OCTAVARIUM

While this album hasn't held up too well with me since it first came out, it's still a good album. Octavarium sees Dream Theater experimenting a little bit with their sound with mixed results. I like diversity and variety, but with Octavarium, it really interrupts the flow of the album, and that's important. That with some a few substandard songs adversely affects the album. But it's not all that bad. They show a bit more of their "sentimental" side featured in "The Answer Lies Within" and "I Walk Beside You." Cheesy, but nice. There are plenty of rockin' tunes like "The Root Of All Evil" and "Panic Attack," but it just feels like something is lacking that's usually there from Dream Theater. "Never Enough" is a Muse-esque song that was accomplished better by "Prophets Of War" on Systematic Chaos. The real highlight of the this album lie in the last two songs, "Sacrificed Sons" and "Octavarium." In Sons, James LaBrie delivers probably his best vocal performance that just sends chills down my spine. The first part of the song is an eerie ballad about the 11 September attacks, so that kind of hits home for me. The second part of the song feature a pretty typical (awesome) DT solo breakdown. The last song, the 24-minute epic "Octavarium" This is easily one of DT's best and most awesome songs. It has quite a build-up, 10 minutes or so, from the spacey Pink Floyd intro to the softer acoustic section and finally where DT just hold nothing back. This song is sweet. While this is a pretty good album, don't make it one of your first few DT purchases if you are new to the band. **I added an extra half-star just because the title track is so amazing.

Standout songs: "Octavarium" DT Cheese Moment: "I waaalllkk beside youuuuuu, wheeeree eeevverrr youu arrrrree!