I’m aware that this is a book blog, and that music reviews aren’t really my thing – but after listening to Dream Theatre’s A Dramatic Turn of Events over the weekend and finding so many things I wanted to say about it, I thought I’d dust off the old music vocab and have a belated bash at a review. This may not go well; I haven’t been a serious student of music for many years (and even when I was I sucked epically), but fuck it. Progressive metal is the musical equivalent of modern fiction writing anyway.
With the departure of drummer Mike Portnoy last year, the remaining members of Dream Theatre sat down and rethought the fundamentals of their style. The result is bright and aggressive, with Petrucci and Rudess giving plenty of nods to personal musical influences, as well as to the band’s own previous releases. For DT fans who enjoyed the melody-driven sound of Images and Words (1992) and Scenes from a Memory (1999), the band’s latest offering is a veritable buffet of gratifying consonance with just the right smattering of darkness.
On top of this, there’s no shortage of trademark Dream Theater time signature acrobatics, which I have to mention despite their ubiquity because I am such a shamelessly swooning fan of them. An example to jog your memory: “The Dance of Eternity” from Scenes from a Memory goes through over 128 time signature changes in 6ish minutes. Portnoy explains here. A Dramatic Turn of Events is a return to form in this respect, with loads of rhythmic surprises in store for the unsuspecting foot-tapper. It’s also nice to know that Portnoy wasn’t as indispensable to the band as some fans claimed; Mangini holds his rhythmic own just fine.
When the band detailed stylistic changes and reinvention in interviews earlier this year, they weren’t kidding. But it’s a shallow adaptation curve for the most part and might be a little disappointing for fans hoping for a brand new sound. Where you will notice it, however, is with Rudess. Gone are the arpeggiated adventures up to C8. Gone are the extended Yngwie-Malmsteen-with-a-keyboard solos. Sure, he still pulls out the stops occasionally, but he’s so obviously swapped coke for Valium on this album that even the most casual DT listener can’t miss it. And quite frankly, it’s refreshing. Some may have enjoyed Jordan’s original sound, but for me it was getting old. Just for once, I wanted to hear him using restraint instead of channeling some wild modern dance routine into the keyboard. For reference, here is a creative interpretation of Yesterday in which he barely manages to control the caffeinated spiders he calls his hands for 60 seconds before they’re off weaving some chaotic musical nonsense 15 kilometers up the piano.
But I’m not here to complain. I love this band and I love this album. So, let’s get to it.
“On The Backs Of Angels”
The Eagles’ “Hotel California” and Opeth’s ballads are the first things that come to mind as this song opens with a haunting acoustic buildup before exploding into a dark and dissonant power riff. Almost as soon as LaBrie opens his mouth you recognize the song is referencing Scenes from a Memory. Triumphant lead guitar interludes punctuate the song, and Rudess serves up the first and last florid piano solo you’ll hear on the album. If you enjoyed his old style ala DT's live performances, this song is its sole showcase.
“Build Me Up, Break Me Down”
Probably the least “progressive” progressive metal song on the album, “Build” is unrelentingly heavy throughout. With synthetic strings and Continuum aplenty, it is vaguely nu-metal in structure. LaBrie is as angry as we’ve heard him for a while, and he carries the song well over the prominent rhythm guitar and Myung’s mumbling bass line. Rudess’s disquieting string synth winds the song down to the sound of gusting wind and galloping horse hooves.
“Lost Not Forgotten”
Rudess opens with a gentle solo reminiscent of a Brahms concerto, then Petrucci attacks, repeating Rudess’s theme as Jordan arpeggiates behind him. The drums back them up after a couple of repetitions, before the song descends without warning into a wild and dissonant synthetic mess for 30 seconds or so until its ebbs off into a syncopated and churning rhythm riff. LaBrie begins building up the sinister melody of the first verse, then rinse-repeat until a triumphant bridge picks up the mood. By 6ish minutes we’re on the quintessential DT progressive journey with Petrucci’s and Rudess’s performances calling to mind fantasy metal bands like Dragonforce and Arjen Anthony Lucassen’s Star One.
“This Is The Life”
A basic ballad – not much depth or complexity to it, so I’m not going to dissect it. Hardcore fans will detect structural and thematic similarities to DT’s mid-90s songs, but I’ll leave that for others to write about. Listen for the awesome Continuum and guitar solos.
“Bridges In The Sky”
“Bridges” opens with a deep Tibetan chant and Gothic choir, setting a haunting scene for a heavy rhythm guitar and rock organ sequence. Both a throwback to Octavarium and an apparent nod to Symphony X – LaBrie does his best Russell Allen impression in what could almost be a re-imagining of "Of Sins and Shadows" – this song excels with its uplifting yet teasingly unresolved chorus. Rudess and Petrucci take turns to outdo each other in a series of evolving solos, while Mangini hammers out crisp, angry beats like a machine.
“Outcry”
Starting with piano and static effects, the song explodes into a strangely Evanescence-like progression. Not what we’ve come to expect, but by the time LaBrie starts singing we know the song is far more complex than anything schlock-rock has to offer. Loads of brilliant time signature variation in this piece, with exploration right up and down the musical spectrum from Malmsteen’s favoured Phrygian dominant scale to Zappa-esque weirdness, choppy harmonic minors and other aberrant things that only a music school graduate could adequately discuss. The final chorus of “Outcry” is stunning, settling down into dark 2/4 and a dissonant finish.
“Far From Heaven”
The first thing the piano/cello intro and heavy use of 7ths in this song made me think of was Joe Hisaishi. A light ballad and less than 4 minutes long, it’s a sweet but fairly unremarkable tune notable mostly because of Jordan’s complete deference to LaBrie. I expected a piano solo and was pleasantly surprised not to get one.
“Breaking All Illusions”
This is my favourite song on the album. With some sweet Iron Maiden-inspired harmonic elements, “Breaking” harks back to Scenes from a Memory, sometimes almost seeming to be the darker electronic brother of “The Spirit Carries On”, or some heaving conglomeration of Octavarium’s “Panic Attack” and early 90s influences. I can’t decide, and by 6 minutes in it doesn’t matter anyway, because Petrucci pulls out one of the most amazing solos of the entire DT discography, channeling Joe Satriani and Gary Moore in a rising testament to the power of the guitar as a voice. After a healthy 3 minutes of this, Rudess strikes up a syncopated organ melody that gradually decomposes into more brief Petrucci brilliance, followed by a return of LaBrie and a time signature change that slows the song into an epic finale. It’s no “Octavarium” but it’s quite an experience. Do try it.
“Beneath The Surface”
There’s something of “The Silent Man” about this one, although it never gets as musically diverse as its thematic predecessor. This ballad is more of a gentle coming down to earth. LaBrie uses his voice to great effect in this piece, soaring over the acoustic guitar and strings, especially towards the end as he hits a pitch he usually reserves for heavier songs. Interesting Continuum solo in the middle, and a cleanly resolved last-song dénouement in true DT style.
Well, that’s it. But before I go, something must be said about James LaBrie. He’s fine, he does his job. I can’t deny that. Thing is, he’s boring – and he’s the one element of Dream Theater that is not musically progressive. He has about 5 different settings, one of which is silence, and this is not good enough in my opinion. So, as an addendum, allow me to introduce two awesome pieces of compensation. The first is LaBrie’s 2010 solo release, Static Impulse. This is not progressive metal; more power and melodic death metal. And yes, I know it’s more LaBrie, but it’s damn good stuff because he shares the mike with Swedish drummer Peter Wildoer – whose screams break up the flow nicely – and keyboardist Matt Guillory’s backing vocals.
The second recommendation is an astonishing album. If prog metal is what you want but you’d like to hear everyone in the band being “progressive”, you can’t do much better than Fair to Midland and their lead singer Darroh Sudderth. Their latest offering, Arrows and Anchors, just about blew me away in terms of technical complexity and atmosphere. There is something genuinely flooring about how tight all the songs are. Although I can’t for the life of me figure out what any of his lyrics mean, Sudderth’s voice is a fucking gem. Check them out.
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