OCTAVARIUM

After the dissapointing and mostly one dimensional Train of Thought, Octavarium sees Dream Theater return to a more diverse, song orientated sound. The keyboard and guitar heroics have been largely stripped down and now tend to be of service to the song, though that is not to say that Octavarium lacks the musicianship of previous releases. The concision works well in my opinion as previous releases could have done with some editing to remove some rather pointless self indulgence (the final section of "The Dying Soul" springs to mind). As you'd expect there are great performances throughout from each member, with Jordan Rudess in particular shining on this release. There is also a clear "hat tip" to the glory days of prog - the intro to the title track along with several other sections are reminiscent of Pink Floyd, Genesis, Marillion and others. Highlights for me include the excellently written "These Walls", the Muse influenced "Never Enough" and of course the monuemental title track "Octavarium". Overall a great album, which (in my opinion) just falls a little shy of being a classic. Recommended.