FALLING INTO INFINITY

At this point, basically anyone familiar with the basic history of Dream Theater would know the story behind the label pushing this album to be far more commercial than they wanted it, almost causing the band to split up. This more commercial approach is undoubtedly a large aspect of the reason why this album is often despised by fans, sonething that I can't really argue with in many cases here, as this album has its fair share of bad songs. The production on the album is a much lighter one compared to their other albums, with a decent atmosphere in many places, along with great synth and keyboard tones, along with being one of their only albums where John Myung is consistently audible, revealing that he's just as talented as every other member of the band.

The songs can be put into one of two categories here, and the album on the whole is quite sonically confused due to this. On one hand, you have the poppy, commercial songs like You Not Me, Burning My Soul and Take Away My Pain. The main thing that all these songs have in common is they're almost entirely consistent in their low quality, with them being painfully cheesy, especially Take Away My Pain, Anna Lee, and You Not Me, with the former two being dull, overlong ballads that really don't go anywhere and contain none of the emotional impact that is a vital component of a good ballad, and the latter switching between heavy, metal based sections, and a chorus that is borderline painful. Easily my least favourite song on the album, and one of my least favourite by the band is Burning My Soul, which is clearly trying to show either the band, or just James Labrie being angry at something, but it feels so hard to take seriously, as it feels like there's barely any actual aggression behind it, and it all just comes off as hilarious and honestly somewhat pathetic. The only outlier to this is the stunning Hollow Years, which I most fondly think of for its amazing acoustic guitar tone and the slow progression of it, that never reaches any major high point, but is instead just a really pleasant listen.

Fortunately, the other half of the songs are much more prog focused, albeit much mellower ones, with no real moments of bombast other than the Rush influenced New Millenium, which is simply excellent, even when it does occasioanlly dabble in the field of U2 and Muse. Peruvian Skies is simply amazing, starting off really quietly and pleasantly, and building up to an intense metal passage. The two part song of Hell's Kitchen and Lines in The Sand is one of the best parts of the album, with Hell's Kitchen being one of the most subtle instrumentals the band has ever done, while still fully displaying the insane abilities of the band, especially John Petrucci, who still hasn't quite reached the point in his career where almost every solo ever played by him ends up sounding like just a shredfest. Lines In The Sand is one of the better songs here, filling up its 12 minutes nicely with great riffs and solos all throughout, along with a keyboard intro that sounds quite a lot like Rainbow's Tarot Woman. 2 albums in a row, Dream Theater end their album with the best song on it, this time in the form of Trial of Tears, which sets up a melancholic mood so perfectly and then continues building upon this thoughout the entire song, with a middle instrumental sextion that just builds upon this before returning to the vocals, now being more powerful, and ends the song, and album, with a bang.

While this album is undoubtedly one of the weaker ones put out by the band, there are many songs on here which are amazing, with a much more subtle overall tone that was never replicated by them since. While I can't say I return to this album often, if you look past a few bad songs, what you get is a superb album, it's just a shame that it's marred by such songs to begin with. On a separate note, this is easily one of the worst starting points into DT's discography and I'd recommend listening to quite a few of their other albums before this one.

Best songs: Peruvian Skies, Lines in the Sand, Trial of Tears

Weakest songs: Burning My soul, Take Away My Pain, Anna Lee

Verdict: The most commercial album the band has put out, with many of the most pop oriented songs in the band's discography, which while not bad on principle, doesn't really pan out here. Fortunately, the album is saved by every single proggy song found here, along with Hollow Years, making it a mixed, but enjoyable experience.