BLACK CLOUDS & SILVER LININGS

There's not as much terribly wrong on Dream Theaters latest effort as on 2007's Systematic Chaos... except that there's nothing really right either. If you've listened to 3 songs from present day DT (Train of Thought to present) you probably know their "style." Almost all bands eventually lock in to a style or charisma that gives them a trademark of their sound, but the DT style has been evolving into a sort of box. A strict set of requirements for the band, that restricts them from experimenting, doing anything that they or other bands haven't done on previous albums. These restrictions range from time limits on songs to limits on what styles they play (metal, metal, cheesy AOR-ish ballad, metal) Seems quite regressive for a band that considers themselves progressive. These musicians are definitely diverse enough to do more than their standard, cliched "prog metal" style. I don't really know what MP and JP are afraid of (seemingly the only two in creative control) but they still treading their worn out ground along with all of the other "prog metal bands." I don't understand how a musical genre can exist when it's artists are a paradox to it's very name. Dream Theater are the prime example of why the progressive metal genre is now only true to the latter word of it's name. You just can't decide you are going to stick to a genre that's been done thousands of times and still call yourself progressive, because then you are like Dream Theater, contracting musical boundaries into a comfortable shell around you instead of pushing them out into new territory.