With ever engaging riffs, bass lines that continue to boggle your mind, doubtlessly catchy tunes, eye-blink-worthy keyboards, resounding vocals and technically trippy drumming…yes, Dream Theater is back once more to take you down yet another heathen trip. And one thing is for sure, while they demonstrate their usual brilliance on this album; note the use of “usual”; there is nothing new us ardent DT fans can scratch our heads over and listen to over and over again wondering if we like this new sound or not. Yes, looks like the boys are playing it safe. There is practically NO experimenting, nothing new at all for us to feast our ears on…but hey what the hell! It’s been years now since I’ve built a shrine of devotion for these guys and I like them all the same, whether they experiment or not.

Starting off with “A Nightmare to Remember,” and progressively thrashing it out for over 14 minutes, with unpredictable highs and lows and an almost operatic feel to the whole song, and moving onto a more catchy “A rite of passage,” where I caught myself singing along and enjoying the heart endearing riffs and consistent drumming which winded off into “Wither,” a slower musical masterpiece, at least in my opinion, which somehow made me reflect on a few things about life in general and with “The best of times,” starting off on a slow note but picking up into a brilliant combination of guitars, bass, drums, keyboards and of course LaBrie’s often debated over vocals weaving in and out, the album is more or less eventful.

“The shattered fortress” mirrors the usual DT intensity, and has echoes of older stuff like “Pull me under” and “The mirror,” and winding off with a touch from the old classic “Erotomania,” we arrive at what I think is the best song and the best way to say adieu (until you hit the replay button of course) : a hectic 19 or so minutes of pure rapture has landed us with “The count of Tuscany” with a stupendous chorus and moments where I felt I was physically dispelled and floating somewhere in the space above fairy land.

Musically, Dream Theater is of course on top form: the vocals are ever engaging and even though most people will disagree with me, LaBrie in my opinion is a top-notch vocalist and even though I didn’t find many hair raising moments on this album where his vocals are concerned, he does give a good performance. However I can’t say the same about some of the latest live performances I watched of his but I shall refrain from commenting on that. The guitar work…what can I say about a guitar god other than the fact that he is GOD? I have always enjoyed the technically mind boggling guitar solos courtesy of John Petrucci and the way they always seem to leave their mark on me. The bass lines, and I’m no great commenter, in my opinion at their current standard, are just perfect the way they are, and the same goes for the keyboards and drumming, the combination of which I find highly enthralling. They stick to their signature style and the keyboards and Portnoy’s drumming is up to a damn good standard: BUT there is nothing new to comment on. This is Dream Theater creating wonders as they go along, but it’s a wee bit disappointing in the sense that I expected something new. The album IS out of this world, but I wanted something out of this universe if you know what I mean. Aah well… I guess I shouldn’t expect too much and be happy with what I have.

There’s almost no point commenting on the quality and the production and so on because frankly these guys are better than darn good and they know what they’re talking about: but I would like to add something on their album art. Somehow, I’ve always been “uncomfortable” with the album art if saying such a thing makes sense…its just hard to relate to and a little too surreal, however their lyrics speak for themselves. One thing I’ve always admired about Dream Theater is that lyrically, it’s not philosophical or particularly complex for that matter: but they always tend to transform simple situations into something easy to comprehend and palatable without making it sound overly lame.