SIX DEGREES OF INNER TURBULENCE

Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence is undeniably a good album. However, it had the poor misfortune of following in the footsteps of the highly-acclaimed album "Scenes from a Memory". Personally, I think that grading an album in comparison to another album is not really the whole idea of reviewing. If something is good (which this album is indeed), then rate it according to itself and not something else. Just getting that out of the way early since there are a bunch of 1 star ratings here.

Six Degrees kicks off with a bang called "The Glass Prison". This is one of Dream Theater's finest right here; it encompasses every aspect of the band that we've come to know and love. It is a very heavy song, and for the first couple of listens some people may not really get into it. However, the song only gets better the more times it is heard. Jordan Rudess and John Petrucci have a nice solo section in which each trades off with the other on solos. James LaBrie does a nice job with the singing of this peice, and overall it is a great listen.

The next track, "Blind Faith", takes a softer approach at the beginning, providing a nice cool-down from "The Glass Prison". Once again I have to praise the vocals by LaBrie, and this song really shows how versatile his voice can be. On "The Glass Prison" he is harsh, powerful, and gets pretty high up in his range. However, in "Blind Faith", he tones things down and really puts the finishing touch on a nice mood set by the music. The song eventually builds into a more Dream Theater style of music, and there is even an amazing piano solo around 6:30 in the song. This is easily my favorite solo of Jordan Rudess'. John Petrucci has a nice solo after Rudess', and after a little bit LaBrie comes back in and the song is over.

"Misunderstood" is a very different sound for Dream Theater. If I had to describe it, I would say it is more mainstream than their usual style, but not so far into mainstream as "I Walk Beside You" of "Octavarium" is. "Misunderstood" kicks off with soft LaBrie vocals as well as a clean riff by Petrucci. Once again though, the song grows into much more and actually ends up pretty heavy before all is said and done. The only really evident problem with "Misunderstood" is that it seems somewhat repetitive at times and a little drawn out at the end. It probably could've been a couple minutes shorter, but the way it is works very well too.

"The Great Debate" is definitely an interesting song to hear for the first time. The actual song doesn't really start until quite a way's in. The beginning of the song is all spoken dialogue by different voices with moving background music to accompany. The song's focus is the stem cell research debate, and I must admit that the song is very well done from both a musical as well as political/moral standpoint. Dream Theater does a good job of presenting both sides of the issue as well as staying pretty unbiased towards it. The song can't really be described well, you'll just have to hear it for yourself to really have a good understanding of it.

The final song of Disc 1, "Disappear", is in my opinion very similar to "Misunderstood" but less entertaining and not as good. This is easily the worst song on Disc 1, but you also have to take into consideration that all of the previous songs could easily be listed among some of Dream Theater's finest.

Disc 2 is where things get really interesting. The title track is a 42-minute concept piece that is just flat-out entertaining and amazing to listen to thoroughly. The amount of musicianship in this work is just staggering, and while a few movements of the song are a bit mainstream sounding, they all combine to make a wonderful muscial experience. This is actually my favorite Dream Theater song to date, and there is no reason why it shouldn't be in the Top 10 of every fan's list. The musical contrast is amazing, moving from symphonic to somewhat mainstream to sluggish heavy metal to almost speed metal to "unplugged" ballad to sort of concept mainstream to good ol' rock and finally to a grand finale that has the final chord held out way too long. I'd be here for an hour if I tried to break down everything that this song contains. It is quite simply a musical masterpeice.

So here's why you shouldn't overlook this album even though there are a bunch of 1 Star ratings here. This album is a refreshing experience from all of the Dream Theater albums before it. Some people might say "don't mess with success", but I say have some guts and try something new. This album certainly does that, and even with that said, it is still gushing with Dream Theater ideas and styles. I highly recommend this album to every fan of Dream Theater who is willing to give something a little new a chance. If this album had any other band's name on it, it would be much more well-embraced and would probably be more well liked. However, the music is good and I don't see why something as simple as a band's name can have it being criticized for not being as good as some fans' enormous expectations. Most people wanted a "Scenes from a Memory II", but that's definitely not what they got with "Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence".