OCTAVARIUM

At first, I was tempted to give this album 4 stars because of the many similarities to other bands. Yes, some parts are reminding of Muse, some of U2, some of 70s prog bands. And? So what? Except for the new atmospheric parts, anyone who knows DT will only need to hear 10 seconds from any of the songs and they will know it's DT right away, without any doubts. I have read through the previous reviews to this album, mostly the low rated ones, and what people complain about mostly is that the new album doesn't sound like Awake or I&W... Why do so many "fans" have to start listening to a new DT release by hoping that it will sound like their first releases (or one which they consider to be the best) and be totally dissapointed afterwards? Doesn't everyone already know that DT are never going to write another album like I&W? Those were other times... It's the same with Metallica... There will never be another Master of Puppets, even thought I'm sure they could do a new album is the same vein anytime. They just don't want to. Because everyone would complain that it sounds the same and also that it's not as good. It's all about doing something different all the time, about progressing. So everyone, stop trying to rate this album compared to other releases. Just listen to the music... And what music this is... Beautiful, from beginning to end, both composition-wise, sound-wise and from the technical point of view. The orchestra is a new magic ingredient that I'm sure we'll have more of in the future. Congrats DT!!!