Dream Theater: Dream Theater

This is the debut album with new drummer, Mike Mangini, not only performing but taking part in the entire creative process for the album.

The album is a complex blend of heavy riffs and progy tunes. It is almost a perfect album for Dream Theater fans. The singles released from the album were “The Enemy Inside” and “Along for the Ride” almost one month later.

“False Awakening Suite” goes into symphonic death metal tone with heavy riffs and symphonic keys. The next song is “The Enemy Inside” where Mike Mangini begins to shine. “The Looking Glass” has nice keyboards and the guitar solo is of Steve Vai and Joe Satriani style. “Enigma Machine” has awesome riffs by John Petrucci and contains many short bass solos by John Myung.

One thing about this album is that John Myung on bass is very audible.  “The Bigger Picture” is again an awesome song with epic keys and Mike Mangini is really good on drums. “Behind The Veil” builds up slowly with little creepy tones and then the speedy riffs and beats appear. James LaBrie’s voice goes in a different pitch which really sounds good. And then there is this epic solo by John Petrucci which is really very awesome.

“Surrender To Reason” is a song that seems to be inspired by works of Rush and Queensrÿche, but with their own style and symphonic work it is truly Dream Theater.

“Along For The Ride” is the ballad which every Dream Theater album has. But is also the weakest song of the album. And then there’s “Illumination Theory.” A 22 minute monster that is like a mix of everything this album has to offer: huge keyboard arrangements, fast and heavy riffling, complex drumming and instrumental gymnastics. It’s got anything from heavy and almost thrashy to neoclassical to quiet and sad to groovy and psychedelic. It starts like a standard song with verse-chorus structure, and then goes into an instrumental section followed by a spacey section that then gives way to a string interlude; an interlude performed with actual strings, not just a keyboard. And then it’s turn for James LaBrie to really shine. His presence in this song is minimal, but he really delivers his best performance in the second part of the song.  What follows is three minutes of instrumental wizardry, an outro that reminds me of that in Octavarium, and then the song ends, as beautifully as it started. As a song that’s composed of various parts it kind of feels like it lacks a clear structure and a theme (the string interlude feels somewhat out of place, especially), but it’s amazingly well done and performed. By far the best track in the album

This whole album is an ultimate masterpiece by master musicians. A mixture of melodies, medleys and blast beats in Dream Theater’s style.