TRAIN OF THOUGHT

I think that "Train of Thought" is an excellent album. I am a fervorous fan of Dream Theater, and know all of their work; I have read some reviews of people who disagree with the heavier sound that this group have been developing since "Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence", but I think that we should leave behind any prejudices and listen carefully to the music. Yes, certainly Dream Theater is heaviest than ever. It's easy to see the deep influence of Metallica in the band; influence that we had chance to see in previous songs as "Peruvian Skies" of Falling Into Infinity. Beyond the strong energy of almost every song of "Train of Thought" we can find it still very progressive; I'm happier than ever with Petrucci's soloing... and Mike Portnoy is awesome in this album. Maybe my love to this album comes from my afinity with genres as Heavy, Doom, Gothic or Trash Metal, and I can't deny that for years between my desires was the possibility of Dream Theater to try some darker and heavier things.

Let's talk about every track of Train of Thought:

1. As I am: I think is a good song to open the album, we can hear early the heavy metal style, and the singing of James Labrie reminds as the aggresive style of James Hetfield, frontman of Metallica. The solo is astonishing, that's rock! and the lyrics are fresh, strong and sticky.

2. This Dying Soul: This song contains the fourth and fifth part of the story begun already in the first song of "Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence", the really strong "The Glass Prison". This song is really progressive and has very riffs reminiscent to the first part of the story. The lyrics are strong, well conceived, and we can find a wink to Metallica's "Blackened", of the "...and Justice for All".

3. Endless Sacrifice: A very good song, with good lyrics. Well conceived riffs, and as a good example for understanding what this band really is, in this song we have a a lot of them. We can find at the beginning a good contrast between soft and sad sounding in the verses and heaviness and high intensity in the chorus. Good work in rhythm; duel of solos between guitar and keyboard in the middle of the song, and a very intense final.

4. Honor Thy Father: All the strings dropped to C tuning; a very interesting game with a heavy riff and many rhythm measures, and a very personal theme. This song, as many others, shows us the Mike Portnoy's penchant to genres like rap, hard rock or nu- metal, among the old-fashion metal. I really like the first verse, where Labrie sound fantastic with a lovely accent that reinforces the feeling of the song, before the heavy and instense riff preceding the next verse. As other reviewers, I really don't like the rap-style of Labrie in certain moment of the song, but is not that long to affect the enchant of this track.

5. Vacant: Short and romantic, as a dream. It reminds me songs like "Wait for Sleep" from "Images and Words". A good cello is here, and Labrie's voice is as good as always have been.

6. Stream of Consciousness: This is the instrumental track os this album. As I hear the first riffs can't avoid to remember "Orion", the instrumental track of Metallica's "Master of Puppets". This is not a show of virtuosity with solos faster than the speed of light or complex rhythms; I think Stream of Consciousness is more melodic, intuitive and warm than other instrumental themes like "The Dance of Eternity" of "Scenes of a Memory".

7. In the name of God: The final track is a really good ending. Here, Dream There exposes their thoughts about the recent events that have changed the feeling towards the rol of the religion in the actual evolution of humankind. This song describes a loss of faith and a feeling of revulsion to the strong contribution of religions for war. Musically, we find here a really intense chorus, intelligent lyrics, a good contrast between soft and hard parts, and a very interesting instrumental middle-part. Petrucci's plays a really good solo, and the song dies fading into a beatiful piano broken arpeggio.

Talking about the musicians, I really like the new style of Petrucci and Portnoy, Ruddess is at my opinion occupyng the same place of previous works, with mastery, and Myung is less dazzling than another works of Dream Theater, limiting himself to set a good base for the songs of this album.