TRAIN OF THOUGHT

This is Dream Theater's heaviest album. Ironically, only one of their great heavy tracks are on this album, being "In the Name of God." "Endless Sacrifice" is a decent track. The rest of the heavy tracks are just okay at best. My guess for why they made this a heavy album is because of the fact The Glass Prison got such a positive reception.

A description of the music: As said earlier, this is a mainly heavy album. "As I Am" is an immature song that takes a lot of Metallica influence, while "This Dying Soul" seems to have a lot of Megadeth influence, especially with James LaBrie giving us some vocals in the style of Dave Mustaine. "Endless Sacrifice" waivers between ballad and heavy often and works quite well. "Honor Thy Father" is the angriest song they've ever written and contains some pretty awful rapping sections. The parts with singing are intolerable but the part with the voices is well executed and the keyboard solo is pretty enjoyable. "Vacant" is a short intermission track with touching vocals and James LaBrie singing beautiful. The only completely soft track. "Stream Of Conciousness" is an enjoyable instrumental for about 6 minutes, but gets repetitive after that. "In The Name Of God" is the only amazing track on the album and contains effective lyrics, an entertaining shredding section, and guitar riffs that can easily get stuck in your head.

PROS:

Guitar and drumming virtuosity: No surprise coming from a Dream Theater album. Mike Portnoy has some very difficult drum sections and John Petrucci has some guitar parts that almost border on unplayable.

The final track: The final track is the most important on an album, and luckily they managed to end the album well. "In The Name Of God" contains the strongest lyrics on the album. It also manages to make an instrumental section which, while just shredding, is actually quite entertaining and contains a very catchy bassline and drum beat. The guitar riffs are nothing to sneeze at either.

CONS:

Excessive shredding: Dream Theater is famous for this on this site, but I find this is the only album where it is a true problem. John Petrucci has no soulful guitar solos whatsoever on this album where on the others he actually has some soul even in his shredding. Not at all present here, though.

Angst: Dream Theater (or perhaps prog in general) and angst do not go well together at all and it shows on this album. When they sing with angst, I find they just come off silly.

Rapping: This is a serious problem in "Honor Thy Father." This is the first time I've ever laughed at a track by a band I love that was completely serious. There is also a bit in "This Dying Soul" but it does not stand out as much.

Vocals: The vocals aren't BAD on this album, but the problem is he tries too hard to sound like other singers, most notably James Hetfield in "As I Am" and Dave Mustaine in "This Dying Soul."

Balance: I've always admired Dream Theater's skill to find a perfect balance of heavy and soft in their albums. The two minute song "Vacant" and a few soft parts in "Endless Sacrifice" is not enough to strike or go anywhere near that balance.

Song ratings: As I Am: 2/10 This Dying Soul: 4/10 Endless Sacrifice: 8/10 Honor Thy Father: 4/10 Vacant: 9/10 Stream Of Conciousness: 6/10 In The Name Of God: 10/10

Recommended for: Pure metal fans.

My rating: 2 stars. If it didn't contain "In The Name Of God," it might be 1. The song ratings may not make it look all that bad, but this album just had too many moments of disgust for me. Dream Theater's second worst for me.

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