OCTAVARIUM

I think that in the same way Genesis became a legend in the 70´s, Dream Theater has become an important landmark in 90's progressive metal. Their unsurpassable innovative musical proposals, their high quality compositions, and their significant capability of performing such masterpieces as "Images & Words" and "Scenes From a Memory" has taken this band to glory. But in the same way great bands have recorded terrible albums, Dream Theater released "Octavarium".

Octavarium is a very mediocre album that does not have anything interesting for prog listeners. It is just dull and monotone noisy music with almost no decent solo, boring and depressing from beginning to end. I'll analyze it track by track:

"The Root Of All Evil" 2/10. It begins with a confused 1:00 min intro. Then, an ordinary alternative rock track begins with a hostile air that may be qualified as bothering. Starting from the 5:20 min there is one minute of chaotic and disordered participation of Jordan Rudess and Jon Petrucci that I find unpleasant. It has very incongruous solos lacking cohesiveness but in the deep preserving few traces from glorious DT in "Scenes from a Memory". This track lacks of subtleness and has a very archaic artistic concept. In the line of DT music I consider this track very deficient.

"The Answer Lies Within" 4/10. It begins with soft keyboard lines and a decent presence of Labrie. At 3:38 min, an enjoyable symphonic part begins. As rock ballad I would qualify it as regular due to the lack of emotion but as a progressive track it doesn't have artistic sense and it is a boring and destined to fall into oblivion.

"These Walls" 2/10. It starts with a delicious instrumental intro until 1:00 min. Then this track decays little by little until becoming into a mediocre and dark state of sonic contamination. Compositionally: an unsatisfactory track. There are good vocal arrangements, decent drumming but there's a heavily commercial air. Even though, vocals keep alive some progressive reminiscences this track that could have been good with a smarter concept. Jon Petrucci makes a terrible work darkening the atmosphere that cages the music. However, since 6:30 min it finishes with an unexpected and interesting ending.

"I Walk Beside You" 1/10 A predictable track that reminds me Marillion in their album "Afraid of Sunlight". It is an extremely commercial track condemned to fall into oblivion too. There is no single trace of progressiveness here.

"Panic Attack" 4/10. It begins with a thick atmosphere that falls into chaotic sounds. At 1:30 min a sudden change takes place. But as a whole, this track is whatever you want to imagine except decent progressive, even less it is not good music at all. The solos at the 5th minute seem to be entertaining and they prove that deep inside DT still have talented musicians. A decent track, contaminated by this heavy atmosphere but still enjoyable for those who are considered open-minded. Personally, it is no more than a plain rock track.

"Never Enough" 1/10 It begins with soaring vocals that characterize a complex and eccentric track that reminds me "Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence". Their extremely repetitive riffs and eccentric atmosphere make of this track a chaotic and homogeneity- lacking composition. At 4:00 min. there is a very interesting and enjoyable progression. Despite their poor composition this track is almost good.

"Sacrificed sons" 4/10 A long track lacking order and artistic concept. Terrible from any point of view, I find poor participation of Rudess and, however Petrucci participation is decent, it lacks a cohesive sense. There are some curious moments but there are not enough good ones to be considered them interesting. In coclusion, this is a mediocre track with a minimum enjoyable essence. Good choirs!

"Octavarium" 0/10 This track is a sad attempt to create an epic. This track is an exact copy from "First Light" a track from Shadow Gallery in Legacy album. This track isn't that bad but the real problem is that it has no improvement at all, no new proposals, just predictable music that has been composed previously. This is a very sad ending for a very sad album.

In conclusion, for a beginners' prog rock band, this is a curious album and maybe should deserve one more star than I rated. But taking into consideration Octavarium comes from the Titans of Progressive Metal, it is less than a very poor album.

Good progressions!!!

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