A RITE OF PASSAGE

This is the single from Dream Theater's newest album "Black Clouds & Silver Linings". This gets a whole bunch of criticism from people, but I actually find "A Rite of Passage" to be a fairly enjoyable song. It isn't the best song on the album, but it is a nice song with some cool riffs and chord progressions.

I love the song, but this single isn't worth the purchase for any progressive rock fan. Just buy the album. The single version is pretty lousy without the full jam near the middle, but luckily this also contains the full version. I gave the actual album very confidently 5 stars, so I highly recommend the album. It's one of my favorite Dream Theater releases, and there isn't a weak spot on it. So anyone that buys this single is almost saying they aren't going to buy the album, and only want this part of it. I wish that this single would contain something that wasn't on the album. This has only one song's single edit and full version. If this were to include a song that didn't make the album or something like that, this could be worth a four, because then it might be worth purchasing. There's no reason to buy this with its current setlist when there's an album sitting around with all this and more.

This is also a pretty straightforward song that doesn't really represent Dream Theater like some other songs on the album do. Look at the numbers as well. The album was #6 on the billboard charts, and this single didn't get nearly as far, simply because the album is far superior to the single. An excellent song, but is worth hearing in the context of the album.

This is a three star review completely: good but non-essential.