BLACK CLOUDS & SILVER LININGS

The album opens with what sounds like music from a Simpson's Halloween special. The most gawd-awful growling you'll ever hear, rendered abysmally by PORTNOY who insists, in the absence of all reason, on being heard. Lyrics to make a ten-year-old blush with embarrassment. Compositional indiscipline, songs without restraint, the aural equivalent of spending a week in a candy shop. DREAM THEATER needs a good editor.

There are positives. Powerful PETRUCCI guitar, technically superb musicianship, and some glorious tuneage and riffage in amongst the musical diarrhoea. LaBRIE mostly staying within his ever-narrowing limits. And that is it.

Overall, a torture to listen to. I find myself constantly thinking: 'still ten minutes to go...' I have listened to each song, but I cannot listen to the album all in one go without feeling swamped. Better than Systematic Chaos, but still nowhere near their best work.