A DRAMATIC TURN OF EVENTS

As probably the most anticipated album of 2011, along with Heritage, A Dramatic Turn Of Events was in a very tough position to impress the audience. The prejudice against Dream Theater was overgrowing. Since the last four albums of Dream Theater were nothing short of a disappointment for many people, this album had to prove a point. And it did.

A Dramatic Turn Of Events finally let John Petrucci and Jordan Rudess to unleash their talent, without the interference of Mike Portnoy's weird musical taste. The far-fetched sections and weird vocals are gone. It's really hard to not review this album as a whole, almost every single song is a gem, from On The Backs Of Angels to Beneath The Surface, and they fit each other perfectly. It could easily be a concept album if the lyrics told a story together. It can still be considered as one though. Every track carries a "dramatic turn of event" concept, and tells a story about it, but mildly.

The thing that impressed me was, Petrucci and Rudess changed their way of writing songs. I'm listening to Dream Theater for more than 10 years, they are in the middle of my life, but this doesn't change the fact that DT was writing the same song with different names for the last 6 years. Atmospheric intro starts, killer riff comes in, Opethian part begins, killer riff for the second time, atonal instrumental section begins and lasts for 5 minutes, killer riff for the last time, complex outro. Change the order and you have new Dream Theater songs. I started to miss the songs like Trial of Tears, Caught in a Web, Scarred, even The Answer Lies Within. I'm not trying to blame anyone, but this decrease in quality struck Dream Theater because of Mike Portnoy's derangement. He wanted to be the Lars Ulrich of DT, he was dealing with all the commercing business, promoting the albums, producing the albums, making deals with record labels, selling bootlegs, post-production of DVD's... He still had his mighty playing ability, he used his drumsticks like Mjölnir, but turned into a band manager eventually. Anyway, Petrucci and Rudess returned to their instinctive way of writing, which created a potential legend like A Dramatic Turn Of Events.

Like I said, it's really hard to review this album song by song, it's a complete masterpiece. I wouldn't say "Chord Change is a great song from Moonmadness", because every song of Moonmadness is amazing. The same situation occurs in A Dramatic Turn Of Events too. Of course songs like Bridges In The Sky, Outcry and Breaking All Illusions step forward, since they are epic pieces, but there is a unity that must be felt throughout the album. Lots of other reasons to fall for A Dramatic Turn Of Events, probably the best album of 2011, and 5 stars without question.

Just a suggestion: Listen to this with the best earphone/headphone you can find, it's an extraordinarily detailed album, and average earphones will make it impossible for you to comprehend those moments.