track, while being the most derivative DT track I have ever heard (of traditional 70's symphonic prog bands), is still quite impressive and very will put together. It contains essentially all of the elements DT has put into their music over the years in one very concise and powerful package. This song truly reaches greatness on the live Score DVD.

So on the whole, a decent effort. I find it amusing to read all the various reactions by the DT faithful (or once faithful but not so faithful now :-) to their various albums. Though to my more objective view, they seem like a very consistent band to me, dutifully putting out prog metal opuses on a yearly basis that seem to have fairly equal levels of quality (though not always appealing to my tastes equally......or their die hard fans, it would seem). This is a pretty solid effort that gets a 3 from me, maybe even getting pushed slightly above that by the final two tracks.

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