Genre : Progressive Rock Metal
Label : Roadrunner Records
Origin : United States
Rating : 8.0 / 10
Buy it now
Fanbase enigma Dream Theater comes forward with a release of fervently stacked ambitions, and the resultant stimuli is no doubt eventful enough of a contribution to assuage a secretive - but not exactly "silentive" - suspicion in the finely calibrated ear that a healthy amount of this delivery is soaked into-, and made out of compositional wizardry, exercised for the mere, grandiose sake of it.
Dream Theater's A Dramatic Turn of Events, not surprisingly, has a highly monstrous level of complexity to it, primarily consisting of its valiant will and granite determination to filter all its moods and favorite fixations through an adventurous approach to music creation. Read on to find more about this flamboyant release, or don't.
Many, but not at all of surprising character are the numbers of paths and emotional postures Dream Theater chooses to thread along on this row of statements. The band exhibits a particular interest in addressing their readiness to deliver on the respective fields of a sanely-, but harshly constrained genre palette. The basic vibes of gloom-trodden power metal, neoclassical sonic spellcasting, synthetic noteburst-parade, hell, even metalcorish undertones and odd time signatures are all part of the game, and everything the group delivers to the table, IS decently delivered and elegantly served.
DUDE?? What do you mean "decently"?? Dream Theater is like : my life!
I mean exactly that. From the point of view of ultimate value though, - check the very sloppily concealed irony herein - Dream Theater's A Dramatic Turn of Events fails to bring any dramatic turns of events to the fray. If you need to convince me that your album is a dramatic turn of events : you are failing. Dream Theater's latest is an accessible, and, as noted, doubtless extremely eventful output, yet also is one that never quite leaves you without the suspicion that some elaborate passages of complexity are simply there so you have something to chew diligently on, and serve no particular function in the actual DNA of the track you are listening to.
The band has a noticeable tendency to summon a pleasant, fluid feel via the simultaneous utilization of various devices suitable to cause aural vibrations, - a surprise! - yet, in actuality, these delicate sonic entities have a very limited field of operation if the mission they have been assigned to, is simply is to connect - in heart - traditional exhibitions of power metal/metalcore/I got the gloom again compositional techniques without end. When the group releases the kind-of experimental Animal for the worship of the oh!, so beautiful fractal-complexity, the result is OK enough, but far far far - and not close to - from great, particularly because these segments tend to lack vocal delivery. They are lacking vocal delivery because the agenda herein <> resonating music that has a story to it, the agenda simply is to
overcreate
layered sonic constructs into existence
because we can.
These are instrumental - uhm - "instrumentalizations", and once these sequences sound elaborately chaotic and chaotically elaborate enough, then the band gives the nod, yet, having a musical message you can spiritually decipher, is of no notable interest for the squad. It is not that this approach has limited potentiality, in fact, it has JUST that. But it already has been done much better recently, with vocals reigning in bloom in the chaos, by bands like Unexpect, see here.
The following matter is one that is prone to radical levels of subjectivity, but me, myself and I, along with the dudette who is writing this, find the lead singer's voice relatively uneventful, and when he is over-emoting in the slower declarations of lyrical aspirations of the record, threads of hairs I did not know I have stand still on my shell. These lyrical statements are reminiscent of the Pink Floydish suffering skills, and frankly, they are pretty efficient at annoying the living death out of me.
Dream Theater's A Dramatic Turn of Events still is a full musculature build with a whole lot of luscious sonic portions to bath your existence in, and its ubiquitous proneness of getting caught rabidly masturbating is as much of a likable defining factor of it as it is its relative hindrance.
Rating : 8.0 / 10
If you liked this article, check out my music
and / or
Buy me beer.
Sadly... You don't understand why Dream Theater called it A Dramatic Turn of Events and you don't understand that they aren't there to please the critics like yourself. They are simply there to make the world a better place and to give amazing music to the fans! They have gone through a lot because Mike Portnoy left the band and Dream Theater has created an amazing record from the collaborative effort of John Petrucci, Jordan Rudess and John Myung... And James LaBrie doesn't have a beautiful voice... but that is his voice and DT would sound awful without anyone but him as the vocalist.
ReplyDeleteAll music seek to be appreciated on some - or worse : all - levels, and the negative things I wrote are of course solely subjective constructs drawn from an infinite number of interpretation fields. I'm honestly and totally glad if you like James LaBrie's lyrical singing. There are a whole lot of impressive things on the release as I wrote in the review, remember, these are just opinions, and best always is to form our own - in my opinion. Thank you for your comment.
ReplyDelete"Dream Theater's A Dramatic Turn of Events still is a full musculature build with a whole lot of luscious sonic portions to bath your existence in, and its ubiquitous proneness of getting caught rabidly masturbating is as much of a likable defining factor of it than it is its relative hindrance."
ReplyDeleteYou're reviewing a rock album not Voltaire. I'm afraid you appear to be more interested in using your knowledge of the English language than to accurately review a very fine album. It is ubiquitous throughout.
No I don't like your review and no I won't check out your music.
P.S. Buy yourself a beer.
"You're reviewing a rock album not Voltaire."
ReplyDeleteIn an ideal world, there would be not much difference.
"I'm afraid you appear to be more interested in using your knowledge of the English language than to accurately review a very fine album."
8.0 is indeed a very fine album. To accurately review an album, is to eliminate all further need to listen to it, - in a sense - and that would be a terrible act to commit, let alone display.
"No I don't like your review"
Kind of saw this one coming.
"and no I won't check out your music."
Now you really breaking my heart though!! Thank you for your comment.
I respect your reviewing process, and found this a helpful review of the album to temper my otherwise rampant fanboyism.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, I do agree with Carpe Diem to the extent that you seem to have expressed your review in an excessively verbose manner. I find a comforting irony in a review of a sonically challenging band being written in linguistically challenging prose, but don't be surprised if several future comments reflect C.D.8611's impression.
I would be surprised if they WEREN'T. Thank you for your open-minded comment. Dream Theater's latest as sonically challenging? I found the record quite tender and accessible at nature, and the smarmy elements to be relatively discomforting/embarrassing. Like someone would sit beside you on the bus, only he does not wear clothes.
ReplyDeleteUuuuuuh. OK.
I stand by my statement on two grounds:
ReplyDelete1) Firstly, compared to so much of metal, and indeed contemporary music, Dream Theater are in sonically challenging territory, as much as it is possible whilst maintaining traditional musical confines (i.e. not branching into ambience or truly avant-garde constructions of music).
2) I did say "sonically challenging band", not album. I agree, as far as albums go, this has toned back compared to past efforts.
On a sidenote, I gave Unexpect a listen. I'm not normally a fan of music that is quite that eclectic, however they proved to be the exception to the rule. Totally captivated by the 2:19-ish section of Quantum Symphony at the moment.
Please, I was expecting that the band without mike would atleast try and still tread the same line as before mixing tingling music with great techinicality, the technical skills are evident but the soulful notes largely missing. This is no where close to being DT that we all admire. They have worked so hard to make a technically great album but the x factor is missing altogether . The more I listen to it the more I feel like listening to older albums. its just a good technical album not DT
ReplyDelete