OCTAVARIUM

You know, when you love something or someone and either starts to screw up, you forgive a lot, because you simply can't think it will keep happening forever (forever is a long time). So everytime you can, you give them one more chance. So it goes with DT; it's even easier with them since by the time I get out of the shower in the morning they usually have released yet another album. Lately, there has been "Train Of Thought", "Six Degrees" and finally "Octavarium". I listen to them all, and every time I have this feeling time has been wasted and that I will have to wait for another year at least for a potential great thing to happen. Dammit, this time they even made me miss "Falling Into Infinity!" After trying to listen to delicately interwoven grinding and horrendous noises, I had to stop and take a good night's sleep (yep, that's right, straight after the morning shower).

I won't even go into the details, the "songs" sound all the same to me. No discernable melody whatsoever (except on "I Walk Beside You" and "Octavarium", the latter being the only interesting thing on this... thing), almost no change in atmophere worthy to be noticed or any guitar part that seems to have taken more than two minutes to conceive, and so on. Just noise, noise, and more noise. Is this prog metal? No. This is Metallica or Iron Maiden at their worst. Amusing: I once played the album by moving the cursor forward 10 secs at a time, and all I could hear was that atrocious guitar souding like a chainsaw biting in a metal pipe (is this REALLY Petrucci?). Not enough for me. Not good. Not even decent. BAD.

So I'll guess it's back to waiting. Hoping the awakening will happen once again, and that it will happen in my lifetime. Because I LOVE these guys and I know if I wait long enough they will eventually conjure up something melodic and thoughtful like they once used to. Until then, it's back to Shadow Gallery, Porcupine Tree, Ozric and the promising Riverside. A little bit of Spock's Beard and Planet X now and then, some early Marillion and early Genesis, too. And some of what has become early Dream Theater!!