TRAIN OF THOUGHT

I discovered Dream Theater a little too late, but I began to appreciate their work immediately. You may think that for a Canterbury listener the discovery of DT should have been a shock. On the contrary, this kind of music introduced me to a new world, and opened so many doors in my musical life.

Here we have one of the most hard-heavy-prog-metal of DT discography.

Why 5 stars? well.. this album is a COMPLETE work. The composition, the lyrics, the guitar riffs, LaBrie's vocals, drumming and bass lines, soloing. Although the songs are very long, you never get bored of them. For example, in Stream of Consciousness, these musicians are able to capture your attention from the start to the end of this instrumental, because they play the same theme in a variety of way, so catchy that you never can stop listening.

The first four tracks are DT at their best, terrific songs and brilliant Petrucci's solos, no weak passages,intense drumming,gret keyboard work.

Then there is Vacant, a little mellow track, a kind of piano/voice introduction to Stream of Consciousness.

Then came the best track on the album : In the name of God is the reason to buy Train of Thought, (it worked on me). This song is the peak reached by DT, the perfect prog/metal blend. A long epic, wonderful singing, catchy chorus, great guitar solo and lyrics :

Blurring the lines Between virtue and sin They can't tell Where God ends And mankind begins

I repeat, this is a COMPLETE album, everyone should get into it, and although it's different from DT previous releases, give it a try. I think everybody could listen to it, no matter if you like old style prog (as I like).