ARTIST: Dream Theater
ALBUM: Black Clouds and Silver Linings
YEAR: 2009
GENRE: Progressive Metal
Just over two years since the release of the rather disappointing Systematic Chaos, Dream Theater return with their tenth studio album, Black Clouds and Silver Linings. Promising nearly 80 minutes of new material, 6 songs in total, in size and scope of past classics such as Pull Me Under, The Glass Prison, and A Change of Seasons, Mike Portnoy set the bar in terms of anticipation. With a new breed of fans rolling in dating all the way from 2003's Train of Thought and diversifying all the way through Systematic Chaos, the Long Island quintet had some lofty goals to meet and while shooting and landing higher than they have in the last few albums ultimately fall just short of achieving par for the Dream Theater course.
First and foremost, Black Clouds and Silver Linings is by far the tightest, musically well rounded album since Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence. Portnoy wasn't lying when he said it would include all elements of what Dream Theater are known for. From the thunderous intro of A Nightmare to Remember to the swirling, epic (for lack of a better word) ending of The Count of Tuscany, the listener is definitely engaged in all facets of the band. Objectively speaking, everything is in place. Subjectively speaking, the truly great parts are few and far between. Aside from The Shattered Fortress there aren't any real bad musical moments, per say, and the ones that stand out deserve some attention.
Four and a half minutes into the opening track I was absolutely floored at how serene the band became. Perhaps one of the more talked about sections (for now named "Peaceful sedation"), it's hard not to get sucked in. These are the types of passages that seemed missing from Systematic Chaos, though my personal dislike of The Ministry of Lost Souls accounts for some of this. There's just something so wonderfully organic about the whole thing. Maybe it's Rudess' piano part, maybe the reserved Petrucci, but by the time the chorus hits you begin to realize how beautiful of a part this is. This is the Dream Theater I've grown to love. Unfortunately the transition to the solo section is a bit abrupt and once snapped back to reality I don't quite know how to react. I've re listened several times and there is something jarring about it that doesn't seem quite right. A smoothened transition ala The Ministry of Lost Souls would've worked much better but that is perhaps a little too nitpicky.
It's intriguing that the new two tracks happen to be the singles, something that shows in the songwriting for both. For Wither it works to its advantage. Dream Theater hasn't been known to write a ton of ballads but when they do they're at the very least decent. Unfortunately this is about where the song stands. It's not bad by any means but while it is its own entity on this album the writing is somewhat bland and very typical sounding. The saving grace is definitely the solo and while Petrucci brings some Brian May-like life to the song it still doesn't pass a point where it's anything other than "just there". It's pretty much on the same level as the album version of Hollow Years. On the other hand A Rite of Passage works in a way where it's very much driven by a ton of energy but repetition ultimately does it in. Granted I haven't heard the radio edit but I have a feeling that chopping off a few minutes might've done this song some good. The riffs are solid and reminiscent of In The Name of God somewhat. What doesn't strike a good chord is how close in format to Constant Motion this is, even down the predictable solo section. Petrucci does rip a fairly varied solo but the bebot solo was a totally failure, especially the second half. As a single, the band does succeed but perhaps the few added minutes on the album version separates it from being everyones cup of tea.
The Shattered Fortress is overall one of the biggest disappointments on the album. As someone always looking forward to the next AA saga song on each album due to the quality being there nearly all the time I couldn't wait to hear it. Once a review came out saying "you've heard this before" as a description of the album I began to get worried. Normally reprises are a great thing in music. Hell albums like Quadrophenia used them all over the place to pull things together but here The Shattered Fortress plays like a poorly constructed patchwork of riffs that, while being reprised in other AA songs, takes way too many liberties. The transitions tend to be a bit wonky but due to the similar keys they are at most passable. The new material gluing the song together has spurts of interesting stuff but for a song consisting of 80% rehashed older material there just isn't anything rewarding about listening to it. It's really hard to get as pumped for this song as The Glass Prison or The Dying Soul because while songs consisting of reprises are generally interesting, The Shattered Fortress screams laziness on Dream Theater's part.
Rounding off the last third of the album is two of the more musically interesting songs. The Best of Times starts very mellow and builds rather nicely. Coming off the behemoth conclusion of the AA saga, the violin adds a great touch for some reason. Most can complain about the The Spirit of the Radio nod but when the band explodes behind it it sounds really damn good, very Six Degrees sounding. While not adding much up until the solo, the song swells rather nicely resulting in a really awesome listening experience. There are talks that this song won't be able to be played live and I hope they find ways around that.
The Count of Tuscany is an odd beast. It's musically brilliant aside from a few rough patches and contains some of the more intriguing instrumental bits on the album. You'd be hard pressed to find someone who doesn't like at least the first four minutes, which contains the most well written instrumental part since the Intervals section on Octavarium. There are some definite classic progressive elements which mesh incredibly well until its time for LaBrie to come in. The initial underlying riff seems a bit strange though thankfully the band moves onto other ideas that ebb and flow until the "Trial of Tears/Floydian" section. I personally love the volume swell type stuff due to the fact that it took the lyrically content and left it suspended for a good three to four minutes. The buildup into the three note pattern from Rudess illustrates some of the stuff I expect to hear from the band that by the time the outro of the song is being played it is hard not to be musically satisfied. Dream Theater are notoriously good at writing monstrous closers and it's safe to say that while not their best definitely holds up to that axiom.
Amidst all the musical parts on the album there are two distinct standouts which deserve special attention. First off Petrucci is an absolute beast in terms of versatility. I've heard it elsewhere but I have to agree that this is by far his best guitar album since Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence. Many of his solos, while not any personal favorites at this point, are very well constructed and executed. Definite standouts are A Rite of Passage, The Best of Times and The Count of Tuscany. His tones are astounding and aside from utilizing the electric guitar to its fullest his use of the acoustic guitar definitely helps shape the entire sound of this album. Accompanying the acoustic a lot of the time Rudess' piano work is amazing. Normally I'm a bit wary of the stuff Rudess does but I can not deny the man plays some absolutely gorgeous piano. One of the things Rudess does exceptionally well is stay reserved enough where there is never any head butting but adding atmosphere and nuances that piece together songs. This is very evident in The Best of Times and The Count of Tuscany.
Any minor griping aside, there is one major flaw that really bothers me. Out of all the descriptive words I want to use to describe the lyrics on Black Clouds and Silver Linings, there is only one that sums them up well: stupid. When early information revealed that the lyrics would be more personal and meaningful I was hopeful. They've done well in the past aside from a few hiccups (Endless Sacrifice and I Walk Beside You, I'm looking at you) and for a group of men as dedicated and passionate to their musicianship as they are I expected some well thought out passages, especially coming off the fantasy driven Systematic Chaos, home of many of my least favorite lyrical Dream Theater songs. But even on their own it's baffling how almost all of the songs on the album sound like they were written in one go and handed off to LaBrie to record. By comparison it'd be easier to talk about the actual lyrical bright spots since there are far fewer. The whole middle section of A Nightmare To Remember works wonderfully with the music and is far less intrusive than the last third of the song. I've never quite seen this in a song before but the "...in peaceful sedation..." verse is great yet "...Did they ever see the red light?", "It's a miracle they survived!" is night and day coming from the pen of the same person talking about the same event. Granted Petrucci has steadily gotten worse with his narrative and it shows in this album a lot. I would've expected better from A Rite Of Passage in terms of driving home a point. It's comparable to The Great Debate only in terms of topical lyrics though at least in the latter Petrucci presented two sides of an argument in a somewhat poetic manner. In A Rite Of Passage Petrucci seems to be explaining the Free Masons as if he's reading from a pamphlet.Wither, while incredibly dull lyrically, might be saved by the fact that its only crime is how cliche it is. Perhaps the lyrics could've used a better vocal melody as well since LaBrie isn't particularly strong, though he isn't bad.
Portnoy's lyrics are a mixed bag, though they tend to skew towards the disappointing side. The Shattered Fortress was expected, being the conclusion of the AA saga, and for the most part the lyrics stay on point. In fact the only truly ridiculous parts are where Portnoy belts out "Kindness! Courtesy! Analysis!" and the like in response to LaBrie. The words themselves aren't particularly damaging but switching the two vocal parts around might've helped somewhat and make it less awkward. Honestly they're just not the types of words you would expect to hear in loud, harsh tones. One of the brighter vocal points has to be LaBrie's whole "I am responsible!" part. There is some nice passion that drives the end of the song and makes for a great closing statement. Unfortunately where one might expect more passion present, The Best of Times, ultimately falls flat on its face. Most people seem to refrain from any negative comments for this song due to its content but I feel that Portnoy could've done much better. The words themselves are obviously heartfelt and personal but lines like "The fleeting winds of time" and even "Those were the best of times" just sound cheesy and cliche. Given the time of his father's death in relation to recording, the other descriptions in the song of specific memories feels rushed and could've been worded less blatantly. I wasn't really feeling LaBrie's delivery throughout the song either so there is a good possibility he doesn't do the words any justice.
By far the biggest lyrical disappointment is The Count of Tuscany. Already ridiculed for its ridiculous title and gaining somewhat of a mocking aura before its release, the expected mention of the title within the song is goofy enough to make the listener smirk at minimum. But what could've turned into an interesting personal story gets bogged down by Petrucci attempting to add ridiculous descriptive elements that ultimately turn the 'so ridiculous it's awesome' song into simply a ridiculous song. Perhaps a bad vocal melody choice with Portnoy on backup/lead vocals but hearing "All the finest wines, improve with age!" belted so confidently made me laugh so hard just at the sheer stupidity of it. Now I realize some people can look at this as blatantly cheesy and throw up the horns with reckless abandon but I shouldn't even have to point out how embarrassingly bad lines like that are. Thankfully there aren't many, but the other random exclamations don't help this song's credibility much. The "Could this be the end..." section actually isn't so bad but when the whole story is recapped I can't help but wonder what the point of Petrucci writing about it was. Surely there were other, less goofy topics that could accompany some of the best music Dream Theater has assembled into one song in years but I've pretty much completely lost my trust in their lyric writing abilities after the last few albums.
If there is one absolutely fantastic thing Dream Theater has accomplished with Black Clouds and Silver Linings it's that for the first time in years you can call this a pure, 100% original Dream Theater album. There are some minor The Spirit of the Radio nods in The Best of Times from that it feels good not to have to listen to "well then there's the X ripoff section" or whatever. Everything feels exactly what you'd expect from the band, which has is both good and bad. The good being that if you're a fan of what the band has been doing over the last few albums more likely than not Black Clouds and Silver Linings will be more than pallatable. Rightfully so, this is also somewhat of a disappointment more so that it almost cements the fact that Dream Theater are happy with what they're doing and have decided to settle down right where they are. It's frustrating to see a band with such talented musicians lack the motivation to do something outside of their realm and actually, you know, progress. It makes me curious as to what I see as 'paint by numbers' albums that Dream Theater has been producing lately others contend "well that sounds slightly different from other stuff they made" as a substitute for actual progressing musically. Rudess getting a few new keyboard accessories doesn't count, though the only exception might be his use of the continuum which definitely has added a new element to their sound.
What I would love to see this band do is either restrict themselves or vehemently move into a new direction or something. It just feels like they're not taking risks anymore, which is disappointing. Scenes From A Memory to Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence was a risk because it is very hard to compare the two. The transition to Train of Thought may be considered but in terms of what they can do and what they are doing, I personally don't feel like any of the transitions from Train of Thought onwards was anything more than a safe move. Obviously fans of that stretch of albums will disagree but I'm hoping with the conclusion of the AA saga and reaching a few milestones such as ten albums and over 20 years of playing together than the band will reinvent themselves. It's not that what they're making is terrible but the lack of interesting material and depth to what they're producing is increasingly apparent with each release. I just don't feel that Black Clouds and Silver Linings is the best the band can do at this point in their career. Few remaining fans might agree and it's great to see the band catering to fans who really do enjoy what they're producing but for me, I'm just keep wondering why a group of men with music flowing from their fingertips can go into a studio for six months and only come out with this.
C-
Topic: [Music] Dream Theater - Black Clouds and Silver Linings (Read 5298 times)