BLACK CLOUDS & SILVER LININGS

For years DT have been accused of being more-than-influenced by other bands. Their recent opuses like "Prophets of Muse", "I Walk Beside U2", "Forsakevanescene" and "These Linkin Walls" just proved that DT's creativity is dying (if not dead). BC&SL was to be "make or break"-album for DT, and dare I say they reached both goals.

It's well-charting, it's heavy, it's dark, it's huge and epic. It's just the way Mike Portnoy described it: "a Dream Theater album with "A Change of Seasons", "Octavarium", "Learning to Live", "Pull Me Under" and "The Glass Prison". AND NOTHING MORE. It's completely devoid of any sign of creativity and fresh ideas. This time DT covering themselves, not RUSH or YES. In the light of this a bonus CD with 6 covers from QUEEN to KING CRIMSON looks like an inaccurate joke. Ok, down to music, putting the originality issue aside, what do we have? The whole record is quite enjoyable (especially for those progheads/metalheads who never listened to DT before), but the only worthy piece is a mid-part from "A Nightmare to Remember" - "hopelessly drifting" etc. This is where I heard that good old DT, without cloning someone (or themselves), without technical show-offs and stuff. But solo fill follows, then Mike growls (or tries to?), and here we are, magic is gone. Wither indeed.

DT has turned into a waste factory. I doubt that I would hear anything good and captivating from them in 2011 or another-year-the-new-album-is-scheduled-for. I'm disappointed and disillusioned

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