TRAIN OF THOUGHT

I guess we're all used to being surprised with every new DT album, and this one, once again, proved to be different from the others, but still recognizable DT work. Train of Thought is a more metal oriented album that maintains the heavyness and agresiveness of its riffs through out the whole album. Thought it might seem that Dream Theater might be turning more to the metal side, rather that staying on the edge of progressive elements, I believe that this album is an experiment with the heavier, darker influences of DT, delivering, all taken into account, another excellent addition to any Dream Theater fan, and another good addition to any progressive fan.

The album kicks off with As I Am. I consider this track to be peculiar, a progresive metal track with hard riffs, a darker bass and a tune setter for the entire album. I consider this song to be more comercial than the others: Straight-going and Powerfull. The intro is just breath taking, and the guitar solo in the middle is just amazing. We can hear Petrucci doing some pretty-pro work kicking off with the harmonics and some nice work off into his lead; Myung does his usual, out-of-this-world, work; Portnoy is as technical as ever; Rudess is just wonderfull, putting some mellower-still dark moments into the whole Take Me As I Am theme; and La Brie is just great in this song.

Next up, and going in nicely after the first groundbreaking song, is This Dying Soul, the second track featuring Mr. Portnoy's Journey to recovery. It continues to keep the same agressive metal feel of the album, but it develops nicely into this beautifull harmonization, where Petrucci, Myung, Portnoy and Rudess show-off their high kwonledge of composition and perfection when it comes to playing. The whole tune is the setup so that La Brie can please us with some of his best singing. All in all, this is a highly pleasing track, full of heavy moments, but also full of emotions.

Third in the album is Endless Sacrifice (Personal favorite off this album). Now I know it's not the BEST track in DT history, maybe even not in the album, but the calm, slow pacing verses building up into the heavy, catchy choruses is just amazing. Just as amazing as the crazy instrumental section that proves once again the virtuosity of the band members. We all know that Myung, La Brie, Rudess, Portnoy and Petrucci (Who delivers an outstanding performance) are true masters when it comes to building up tunes for great choruses, but this song just has one of the greatest ones in DT history.

Moving on, the fourth track, an the darkest one yet, Honor Thy Father. If you're a metal head, you'll just love this song. Heavy riffs, dark verses, no pretty moments, dark and sick: All the time. This song has some of the wildest verses I've ever heard, and the transition in the middle, well it's just...sicker.

The fith and sixth tracks are to be heard as one: Vacant and Stream of Conciousness. I've come to believe that rather Vacant being an intro for Stream, the sixth is just the solo for the previous track; now if that is true, Stream of Conciousness is the longest solo ever. An amazing instrumental track like no other that fits in wonderfull in this album.

In the name of God is the final piece. It remains true to the album and it experiments with new sounds, I could detect a bit of Merengue right into the intrumental section. There's no other way to end this album than with this track.

Thought people might tell you that this isn't an album faithfull to DT stile, don't listen to them and listen to the music, you'll soon recognize the various elements of Dream Theater in it; and you should be aware, DT is a band that is always experimenting, so every album will be faithfull to them, and to the majority of their fans.