BLACK CLOUDS & SILVER LININGS

At first listen i thought it was their weakest album yet. I've been listening to them since 95, and loved every single album at first listen with the exception of this one. Yet, i gave it a couple of more shots and found it loving it more and more. My least favorite track at first was Best of Times and now its my favorite. So lets get to the tracks.

A nightmare to remember: I like the tone of the song, but it still needs a little more listens to sink in. Very dark in mood, but with well executed changes and a very nice slow middle part. I still don't like the overly long ending, but still yet to listening it in high quality.

A rite of passage: Loved this song from the beginning. All riffs are round and perfectly excecuted. The instrumental part reminds me of Megadeth and Slayer, with DT crazy solos. Im getting a little tired of the uninspired Jordan Rudess solos, i think he needs to rethink what he is doing, but even so, he did a good job in this song, doing some different unexpected stuff. Overall one of my recent favorites.

Wither: Felt as an uninspired ballad first, nowhere near The answer lies within or Another day. But after a couple of listens it has been growing, don't think it will go past those two songs but im finding it real solid now.

The Shattered Fortress: This has to be the bummer of the night. Its very long, and a complete rehash as a song. When i heard This dying soul and The Root of all Evil, i knew they were continuations of The Glass prison, but Repentance and TSF are a mix of previously recorde Riffs, uninspired. Still i like the mood, and and if you listen to the AA Saga from beginning to end, it makes for a good ending. Weakest song of the album though.

The Best of Times: Wow. This has to be the most moving song since The spirit carries on. Those lyrics make this "Rush Like" Song stand out as maybe the best of the album, the slow part at the 7 minute mark is so good, i find myself rewinding it to hear it again and again. Also the solo at the end is so good, that it enhances the song to epic proportions. Don't let the first impression kill the joy of the greatness of this song.

The Count of Tuscany: This is the song that raises this album to another level. Like Gates of Delirium to the mediocre Relayer album, its a song that makes the whole disc be a must buy, a classic. From the very start of the song, listening to Petrucci's guitar coming to a moment where he uses harmonics to highlight the section, Portnoy comes in with cymbals, Jordan uses his imagination for once and gets a pretty good sound effect to make the moment stand out, until the distorted riff comes in, sounding so epic, and in the second part Jordan comes in with a synth strings melody that only stands as the introduction to what i would call a modern classic. The rest is up to you to listen its well worth it.

As a whole the album fails to deliver the package that Scenes from a Memory or Octavarium give you, but song by song its difficult to argue with the greatness of each song. The last two songs alone are the best songs they've written since Six Degrees.