A DRAMATIC TURN OF EVENTS

I'll freely admit to my bias as a long-time die-hard fan of Dream Theater. There's little else I could ask of a progressive band than to make me think, make me smile, make me gasp in wonder at their sheer musicianship, make me cry, make me feel. Dream Theater has always accomplished that. Even their flawed efforts of recent years still carry with it that since of grandeur and significance that only the giants of prog can achieve. Still I've felt the band was slowly slipping away from what made them great, and their misguided efforts to be taken seriously as some sort of weird death-metal/prog hybrid were, frankly, laughable and cringe-worthy.

Change was needed. And change has come. And the results are stunning.

A Dramatic Turn of Events must surely be one of the crowning moments of their long career. From the chaos and abrupt loss of Mike Portnoy's departure, the remaining members have reinvented themselves, moving the signature DT sound in surprising and amazing new directions. Even as an ardent fan, I'll be the first to admit that over the years their music has become somewhat formulaic. Not so on this one. The album is packed with sudden, subtle, unexpected moments of musical and lyrical brilliance that quite literally took my breath away. There are melodic, harmonic, and vocal phrasings, found particularly in Lost Not Forgotten, This Is The Life, Bridges In The Sky and Breaking All Illusions, that reveal a depth of emotion, maturity and self-awareness that I've never heard on a Dream Theater release before.

For me Dream Theater has always been about those little 'Wow!' moments, and there are tons of them on this 77-minute masterpiece. Bombast has been replaced by lush melodic soundscapes, anchored by the thundering rhythmic bass-lines of a clearly rejuvenated John Myung. Endless shredding by John Petrucci and Jordan Rudess has been replaced by concise well-structured instrumental sections that feel integral to the composition rather than thrown in to simply make a given song reach a certain predetermined length. The painfully embarrassing death metal growls from the previous two albums have been replaced by actual progressive lead vocals by James LaBrie, who turns in what is surely one of the finest performances of his career, and even manages to get some song-writing credits. Newcomer Mangini does take a back seat here, as others have pointed out, but given the circumstance of this album's development, that should really come as no surprise, and his drumming, if low in the mix, is energetic, artful and at times even delicate.

I will not rate each song individually, as for me the Dream Theater experience has always been about the album as a whole and the journey on which it takes you. A Dramatic Turn of Events is oddly accessible (for a DT album) and yet contains some of their most complex compositional structures ever. How they've managed to achieve these two polar opposites on one album is beyond me, but it is amazing. The journey is emotional, powerful in the way only DT can be, and entirely satisfying.

Portnoy's departure got ugly, but the fact is the band and its fans owe him a debt of gratitude. First for all his years of tireless energy and effort on behalf of the band, and then for having the courage to walk away when he knew his musical direction had fallen out of step with the rest of his bandmates. DT could not have made this album had things not changed. Hopefully they can all move forward now to bigger and greater heights.

I may conceivably be giving this one 5 stars because it is such an amazing improvement from their previous two albums, but in time, I think I will still consider this an essential part of my prog collection. This one is not to be missed. A new Dream Theater. A dramatic change. Truly a dramatic turn of events.