SIX DEGREES OF INNER TURBULENCE

"Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence" is in perfect balance between Metal and Progressive.

Some Dream Theater albums are praised to death, some are and will be eternally snubbed, and then there the ones in the middle. "Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence" is one of these. Dream Theater fans will consider this one of their best albums, and haters will bring up this album as an example of why they hate this band. I'm not the hugest Dream Theater fan, but I'm a big fan of almost all these musicians. But "Six Degrees" is not an album of the musicians (like "Train Of Thought"), but I can't quite call it a traditional DT album. This is "Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence", in many ways one of the most unique albums of the band.

First off; this album has two discs, Disc one has five, long songs, Disc two is one forty minute song, the title track. There has been a big debate whether which Disc is better, and personally I'm comfortable saying that the first one crushes the second one. While the title track isn't bad, Disc one, if it were one album, might have been my second favorite DT album.

The reason why this isn't a traditional DT album is because there is, stylistically, tons of progressive, tons of keyboards and tons of nice electronic sounds. But it's also a nice, heavy album with hammering riffs and what not. "Six Degrees" stands in perfect balance between metal and progressive. The length of the songs is very stretched, averagely ten minutes ( if we count the title track), between mind blowing bridges, insane keyboards, strong mighty riffs, and a powerful wall of sound. But there are also a good handful of softer moments, in the first disc but even and especially in the title track/ suite, where at least half of the parts are ballads. The thing I'm most happy about though is that, especially in the first half of the album, there is not a lot of cheese, as a matter of fact, I can barely hear it! The second disc unfortunately kills my hopes, or at least for just a few moments (some of the ballads).

Disc one is a tour de force of progressive metal, disc two a good, worth listening to addiction overall. The thirteen minute opener "The Glass Prison" is the incarnation of a violent nightmare, energetic, tons of things are going on, it stretches very well and has excellent musicianship. "Blind Faith" is a calmer song, but very good as well, with nice arrangements, good chorus, and again nice performances by the musicians. But the most interesting song (not the best) of the first part is "Misunderstood", one of the most keyboard driven DT songs and one of the most progressive ones as well. It builds up, but there never really is a huge explosion that eventually leads to a crazy bridge, it turns up the volume a little bit but then it quiets down again, until the song ends. "The Great Debate" is another beast like "The Glass Prison",, but somewhat more atmospheric, and more political too. It is played in a kind of Tool-esque vein, but it doesn't bother me at all, since I do love that band. Surprisingly, there are no virtuous moments, or at least not as huge as DT usually makes them. "Disappear" is the weakest song here for me, it's a good ballad, and thank god it's not cheesy at all, it has actually a good melody, but I tend to forget about it.

Disc 2 is a little more, let's say, poppier, despite being a forty minute suite. It has some heavy and crazy parts ( "The Test That Stumped Them All"), but these are very few. Starting with a long, orchestral overture ( because of the mix between some modern, typical DT instruments and the orchestra, it reminds of another prog metal suite, "The Odyssey" by Symphony X) that ends with the starting of a slow song ("About To Crash"), then a short song that promises heaviness ("War Inside My Head") and it keeps it, as the following part clearly is the best part of the suite (the mentioned "the Test That Stumped Them All"), but after that comes a spacey ballad ("Goodnight Kiss") and then a sort of cheesy ballad ("Solitary Shell"). Things don't get any heavier, there's a reprise of "About To Crash" and "Grand Finale", that closes the suite, as well as the album.

Overall "Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence" is a really good effort by Dream Theater, some of these songs I consider to be some of the best songs by the band. If you're DT fan and for whatever reason you never listened to this album, make sure you change that as soon as possible. Also, you'll most likely love it if you're a prog metal fan.

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