TRAIN OF THOUGHT

I don't like James LaBrie's rap renditions. And I don't like the gated/muted shouting either. I also don't like the unstructured progression of Stream of Consciousness- it gells much too much like The Dance of Eternity. Wanna hear a good improv jam? Check out Bombay Vindaloo.

This doesn't mean its bad music though. Most people forget that speed, tempo, and trills are just as essential to music and the creation of mood and emotion as any other aspect of songwriting. I actually find Endless Sacrifice and Vacant to be a pleasant break from the non- commercial side of Dream Theater. Endless Sacrifice has a good commercial groove to it that will suddenly fool the listener as soon as they break into the solo. And the coda to ES, as much as some might want to write it off as 'Metallica', is so much more complex in notation and fingering than typical Metallica pick chords as fast as you can music. The two are totally incomparable.

In the name of God reminds me a lot of Learning to Live in its structure and its good to hear DT still can create some tasteful epic songs.

This is not DT's best effort, but certainly worth a listen or two.

I would really like to see DT spread their progressive wings and maybe ditch LaBrie for an album...how about a female singer in the likes of Amy Lee from Evanescence. Or Ray Alder from Fates Warning. LaBrie is a great singer technically, but the timbre of his voice isn't so great outside of the 800-1000Hz range. The smooth, soaring vocals like that found in Images and Words are his forte.

I would also like to see DT branch into a instrumental album exploring jazz, blues, classical, and experimental (like Mahavishnu orchestra type stuff).