AWAKE

What is art? The creation of beautiful and/or thought-provoking works? Well beauty is in the eye of the beholder and this album provokes thoughts in my mind. Deep, dark, ugly thoughts. Dream Theater are a band who seem to always be on the edge of something great but can never quite get it out. Sometimes this reveals itself in the middle of songs when just as you expect the knockout blow they move back into safe ground with a florid swirl of keyboards a drum roll too far or particularly Petrucci who takes 30 notes to say what most decent guitarists can say with a chord.

The musicianship on this album approaches virtuosic levels, but not the composition. There are passages on most tracks that delight and also parts that stink. "Space-Dye Vest" is the best track here by a country mile. Nice jangly piano, emotive vocals, fuzzy restrained guitar- a beautiful, tasteful track which is unusual for this band.

"Erotomania" is an interesting instrumental, but yet again, less would be more because they really overplay. "The Mirror" starts like a death metal track but is not bad and a least has some invention. On every single other track the vocals really irritate me. I mean this guy LaBrie can really sing when he wants to so why does he have to wail and whine so out of tune?

Dream Theater are ideal for those who want more than just plain Heavy Metal, a sort of Young Person's Guide to Prog Music. Not for me though.