BLACK CLOUDS & SILVER LININGS

I was realIy looking forward to hearing this album. Portnoy compared it excitedly to alotta gems from their back catalogue and early reviews were very promising with their talk of it being a return to form. I'm pretty disappointed unfortunately as I really don't like this album much at all. There are moments of sheer brilliance surrounded by bland uninspired mediocrity. The record manages to frustrate me more than anything, to the point that I don't think I'll be able to give it any more than 5 more good listens 'till it goes on the shelf for good. It proved to me that DT still has the spark that I thought was long lost, but the problem is that it only makes an appearance for about 5-10% of the album, making BC&SL feel like a teaser for what could've been.

The 'In peaceful sedation' section of A Nightmare to remember is one of those classic DT moments that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand on end. It's the best thing they've done in years. I was so pumped about the album from all the glowing reviews I had read that on my first listen, whilst listening to that section I was laughing in my head thinking, DT are back, where the hell've you been, this is awesome?! The magic was there.

Overall, the song is one of the better ones on the album but it still needs a good bit of work. I don't think the 'life was so simple' bit is very strong and it could've definitely been improved upon. If that was the demo stage, which IMO it should've been, then we would've wound up with another classic DT song. Look at what ACOS seasons turned into after years of reworking compared to the original around the time of Images and words. I won't get into the demoing debate as it's been talked to death amongst fans.(If anyone reading this is looking for your first DT album, you can't go wrong with Awake, Images & Words, Scenes from a Memory or 6 Degrees of Inner Turbulence. They have the magic that this album is lacking).

After further thought, it might've been a good idea to just taken the beautiful light section from the middle and made it into it's own song. Not much else'd be sorely missed. Portnoys vocals do nothing for me but detract from the song. I just think that that style sounds ridiculous in the context of DT. Especially when it's a fact that 4/5ths of the band aren't into that style of music. It feels like they're trying to go along with the Kerrang metul fad for a bit of cash. Just look at the state of the promo picures over the last few years.The solo section is yet another speed battle between Petrucci and Rudess. It doesn't entirely ruin the song like many of the obligatory ones have before(Great Debate) but the overall song'd be better off without it. There's so much unfulfilled potential that it's kinda frustrating to listen to it now, knowing that this is the version that's set in stone.

All these shredfests succeed in doing is ruining the atmosphere/vibe of the tune. Thankfully it's not as bad on BC&SL(this album) as it was on Systematic Chaos but it's still very noticeable. If they insist on having solo sections, then why don't they change the dynamics between soloists or take a full solo in each tune instead of having them back to back as if it's a contest to see who can fit the most notes into their solo as possible. I don't know? Anything really as long as it's different! The Yngwie trades have been done to death. The bebot solo in AROP is pretty cool as it's something new and unexpected at the very least but it's its placement in song that doesn't work.

Another reason the solo sections have become so monotonous is that for the past few years is that DT dropped chord changes in favour of riffy vamps. Look at A Trial of Tears for example. That solo section rocks. Very interesting chord changes led to a memorable kick ass solo section. The Holdsworth style guitar lead is followed by one of DTs best keyboard solos and the whole thing works perfectly within the context of the song. Nowadays they just vamp on some minor key with the double bass in 16ths. The Shattered fortress(guitar solo) and the best of times take the chordal approach and they sound so much better. I've read Rudess prefers the to play chordally and Petrucci likes the modal approach more but it always seems to be the other way around on the albums.

I amn't one for lyrics but there's no escaping them on this 'un. The complete lack of subtlety combined with such epic music make alotta of the singing cringeworthy, cheesy and hard to take seriously. I, like most of you I'm sure, love good cheese but I think you'll agree that there's nothing worse than bad cheese. Singing epic songs as if your life depended on it is all well and good if you've got great lyrics to back you up. It can be very effective and touching.(ie ACOS) The lyrics on this album really work against LaBrie whose voice sounds phenomenal for the most part. I personally, can't stand when DT use opposites such as systematic chaos, wonderful misery and beautiful agony. It just sounds a tad lame and immature. Another problem I have would be that they leave absolutely nothing to the imagination. They just describe stuff happening. It's boring.

If they wrote the words as they were writing the music then both aspects of the song would feed off each other. The lyrics would inspire more fitting sections in the music and there'd be no more out of place solo sections. Disasters like the 'Day after day' section in ANTR could be avoided. IMO, Portnoys metal vocals don't fit in with DTs music. This could just be me as I know a loada people love 'em but they definitely do not work if you try to do Opethesque vocals about how lucky people are that they survived a car crash and what a miracle it was. I also think that a lot of LaBrie vocals on the album have been ruined by doubling up with Portnoy.(TCOT TBOT)

There are some new problems unique to this album that I am pretty surprised at. Completely unrelated chord changes and musical ideas that I cannot believe Jordan was a part of, giving his thorough background in musical theory, can be found scattered throughout this album. The AA song is a good example. The Root of all evil singing section is so unrelated to the tune that it sounds like something you'd hear in a DT ad with a few songs played back to back in a medley fashion.(8:25) You're half waiting for that movie voice guy to start talking about Progressive Nation. I can't describe it. Just listen and you'll hear it. As for the rest of that song which is IMO, the weakest on the album(well maybe AROP but at least it's new), it feels like a cop out, a failed experiment that some kid's done with protools in his bedroom. There's very little new material and the second half of the song sounds just plain glued together and wrong to my ears.

There's a lot of 'been there, done that' going on throughout BC&SL. Everything is familiar, from the blatant Spirit of the Radio/RedBarchetta Rush tribute in The Best of Times to nearly all the half time epic sections sounding like variations of Octavarium themes or The Ministry of Lost Souls. The strange thing is that Portnoys playing on these sections seems kind of ropey and unsure as if the band aren't comfortable with the slow tempo or something. The instrumental at the start of TCOT sounds like a self parody or a bad DT clone band. Half those riffs sound more like fills that have been copied and pasted from previous DT songs and then looped for 4 bars.(3:42) Their unnecessary use of time signatures for the sake of being proggy feels so forced. They're in 6 but all the time sigs just sound like 6 + whatever number they choose because they accent every beat robotically instead of flowing and grooving naturally.

I noticed that you can really hear the editing throughout the album which is very off putting. Punch ins etc. Whole sections just sound thrown together in a computer giving the album an incomplete sound in dire need of polishing and refining. It soundslike one hellovan expensive demo. All this combined makes a lot of the disc feel dead and lifeless. At least the laid of the compression a tad. Petrucci's tone is a bit strange and digital and the cymbals sound a bit funky but it's a big step up from SC in terms of sound quality. The snare is pretty weak sounding too. It sounds like he isn't hitting hard enough or something.

The bands desire to fit in with the music scene of today really irks me. Many of the chorus' are so clichéd and cheesy that they ruin entire songs.(AROP TCOT I section etc) The band now write 2 obligatory pop song per album. They've said that they don't feel as comfortable writing short songs. Then why do it? It really shows. DT fans(most) don't listen for songs like I Walk Beside You or Constant Motion.(I hope). They say they like to mix things up on albums by having a contrast between the long and short songs. That's fine but a short song doesn't have to follow the DT pop song formula of riff verse chorus, riff verse chorus, solo section, chorus. It's incredibly predictable and dull. The jarring transition from the solo section of A Rite of Passage to the chorus at the end can be blamed on DTs formulaic approach. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that nearly every dodgy transition in this album can be blamed on DTs formulaic approach to song writing in general. Instead of going with the natural flow, like they used to, you can almost hear them saying, 'Crap, now we've gotta find a way to get back to this bit,' and then settling on an a sub-par transition in place of something creative, innovative and actually progressive that goes with the direction of the song. It's all because of DT's reliance on this 'formula' they've found that they say makes everything much easier for them. I'm pretty sure it's widely known that if you want to be truly creative, you need to get out of your comfort zone. Look at Scenes and I&W for example. DT need to have the carpet pulled from under them. Portnoy has openly says in interview that they treated it like just another album. Business as usual. That's not the way to go about making an album. If he put half the time he puts into other stuff and concentrated it on the music who knows what we'd have in our hands. Instead of doing the cover disc I would've much preferred the band to concentrate on their own songs. I'll say it again. How can one of the biggest 'prog' bands in the world be so conservative?

I know this review comes off as very harsh but as a huge DT fan I was convinced that they would've learnt from their mistakes on SC and taken into account the harsh criticism it has gathered over the past 2 years. I was wrong and I'm disappointed.

Here's some positives to lighten the mood. 3 Incredible JP solos. (TBOT TSF & Wither) Rudess' intros, outros and ambience are really nice. The clean guitar tone is so I&Wesque. James sounds incredible. Not much compression. A Nightmare to Remember has one of the best DT sections since 6'.

I just realised that I forgot John Myung was in the band. I didn't even notice until I thought about it. Ha!

To sum it up : A Nightmare to Remember(6/10): Best song with some really bad bits. I love the middle section though. A Right of Passage(2/10): One of DTs worst. Sounds like they trying to hard to be hip. Just plain, bland and predictable. Wither(6/10)It's not bad but it's not that good either. At least it works as a song. Shattered Fortress(1/10): Cop out. Terrible transitions and flow. TBOT(5/10) The lyrics, Portnoys vocals and the similarities to a loada other stuff ruins it for me. Good Melodies to be found though and a great solo. TCOT(3/10): It's just 3 below average DT songs stuck together with some excellent fleeting glimpses of classic DT sprinkled in to tease me some more.

Overall, it's a bit better than SC but not by much. Lightyears away from the top half of their back catalogue. There's a loada great bit's that overall don't gel well together. Maybe it's time to face the fact that the DT I love aren't coming back anytime soon. I got my hopes up for the last 3 albums and was let down. Hopefully in a few years time I'll randomly see a new DT album in the shop, pick it up and it'll blow my head off.(in the good sense of the phrase) Until then, JP does say that "all the finest wines improve with age". Hopefully the same can be said about this album. Ha! I wish.

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