TRAIN OF THOUGHT

Perhaps the most controversial DT release...with prog fans wincing at the drift towards metal and metal fans fully embracing it. Funny...cuz I'm basically a metal fan and I don't think it's one of their better efforts.

I have no problem with the band moving in a heavier direction...in fact I applaud it. What I don't applaud is the recycled musical ideas, the increasing instrumental wankery and the absymal lyrics. Those elements make this a sub-par DT effort, in my opinion.

Things start off well enough with a classic 8-minute prog masterpiece in As I Am. While it's nothing DT hasn't done before, they do it very well here. Also, the lyrics of this song are better than any you'll find anywhere else on TofT. Things also seem to be going well on song #2, This Dying Soul. A quintessential long, intricate, sophisticated opening leads to a long, intricate, but ultimately unrewarding song. Basically the song breaks down when they get to the musical section, which is DT wankery at its worst and goes on far too long, bludgeoning the listener with the same music ideas expressed about 100 different ways.

THe rest is pretty much more of the same. Honor Thy Father and In the Name of God are both long, complex songs with lots of noodling between Petrucci and Rudess. In fact, ever since Rudess joined DT the band has been moving towards musical masturbation and away from good songs. Melody and lyrical development have basically been abandoned in the name of endless riffing and lots of really fast guitar- keyboard solos. This is most evident on TofT.

In sum, you get one classic song (As I Am) two pretty good songs (This Dying Soul and Endless Sacrifice), a needlessly long instrumental (Stream of Consciosness) and two scrap-heap songs (Honor Thy Father and The Name of God).

Funny...when I read DT was trying to make a heavy metal masterpiece I was very excited. They got the heavy metal part right, just not the masterpiece.