Dream Theater - Black Clouds & Silver Linings
2009
Progressive Metal
To call
Black Clouds & Silver Linings a thank you from Dream Theater to their fans would not be unfounded. Ever since the release of
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence in 2002, the band’s been experimenting with their sound, asking their supporters to bear with them as they leapfrogged from genre to genre, sometimes radically so. Their last effort,
Systematic Chaos, despite trying to rekindle a more balanced Dream Theater style, fell short of the high standards they’d established for themselves throughout their career, and left some wondering (myself included) whether or not they were relevant anymore.
So here’s Dream Theater, with their milestone 10th studio release, extending their hands to their fans as if to say, ‘Thanks for waiting’. What they’ve managed to do with
Black Clouds & Silver Linings is nothing short of remarkable; they’ve shocked people into realizing that they’re still capable of grandeur. They’re still capable of crafting moving
music, even if their lyrics fall short at times (alright, most of the time). And, most interestingly, the album cannot be enjoyed to its fullest unless you have knowledge of the band’s discography, history, and inner workings to some extent.
Take “The Best of Times”, for example. Mike Portnoy writes, “
Remember ‘seize the day’”, a phrase we’ve heard from him before on the watershed epic “A Change of Seasons”. There, he says goodbye to his father, Mr. Howard Portnoy, who Dream Theater fans have heard of on multiple occasions over the years via print, radio and video interviews. Although from a lyrical standpoint, Portnoy’s words are clichéd, they strike a chord with the listener regardless because he isn’t writing lyrics so much as he’s speaking to his father. Portnoy’s willingness to bare his soul is very touching, a topic John Petrucci explores more generally with his own composition, “Wither”. Although it’d be wrong to say the song affects Dream Theater fans more strongly because we feel Howard Portnoy’s loss as well – because we never really knew him – there’s no question our awareness of Mike Portnoy’s closeness to him allows for us to meet the lyrics with less resistance.
In the case of “The Shattered Fortress”, the final movement of the Twelve Step Suite which started seven years ago with “The Glass Prison” and has continued on every album since, knowledge of the band’s discography isn’t just recommended if you want to enjoy the thing. It’s mandatory. The track is so cut-and-paste and made up of so many of the Suite’s previously existing riffs that anyone approaching it without having heard its preceding parts will be clueless beyond measure. And if by chance you are familiar with what came before it, then you’ll be rewarded immensely; it’s a solid closer. The inclusion of the “Glass Prison” line at its conclusion, in particular, is chilling in the same way the inclusion of the “Metropolis” riff is in “Home”.
Really, the only time the record flutters is when the band tries to be heavy. Its first two songs, “A Nightmare to Remember” and “A Rite of Passage”, are quite metal, but they’re also very bland as well. Their only saving grace is a short middle section found during the former which, fittingly, isn’t heavy at all. I get the sense from those compositions that Dream Theater has never been at their best when trying to be metal. I’ve always thought
Train of Thought showed a portrait of a group out of their element, and it’s no different here. For their next effort, I hope they realize this and stick to what turned out best on
Black Clouds.
Basically, guys, do whatever you did when writing “The Count of Tuscany”.
Not since anything off
Images & Words has any Dream Theater song been so majestic in the way the guitars compliment the keyboards and the way only melody matters. Despite Petrucci’s strange lyrics that somehow make a horrible experience sound funny, the thing works anyway. It excels because it shows what can result when musicians of the highest caliber use their powers for good, and not for evil. It’s a wonder of sound, melodies that resound within the mind and baffle in how smooth they go down. Jordan Rudess has a lot to do with that, I think, a guy who I’ve harshly criticized for not taking anything seriously but who’s proven, time and time again, that when he zones in, he’s a legendary talent.
Although its two misfires hinder it,
Black Clouds & Silver Linings is, regardless, a surprisingly good effort from an outfit many had lost all interest in. I doubt its splendor is superficial, even after only owning it for a short while, because its interests lie where I’ve always wanted Dream Theater’s interests to lie (mostly). It plays out like a reward to the fans for allowing the group to tinker with their sound for all these years, and then, unlike Metallica did with
Death Magnetic where they tried to recapture a record of old, they took the torch and they ran forward with it. They knew their transformation was complete, and they wanted to show us what they’d become.
And I like what I see.
***1/2 (out of five)