Dream Theater - The Tightrope Walkers of Prog-Metal

The meeting and the birth of Majesty

It's 1985, and in Massachusetts, specifically at the prestigious Berklee College of Music, three young men – guitarist John Petrucci, from an Italian-American family in New York, bassist John Myung, of Korean descent but born in Chicago, and a self-taught seventeen-year-old who arrived at Berklee on a scholarship, drummer Mike Portnoy, also from New York – play together in their free time for hours and hours in the college's rehearsal room, almost obsessively. When they're alone, in their own rooms, they keep honing their technique to an incredible degree (John Petrucci would later reveal that he got up to six extra hours of practice a day, and that such dedication was the result of meeting his favorite guitarist, Steve Morse, founder of the Dixie Dregs, who would later become the guitarist for Deep Purple). The three decide to form a band, taking the name Majesty, a name apparently inspired by the ending of the song "Bastille Day" by the Rush; during a performance by the Canadian trio, in fact, Mike Portnoy described the song as "majestic," thus coming up with the first name for the nucleus of what would, a few years later, become Dream Theater.

Having realized their desire to focus on the band that was taking shape and on their own sound, the newly formed Majesty decide to leave college and start playing around New York and the surrounding area, together with Kevin Moore, John Petrucci's schoolmate back in high school (as well as the first person to encourage John to seriously pick up a six-string and play with him in his first band) and a keyboard virtuoso, and vocalist Chris Collins, later replaced by Charlie Dominici.

The group gains growing popularity in the New York area and New Jersey, even going on to produce several demos in which they tackle covers of Rush themselves, one of the biggest influences on early Dream Theater (these demos would officially be released a few years later under the name "The Majesty Demos" by the record label founded by Mike Portnoy, Ytse Jam Records).

The band's underground popularity, who in the meantime, in order to avoid legal trouble (another group claimed ownership of the Majesty name), change their name to Dream Theater, keeps growing, and in 1989 comes their first record deal (with Mechanic Records) and their first album of original material, When Dream And Day Unite.

The record perhaps suffers a little too much under the weight of the influences of a band clearly still searching for its own identity, but at the same time it's full of good ideas. Worth highlighting in particular are "A Fortune In Lies", which immediately sets the pace thanks to Petrucci's successful guitar intro riding atop Portnoy's forcefully pounded-out drum beats, and "Another Hand/The Killing Hand", which stands out for its highly successful blend of instrumental and vocal parts (as well as for its lyrics, which evoke dreamlike imagery tied to eternal themes such as good, evil, the search, and death).

Other notable tracks are "Afterlife", which immediately strikes with a fitting rhythm that instantly lodges itself in the listener's mind and ear, and of course "Ytse Jam". This latter track, among the most accomplished in the entire career of the New York prog band, as well as Dream Theater's tribute to the band's original name (spelled backwards), is a genuine masterpiece both musically and technically, with several sections perfectly linked to (if not outright flowing into) one another, punctuated by tempo changes that trace out an extremely varied rhythm, dazzling grooves and top-tier solo passages, with John Petrucci and John Myung leading the way. "Ytse Jam", along with "Metropolis Pt.1", would go on to become one of the most requested (and performed) songs at Dream Theater's live shows.

The debut album reveals a band whose style is still raw, one in which the major influences — Rush and Queensrÿche most of all, and Iron Maiden, for instance in certain rhythmic sections — are still very much present, while at the same time showing the seeds of a possible artistic blossoming, one that would not be long in revealing itself on their next studio effort.

When Dream And Day Unite also demonstrates the band members' impressive technical level, which at the time finds an equal perhaps only in David Lee Roth's band, whose ranks included Steve Vai and Billy Sheehan. On this point, it's enough to look at the band's "tools of the trade": Mike Portnoy would become a master of the double pedal, John Myung would wield his six-string Yamaha bass for years to come (except for a brief period when, suffering from back problems, he switched to a five-string bass), while John Petrucci (who, after a partnership lasting several years, would abandon his longtime Ibanez JPM100 to become an endorser of Ernie Ball Music Man in 1999) would come to make extensive use of the seven-string guitar, especially (though not only) during his work with Liquid Tension Experiment. All members of the band (with the obvious exception of the vocalist) would go on to release numerous instructional videos and hold clinics around the world, speaking to musicians, young and old, about the various methods that can be used to hone and improve one's skill on an instrument, effectively becoming champions of shredding and technique pushed to its absolute limits — and drawing no small amount of criticism for it, especially among fans of a dirtier, rawer sound (meanwhile, on the other side of the rock universe, grunge was already knocking at the door).

Global success

After their debut album, which despite still being somewhat raw stirred up considerable interest, the band's fame grows significantly, up until 1992, the year they release what is unanimously (or almost) considered their masterpiece, namely Images And Words, which, like the previous record, features tracks of the highest technical caliber, such as "Metropolis Part 1" and "Pull Me Under", alongside far more melodic ballads, such as "Another Day" and "Surrounded". The album also marks the debut of a new singer, James LaBrie, immediately recruited by the group after they listened to a demos tape the vocalist himself had sent the band.

Images And Words is a resounding success, striking a perfect balance between instrumental and vocal parts, with a pronounced leaning toward the more melodic side of progressive rock (the Rush influence is still fairly evident, though the band here has a much more defined personality than on the previous record), all without giving up moments of serious virtuosic soloing. The album in fact represents that perfect synthesis that the New York band would perhaps never manage to achieve again (except perhaps on Metropolis Pt.2), coming across on every track as remarkably natural and inspired.

From the opening of what is perhaps the most authentically prog track, namely "Pull Me Under" (Petrucci's arpeggio soon becomes a must for every fan of the band who can't live without a six-string), we move on to the thoroughly enjoyable "Another Day" and "Surrounded", songs more traditionally anchored to a verse-chorus pop structure, and which therefore openly wink at the mainstream while still remaining spontaneous and genuine. In "Take The Time" (and here film buffs can't help but recognize a sample taken from "Cinema Paradiso") it's once again progressive rock in its most purely virtuosic guise that comes to the fore, while "Under A Glass Moon", another hugely famous track by the band, turns out to be an excellent compromise between the technical component, put in service of progressive rock, and the classic melodic rock structure. Here too Petrucci leaves an important mark with an incredible solo (ranked by Guitar World magazine among the top 100 in rock history), in which he perfectly blends chromatic scales, sweep picking, vibrato and tapping, all without ever sacrificing melody.

Totally different is the style of "Wait For Sleep", a dreamy ballad in which LaBrie is accompanied on piano by Moore alone, following an approach that would later be reused by Jordan Rudess on the album Metropolis Pt. 2. Closing the record is "Learning To Live", which opens with synth and guitar, and which once again underscores the band's growing ability to perfectly combine virtuosity and melody, with LaBrie acting as a bridge between the instrumental sections, and the application of what might be called a sonic déjà vu technique (the band would reuse this device again in the future, to excellent effect, once more on the album Metropolis Pt. 2), which consists of taking a theme — in this case the one from "Wait For Sleep" — and presenting it again in another track, in this instance in a decidedly more progressive rock version.

Every track on Images And Words is excellent, but it's with "Metropolis Part 1: The Miracle and The Sleeper", which has become a bona fide metal classic as well as a staple of the band's live shows, that Dream Theater built their reputation. The track is a genuine suite (lasting around nine minutes), with a very powerful and evocative intro that gives way to a spectacular instrumental section in which every member of the group gives their best. For instance, hugely famous among bass enthusiasts is John Myung's brief but spectacular solo, played entirely using the tapping technique. After the instrumental section, LaBrie's voice comes grandly back into play, the track changes tempo, and with the rest of the band forming a single powerful rhythm section, it heads toward its conclusion. Here too, as in nearly all of the band's work, the lyrics (most of which are credited to Petrucci and Portnoy) turn out to be largely abstract and voluptuous, repeatedly evoking grand themes such as love, pain, life and death, and while pleasant enough, they necessarily take a back seat when compared to the instrumental sections.

Images And Words goes gold in the States and reaches number 61 on the Billboard chart, while the band's members become veritable idols for musicians the world over. 1993 sees the release of the band's first official live album, recorded at London's famous Marquee club, from which it takes its name, Live At The Marquee. The album, though well made, highlights one of the aspects the band is most often criticized for, namely the lack of a strong live-experience quality to their performances, often judged too "cold" — though this criticism is partly justified by the high degree of concentration required to properly execute their songs, most of which comfortably run past the six-minute mark and feature a rather complex melodic-harmonic and rhythmic structure (many tracks feature odd time signatures such as 13/8 or 7/4, which sometimes interweave with one another).

The standout element within Live At The Marquee is undoubtedly the improvised jam "Bombay Vindaloo", which opens with natural harmonics that, together with the distinctive melodic material played by Petrucci, lend the track a mystical, exotic atmosphere, making it probably the record's high point.

Moore's Departure and Sherinian's Arrival

1994 brings Awake, which unfortunately fails to match the heights of the previous studio effort, not helped by the heavy pressure the label put on the band to release a new album as soon as possible. Marked by sounds that veer sometimes harder, sometimes decidedly too soft, the record, despite a few interesting tracks like "Space-Dye Vest" or "Caught In A Web", ends up lacking a clear identity, coming across as far less inspired and spontaneous than Images And Words. A telling example is the opening track, "6:00", where the instrumental parts sit awkwardly both with each other and with LaBrie's vocals, leaving the listener with the impression of a band unsure of which direction to take.

Things improve with "Caught In A Web", which partly recovers the prog atmospheres and musical cohesion of the instrumental sections, and with "Space-Dye Vest", marked by a successful synth intro, lightly reverbed courtesy of Moore, which is gradually joined by drums and vocals - here particularly rich in effects - lending the track baroque shadings and effectively standing as Moore's own farewell statement, since he would leave the band shortly after. "Erotomania", on the other hand, comes off musically thin, ending up more like a sterile shredders' showcase than a real song, largely reduced to a series of chromatic scales played at lightning speed. Far more successful is "The Silent Man", a fully acoustic track that lifts the album's fortunes, if only slightly.

A work that thrills the most hardcore metalheads, but that only just passes muster and pales next to Images And Words.

The tour following the release of Awake sees the departure of the band's first and longtime keyboardist. Kevin Moore decided to leave, feeling that over the years he had developed a desire to pursue different musical paths, as he would go on to prove with his subsequent project, Chroma Key. Moore was then replaced (initially on a temporary basis for the upcoming Awake world tour, and later as a full-fledged member of the group) by Derek Sherinian, a virtuoso who had worked with Kiss during the "Revenge" tour and on Gene Simmons' recording of "Alive III".

Sherinian brought more electronic-leaning sounds into the group and stood out for his almost "guitar-like" approach to the keyboard, breaking sharply from the style of his predecessor, which was in some ways more classically inclined, and certainly more inspiredly melodic.

Awake is followed by the release of a small gem, A Change Of Seasons, an EP built around a seven-movement suite (in which the balance between melody and technique so beloved by fans resurfaces), alongside a series of covers of legendary bands such as Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and Genesis, recorded during a band performance at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in London.

The record is very interesting both because it represents the band's first (and particularly successful) experiment with a true suite (from here on the band would deliver increasingly complex and ambitious works such as Metropolis Part 2 and Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence), and for the excellent craftsmanship of the covers gathered in the "Big Medley". What really convinces, in particular, is the title suite itself, which moves from an almost acoustic-flavored intro into a propulsive and thoroughly successful central section dominated by John Petrucci, who delivers a series of patterns - as effective rhythmically as they are melodically - played in the mid-high register of his Ibanez, before closing just as it began, with Petrucci's own arpeggio symbolically completing the cycle (fittingly, given the EP's title).

Compared to Awake, the overall sound here is much fresher and more engaging, managing to hold the listener's attention for all 24 minutes. Another factor that greatly benefits the sound of A Change Of Seasons is a clearer-voiced LaBrie than on the previous record, where he had pushed his voice somewhat (with mixed results). Also very convincing are the covers of Pink Floyd's "In The Flesh" (pulling off the far from easy task of doing justice to the track by Waters and co.) and Kansas's "Carry On Wayward Son". From this point on, it also becomes clear that the band is increasingly keen to broaden its fanbase, with a greater dose of accessibility in their music that would not take long to upset longtime fans.

Confirming this intent, more or less explicitly, came in 1997, after various disputes with the label (the band had long been asking to release a double album, with Atlantic Records opposing it for commercial reasons), Falling Into Infinity, which marks an even clearer shift toward softer, and therefore more commercial, sounds than previous works, and which perhaps for that very reason seems to disappoint the expectations of a large segment of the band's following. This may be why the album was met with a rather cool reception (though it still reached number 52 on the Billboard chart), just as many were not fully convinced by the musical chemistry formed with Sherinian, whose aforementioned guitar-like approach rubbed more than one fan the wrong way. The difference in sound compared to the band's early period is indeed too stark; a clear example is the opening track, "New Millennium", too far removed from the band's classic sound, just as LaBrie's vocals feel contrived and over-mixed, with a resulting loss of spontaneity.

"You Not Me" leaves one puzzled with its distinctly too pop-metal structure, which effectively strips it of any appeal, just as "Hollow Years" and "Anna Lee" turn out to be too lightweight. Things improve with "Peruvian Skies" (the best track on the album), which instantly brings Pink Floyd to mind (and heart), and in particular their "Have A Cigar", both for the opening riff and for the bridge and the use of synth, which clearly draws inspiration from Richard Wright's psychedelic sound (and the tribute to the Floyd track becomes even more explicit in the version found on Once In LiveTime, where the band works in parts of the song by Gilmour and Waters' band).

Another notable episode is certainly "Hell's Kitchen", an instrumental with a linear structure in which Petrucci, strongly supported by the solid rhythm section of Myung and Portnoy, delivers one of the most melodically inspired and successful solos on the entire record. Pure prog-metal is what you get on "Lines in The Sand" (which at times recalls "Take The Time" with its syncopated rhythms), where the progressive section flows very naturally into a sweeping ballad dominated by a highly convincing LaBrie. The album closes with "Trial Of Tears", which, as the title suggests, is a mini-suite made up of three movements containing some very interesting melodic material (especially from Petrucci), which perhaps isn't fully exploited here, but which would find an outlet shortly after in the second incarnation of Liquid Tension Experiment, while in this case the combination with song form doesn't yield thrilling results, not helped by a less than successful vocal performance from LaBrie, so melodic that it ends up bland and therefore lacking any real bite to the listener's ear.

Ultimately, while not a record to dismiss entirely, Falling Into Infinity suffers on one hand from a lack of inspiration and on the other from too many tracks that, in trying to be more accessible, end up bland, dragging down the quality of the whole record. The band seems to have lost its musical direction and, with it, its identity; this may be one of the reasons behind the departure of Derek Sherinian, who left Dream Theater after roughly four years in the New York quintet's ranks. Sherinian would go on to found his own band, Planet X, together with drummer Virgil Donati and guitarist Tony MacAlpine, whose sound would diverge significantly from pure progressive metal, drawing closer to fusion territory.

Side projects, Metropolis Part. 2, and the start of the Rudess era

1998 also saw the release of another live album (Once In LiveTime), which didn't achieve great success, not helped by a less than stellar production, although the record does offer a few gems, such as the inclusion of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "FreeBird" at the end of the performance of "Take The Time", or Metallica's "Enter Sandman" within "Peruvian Skies".

After the release of the live album, the band took a year off, devoted to various side projects. Petrucci and Portnoy, together with Tony Levin, former bassist of King Crimson, and keyboard virtuoso Jordan Rudess, launched the Liquid Tension Experiment project, which yielded two albums (actually four, if you count those tied to the Liquid Trio Experiment, "Spontaneous Combustion" from 2007, recorded during a few days when Petrucci was unavailable, and "When The Keyboard Breaks: Live In Chicago", recorded, as the title suggests, without Rudess's involvement) of highly experimental sound, which split critics and fans but are undeniably of the highest technical caliber. On one hand, the sound seems to shine with a light of its own thanks to the jazz-like nature of the sessions (purely instrumental tracks, improvised parts, no pressure tied to the Dream Theater name, etc.), with the quartet's technique pushed to the limit and stretched across different genres (from the progressive of "Paradigm Shift" to the "psychedelic metal" of "Osmosis", to name a couple of examples); on the other hand, the criticisms usually leveled at Dream Theater (lack of emotion and substantial musical content, technique for technique's sake, and so on) become amplified to an extreme degree.

The truth probably lies somewhere in between, given the less-than-stellar quality of some tracks like "The Stretch" or "Chewbacca", which are counterbalanced by others that are extremely interesting, such as "Acid Rain" (in which the Long Island guitarist proves himself a true all-round virtuoso, even on seven-string guitar), "Biaxident" (among the most melodic tracks in the entire Liquid Tension Experiment catalogue, complete with a bluesy solo) and "Universal Mind". Shortly afterward, Jordan Rudess himself would join Dream Theater as a full-time member, filling the vacancy left by Sherinian. Rudess would make a fundamental contribution to the band's sound, and in some ways would represent a return to Moore's lyricism.

This is the turning point. The change taking hold within the band is palpable, and the chemistry with Rudess clicks right away, as Metropolis Part 2: Scenes From A Memory would demonstrate — the album of rebirth, released in 1999.

The band's first true concept album, following the successful experiment of A Change Of Seasons, the record marks a return to the sound of Images and Words, enriched by Rudess's refined melodic lines, which act as a genuine sonic binding agent for the band. The chemistry here is radiant and rich with interplay, featuring gorgeous unison keyboard-guitar passages and a renewed dialogue between the guitar and John Myung's bass lines.

The album's opener alone, "Regression", punctuated by a ticking clock and a hypnotic voice before Petrucci's guitar enters, gives a sense of the record's powerful evocative quality. Further examples include the sumptuous "Overture 1928", a track reaching a lyricism perhaps never before attained by the band, and "Strange Dejá Vu". "Through My Words" offers a stunning classical voice-and-piano duet, a form already successfully explored by the band on "Wait For Sleep", while "Fatal Tragedy" masterfully flips the mood, veering toward decidedly more rock-oriented territory, as does "Beyond This Life", in which the band effectively sets the pace of the story it's telling, syncing its sound perfectly with the mood induced in the listener, and managing never to feel out of place despite the enormous distance between the various musical situations that arise.

The first part of the album closes with the poignant "Through Her Eyes", perfectly delivered by a LaBrie sounding as clear as he had in a long time. The second part of the album then opens with the mystical "Home", a masterful piece distinguished by the remarkable interplay between Petrucci and Myung, who skillfully weave their instruments' melodic lines together, building alongside Portnoy a solid sonic bed from which LaBrie's voice soars, and by the melodic material (most likely modal scales), which gives the track an at times Eastern-tinged color and sound. Next comes "The Dance Of Eternity", an instrumental piece firmly rooted in the progressive metal of the Dream Theater school, which (deliberately) recalls Metropolis Pt.1 on more than one occasion, and which is made all the more memorable by John Myung's superb bass solo. The track also exemplifies the album's complexity: it features alternating passages in 3/8, 5/8, 7/16 and 6/8 time, all seasoned with genuine bursts of Portnoy's bass drum and Petrucci's thunderous power chords, once again confirming the album's almost orchestral character.

"One Last Time" brings the record back to a more evocative, ethereal dimension (thanks above all to Rudess's lyrical opening piano passage), before closing the circle both ideally and musically by revisiting the structure of "Strange Dejà Vu" in its finale, and then leading the listener by the hand toward the end of the dreamlike experience through the melancholy ballad "The Spirit Carries On", beautifully sung by LaBrie, whose voice here is warm and inspired, just as Petrucci's solo is inspired and lyrical, here more restrained and with fewer notes, which only intensifies its meaning.

The album closes with "Finally Free", built on the alternation of acoustic and amplified sections. It's the epilogue of the story, which underscores the music as though accompanying it (in this respect, on the tour that followed the album's release the band would always set up a large screen to project scenes from the same story, almost pushing into a multimedia dimension beyond the purely musical experience).

Overall, from a purely technical standpoint, the entire album is far more complex than the previous two, yet at the same time deeply melodic and natural, effectively representing a kind of "reconciliation" with the band's longtime fanbase, left somewhat puzzled first by Awake and then by Falling Into Infinity. This is also where the series of "musical links" between albums begins, as if to establish a connecting thread running through the various works. From this record onward, and for the next three albums, the band would always open the following work with an element (a note or a particular sound) taken from the last track of the previous one. In this case, the connecting element is the background hiss at the end of "Finally Free", which is picked up again at the start of "The Glass Prison", the opening track of the following album, Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence.

Metropolis Part 2 was followed by a world tour (during which the band performed the album in full) and a triple live album, Live Scenes From New York, finally worthy of the band's reputation, also known for the macabre coincidence of being released on September 11, 2001, with a cover depicting flames surrounding New York and the Twin Towers (a cover that was promptly withdrawn and changed).

This live album naturally also includes tracks drawn from earlier works, such as Metropolis Pt. 1 and Another Day, as well as a few Liquid Tension Experiment pieces and a medley, "Caught In A New Millennium", in which Dream Theater pay tribute to some of their favorite bands, such as Nine Inch Nails, Tool and Alice in Chains.

As had already happened in the past, this period also saw no shortage of side projects from the band's members, with Petrucci repeatedly taking part in Joe Satriani's G3 (Guitar Three) tours, alongside fellow shredders such as Satriani himself, Steve Vai and Paul Gilbert, and other musicians of the highest caliber such as Dave LaRue and Billy Sheehan. It was precisely during the G3 shows that the guitarist began publicly previewing material that would later be released in 2005 on his first (and so far only) solo album, "Suspended Animation", whose sound closely recalls his work with Liquid Tension Experiment.

Meanwhile, John Myung recorded two albums ("When Pus Comes To Shove" and "Ice Cycles") with Platypus (a progressive band he formed together with former bandmate Derek Sherinian, King's X singer-guitarist Ty Tabor, and Dixie Dregs drummer Rod Morgenstein), and two more with Jelly Jam, essentially the same lineup as Platypus minus Sherinian. James LaBrie, meanwhile, recorded four solo albums, while Mike Portnoy founded the progressive supergroup Transatlantic, who went on to release six albums.

The "dark" turn

In 2002 the band returned with a highly anticipated double album, Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, in which they finally found the space needed to realize a project they had been pursuing for some time (the request for a double album had repeatedly been turned down by the record label in previous years). The first disc features five separate tracks, in a style darker and harder-edged than its predecessors — an artistic shift that would become increasingly pronounced in subsequent works. The opening track, "The Glass Prison", a masterful thirteen-minute piece that opens with a somber sweep-picked arpeggio from Petrucci, immediately makes it clear that the band's sound is changing, exploring new directions (some of them probably still unknown even to the band itself), pairing the more purely orchestral approach of Metropolis Pt. 2 (which, in any case, still looms large over Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence as well) with darker elements, in which darkness becomes, if not dominant, then far more prominent. "Misunderstood" and "The Great Debate" show how the band is also capable of incorporating new ingredients into its sound, such as broader and more elaborate sampling and more pronounced mixing effects, as in the case of LaBrie's voice, rendered at times with a distinctly metallic edge.

The first disc closes with a piece more firmly anchored to traditional song structure, "Disappear", which nonetheless comes across as a bit insubstantial.

The second disc features the title suite, made up of eight tracks of a more purely progressive rock stamp, whose underlying theme is mental illness (the “Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence”, precisely). This second part is also marked by a decidedly more orchestral sound, as is clear from the very first notes of “Overture”, whose martial march can't help but suggest an anthem for a country recently struck to the heart — that beating heart, New York, which is also the band's hometown. Skillfully reverbed sounds combined with a certain stylistic restraint make “Overture” a remarkable piece that pleasantly introduces the listener to the suite, which continues with “About To Crash”, closer to proper prog-rock territory, recalling moments from the previous album such as “The Dance Of Eternity”, and featuring Petrucci and Rudess, who indulge in solo moments where their virtuosity, unlike in the past, tends not to overflow, chasing restraint rather than sheer note count. Post-traumatic stress disorder is the underlying theme of “War Inside My Head”, a short but effective episode built entirely on the sheer power of the rhythm section and LaBrie's voice rather than on solo moments, absent here given its brevity. A whirlwind of notes, on the other hand, opens “The Test That Stumped Them All”. A dark track, verging on thrash metal, that hints at the possible future directions of the band, which will become clearer from Train Of Thought onward.

The atmosphere lightens with “Goodnight Kiss”, a dreamy ballad in which the band sets aside its instrumental fury to first wrap itself around LaBrie's voice, managing to highlight its tonal qualities and clarity, before bringing back the theme introduced in “Overture”. Petrucci then acts as a sonic bridge, through the notes of his Music Man, toward “Solitary Shell”, which however sounds rather weak, being blatantly melodic and catchy — perhaps even too much so — though it at least boasts a successful instrumental ending, paving the way for “About To Crash (Reprise)”, in which Petrucci's gritty riff immediately sets things right again. The interplay here is very strong, with the instruments weaving together to create a single, often dense wall of sound. “Losing Time”, which relies mainly on LaBrie's voice (skillfully backed in this case by the rest of the band), thus serves as a transitional moment, acting as a prelude to the finale which, lofty and emotionally charged just like “Overture”, closes the album.

If, from a commercial standpoint, Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence is a success, musically it represents the start of a new phase for the band; a transitional album toward a new direction, halfway between the melodies of Metropolis Part 2 and the work that would follow in the next decade. Another point of interest here is perhaps the definitive recovery of LaBrie, fully healed from an old vocal cord injury (caused by food poisoning during a vacation in Cuba) that had inevitably undermined his performances over the previous eight years (rumors of a change of vocalist circulated more than once, always denied by the band), and which had for that reason drawn considerable criticism from fans, unhappy with his live delivery, markedly different from the studio recordings.

After a world tour following the album's release, Train Of Thought is released a year later, containing excellent tracks such as “As I Am”, which openly winks at some of Metallica's work, or “In The Name Of God”, with a more linear and regular meter (the band has over the years repeatedly written and played tracks in odd and compound time signatures), and which highlights the group's growing desire to explore and increasingly incorporate dark, heavy sonorities into their sound, at times slipping into pure thrash metal. “This Dying Soul”, Portnoy's moment of self-analysis regarding his struggles with alcoholism, stands out instead for more exotic sonorities, especially in Petrucci's contribution, and for Portnoy's own massive drumming, as well as the increasingly frequent use of samples.

The pursuit of darkness, as in As I Am, becomes more pressing and evident here, especially in the second half of the track, which nonetheless turns out quite enjoyable. A majestic arpeggio opens “Endless Sacrifice”, in which light and darkness continually alternate, leading into the long instrumental central section, perpetually balanced between progressive and thrash, with the latter ultimately prevailing. Less convincing is “Honor Thy Father”, Mike Portnoy's ironic tribute to his hated stepfather, a confused track lacking a clear identity. Progressive, thrash, nu-metal and even, in places, death metal: there are many — perhaps too many — ingredients which, thrown into the same pot, end up giving the musical dish no precise flavor. Neither particularly bad nor particularly good is “Vacant”, which again tries to use the well-known voice-and-piano formula, further enriching the sound with the use of cello (played by Eugene Friesen, a guest on the album), but ends up producing the opposite effect, cheapening the original intimate idea behind the track. This is followed by the instrumental “Stream Of Consciousness”, which takes up the theme of “Vacant” and transposes it into a decidedly heavier key, giving it a whole different appeal, and in this track recovering its progressive soul, with layered guitars and a notable melodic presence from the synth.

The album closes with “In The Name Of God”, more solid and linear, showing LaBrie and the rest of the band moving in the same direction. A direction made up of rhythmically effective riffs, successful solo passages (though these perhaps come at the expense of the overall interplay of the sound, weaker here than in the past).

Train Of Thought is a solid commercial success, reaching No. 53 on the Billboard chart. Overall, the album is passable, but fails to come anywhere near the heights reached by the band's previous work, likely due to a greater desire to experiment on the band's part, which however translates into a more confused and undefined approach. The difference in sound compared to just three years earlier starts to become quite evident, and, as with almost all of the band's work, the album divides fans and critics, between those enthusiastic about the new “Metallica-style” sonorities and those nostalgic for the old era's combination of progressive melodies and virtuosity.

Train Of Thought is followed in 2004 by Live At Budokan, a triple live album recorded at the historic Japanese auditorium, containing material drawn mainly from the previous two albums; notable is the “InstruMedley”, which — as the title suggests — revisits and condenses the band's historic instrumental repertoire into just over twelve minutes.

In 2005 comes Octavarium, which marks a further, excessive step toward the dark, distorted and heavy direction the band is pursuing. “Never Enough” and “The Root Of All Evil” are glaring examples of this, while “I Walk Beside You” once again falls into excessive melodicism (if not outright sappiness).

The feeling one gets is that of a broken balance, with the band, in trying to correct course, producing diametrically opposite results. The best results come in the twenty-four-minute suite that gives the album its title, more properly progressive rock, though overall it proves less convincing than previous similar attempts.

On the whole, Octavarium fails to convince and represents a rather evident regression in the band's sound. One repeatedly gets the distinct impression, for instance, that the instrumental sections are stretched out disproportionately to fill a compositional void that is becoming ever more apparent.

Viewed in this light — as a search for new ideas — one can read the 2006 bootleg release of a full rendition of Pink Floyd's legendary “The Dark Side Of The Moon”, performed in any case quite effectively.

In the same year (proof of the commercial verve that has always characterized the band's activity), Score: 20th Anniversary World Tour – Live With The Octavarium Orchestra is also released, recorded at Radio City Music Hall in New York as the closing night of the world tour celebrating the band's twenty years of activity; across three CDs it retraces their musical history and gives rise to an interesting symphonic experiment, playing for the first time alongside a symphony orchestra, renamed, as the title of the live album suggests, the Octavarium Orchestra. The symphonic version of “Metropolis Part 1” that closes the album is decidedly striking.

In 2007 it's the turn of Systematic Chaos, Dream Theater's ninth studio album, which marks the start of the band's venture with their new record label, Roadrunner Records, which had by then replaced Atlantic.

Systematic Chaos confirms the problems already evident on Octavarium, namely the group's weakened compositional vein. The album comes across as unpleasantly forced; one gets the distinct sense that many tracks are literally “dragged along” by the band members just to pass the minutes without communicating anything musically significant; this feeling is clearly noticeable, for example, in the two versions of “In The Presence Of Enemies”, which open and close the collection, or in “The Ministry Of Lost Souls”. More successful, on the other hand, is “Prophets Of War”, in which the mix of instrumental and sung parts proves far more solid and musically valid.

Systematic Chaos, much like its predecessor Octavarium, suffers from a clear dip in inspiration. While the most die-hard fans talk about new directions of exploration or even a more intense sound, to everyone else it's evident that the band is starting to feel the weight of the years going by. What's missing above all are the melodies, and this shortfall can only be partially masked by the ensemble's extraordinary technical skill. The sound, which on first listen may indeed seem more intense, ends up wearing thin over time, betraying a lack of genuinely good ideas.

The band presses on regardless, and in 2008 releases Best Of, Greatest Hit… and 21 Other Pretty Cool Songs, a collection of remixed and remastered material (officially intended less as a true Greatest Hits and more as an overview of the band's work, since genuine sacred monsters like "Metropolis Pt.1" and "Ytse Jam" are notably absent), along with another live album, Chaos In Motion: 2007-2008, drawn from the band's latest world tour. Both releases, however, seem driven more by commercial than artistic motives, lending further credence to rumours that the New York outfit is going through a bit of a slump.

In 2009 comes Black Clouds And Silver Linings, (unfortunately) even darker and less inspired than Systematic Chaos, leaving even some of the most devoted fans baffled. Perhaps the most telling example is "A Night To Remember", whose first section is made up of instrumental passages repeated to excess, before giving way to a central section where the band rediscovers, if only in flashes, the melodic and evocative gift that defined its output for over a decade - only to slide back into empty virtuosity and a prolonged overuse of thrash sections that, stretched out this way, inexorably lose energy and bite. "A Rite Of Passage" suffers from the same excessive dilution: a good melodic and rhythmic hook that, repeated endlessly, loses its edge.

What's puzzling is not so much the material itself as how it has been put together. A less rushed production process might perhaps have yielded better results. "Wither" is a competently crafted ballad that, on listening, has nothing really wrong with it, but at the same time gives the listener nothing to hold onto, ending up as yet another forgettable exercise in metal-pop. "The Shattered Fortress" puts on the same show: 300bpm rhythms, thrash vocals, a super-solo and a timing shift into a semi-acoustic section. The result is naturally no different, except for a touch of class (albeit perhaps a tad self-congratulatory) in the song's ending, which closes with the opening of "The Glass Prison".

Things go decidedly better with "The Best Of Times", without doubt the album's finest moment, with a first section steeped in a more sensuous, ethereal atmosphere (helped along by the violin of Jerry Goodman, legendary member of John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra) and a second section, this one unmistakably progressive, in which the band goes back to doing what it does best and what made it justly famous: blending virtuosic passages and melodic themes to perfection, with just the right mood, all skilfully guided by LaBrie's voice and Petrucci's guitar, which here also delivers the album's best solo.

Strangely, the band seems to start finding its way back home towards the end of the record, which closes with another successful track, "The Count Of Tuscany", where the rhythmic bursts - this time thoroughly convincing - from Petrucci's guitar and Portnoy's drums recall the band's golden years. Rudess also makes a notable contribution, playing with interludes that are musically distant from the song's plot, designed to build tension and variation, while John Myung weaves his harmonic-melodic web less conspicuously than in the past, while still lending great solidity and rhythmic richness.

Ultimately, despite two good tracks and a handful of notable moments here and there, Black Clouds And Silver Linings fails to convince, highlighting perhaps even more than the preceding Systematic Chaos the band's current limitations, as it stubbornly pursues a path that doesn't come naturally to it: the result is a lack of spontaneity that afflicts the new material.

Dream Theater now seem far removed from the verve that characterised their work of the previous decade, and the successful blend of progressive melodies and instrumental passages that was the trademark of their earlier albums seems to be a fading memory.

A Dramatic Series of Events

In 2010, Mike Portnoy, co-founder and longtime member of the band, announced the end - at least for the time being - of his journey with Dream Theater, citing a musical discourse that had grown stale and a desire for change. His relationship with the rest of the band remained, at least according to official statements, excellent.

After about seven months and various auditions (collected and released in the documentary "Dream Theater 2011 - The Spirit Carries On"), the band officially announced the hiring of Mike Mangini as their new drummer. Mangini, who came from a varied recording background (Annihilator, Extreme, collaborations with Steve Vai and with LaBrie himself, with whom he recorded the Dream Theater vocalist's third solo album, "Elements Of Persuasion"), holds, among other things, several records as the world's fastest drummer.

Meanwhile, Mike Portnoy took part in Avenged Sevenfold's latest album, Nightmare, following the untimely death of the band's longtime drummer, James "The Rev" Sullivan, who died of an overdose at just twenty-eight.

At the same time, Dream Theater announced they had completed recording their new album, A Dramatic Turn Of Events, released in September 2011. Lighter drumming and a cleaner-sounding LaBrie seem to slightly adjust the course compared to previous releases, as shown by "Far From Heaven" and "Beneath The Surface", but a few good moments aren't enough to erase the limitations that have characterised the New York quintet's output over the past seven years (that is, since Octavarium), such as the obsessive rhythms that poorly conceal a hollowness of intent.

The album is therefore a half-successful effort, at times able to bring back to mind and ear melodic moments reminiscent of the sound of a decade earlier, and at others highlighting the genuinely less-than-happy compositional phase the band has been going through for some time now. One example is found in Petrucci's solos, less inspired than usual (except perhaps in "On The Back Of Angels"), sometimes not even connected to the song in question, and in the almost total absence of John Myung when it comes to solo or otherwise more distinctly melodic contributions. All of this ends up considerably diminishing the band's communicative power.

A Dramatic Turn Of Events marks some progress compared to the releases that immediately preceded it, but still fails to find a way out of the impasse that has been holding back Dream Theater's most authentic creativity for years. All that's left is to hope that, for all its limitations, the album represents a step for the progressive metal pioneers towards yet another rebirth - and that, deep down, their recent output turns out to be nothing more than a dramatic series of events.

Two years later came the self-titled Dream Theater (2013).

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