So, to
@Night Prowler and
@CriedWhenBrucieLeft , hope you’ll enjoy this one.
„How can I feel abandoned even when the world surrounds me
How can I bite the hand that feeds the strangers all around me
How can I know so many
Never really knowing anyone…“
(First of all, I would like to stress that I did not want to be influenced during writing this post, so I have not read the other „essays“ yet. Therefore I’m sorry if I write here something somebody else has already said. Also, this is a rewrite – I have written a significant portion of this and had it saved as a draft and it got deleted. So if something, some wording or whatever is going to feel „off“ to you, I’m sorry about that too.)
Like it or not, I have always liked, no, scratch that,
loved these two albums. In fact, both are in my DT Top 5 (which just as well might be my overall Top 5) and I have even put
Six Degrees on the No. 1 spot more than once, actually.
Systematic Chaos still probably wins in the end, but the fact it’s a serious contender should not be overlooked. It’s funny, because these two albums (SDOIT and TOT, that is) are really different from each other – the former being very diverse, having all the colours of a rainbow, the latter being more of a collection of variations on a common theme; the former takes you places, the latter is a straightforward and up-to-point, er, „train“ that takes you directly to your destination. It’s hard to pick any favourites here, because try as I may, although I simply must prefer SDOIT in the end, quite often there’s a time the „brain-pummeling“ approach of TOT suits me much more.
But don’t let’s make the introduction even longer, this is going to be a long post as is.
Static greets us as we sink into the depths of The Glass Prison. You may notice that the static actually sounds a bit different from the one used in the end of SFAM, so the circle is broken in a way
However with the sound of bells tolling we are witnesses to a new incarnation of Dream Theater arriving. First the slow, ominous, descending riff that gives the song a rather epic feel already, then the absolutely brutal main riff (the perfect mixture of complexity, (arguably nu-metalish) heaviness and wah-wah). Then Petrucci’s arpeggios (which were already discussed at length in the DT thread, I believe) which are absolutely awesome (and the melody is repeated on Jordan’s keyboards in the pre-chorus). The chorus itself, so catchy and actually providing the listener with some sorely needed relief. YEAH! The music excellently expresses what this step is about – the beginning, the chaos, the realisation you are lost and oppressed by your own addictions, your crippling thought patterns, you being a prisoner inside your own skull. It doesn’t matter if your „drug of choice“ is alcoholism, another drug or even panic attacks, OCD or whatever – the compulsions are all the same. You are deep in shit and want to run away… yet you can’t, because the only path to take to run away is the very spiral descending even deeper into the cespool, into the puddle of your own vomit. And even when the relief comes, if you succumb (the chorus –
„Crawl into my Glass Prison“) is only temporary and hints with something wicked coming this way anyway. That’s Reflection, for ye.
You know, I could listen to it again and again. Probably the most “fun” part being Portnoy’s frantic drums. Those really help that great riff to shine. This is not your Daddy’s Dream Theater, indeed.
Restoration is definitely the weakest of the three. It’s a pity, because from the lyrical point of view this is a very important step, yet there’s too much of nu-metal influence here, with scratching, those downtuned sounds etc. (however those LaBrie’s
„Teach me how!“ screams are really funny). If I could vote against a single part of a song, this would get my only vote on the first CD.
Revelation brings the song to an end, with its title being what it really is about…
(
„Way off in the distance I saw a door // I tried to open // I tried forcing with all of my will and still // The door wouldn't open // Fell down on my knees and prayed // “Thy will be done” // I turned around, saw a light shining through //The door was wide open…”)
However what precedes this triumphant moment is an amazing and furious part that works really well and elevates the final, sung part even higher (for similar and in fact even better example see below on Endless Sacrifice). That way you really feel the revelation, the realisation there is a solution, that you can break the circle and you can overcome the deepest, darkest parts of your mind and your soul. But no, Johnny Cash said it and who am I to disagree - you simply cannot really get out of a heavy addiction alone. That instrumental part is really something - I admit Petrucci kind of overuses the wah in his first solo, but the second, the “frantic” one not only foreshadows the superb closing of This Dying Soul, but also quotes those arpeggios from the beginning, slightly modified. Rudess fills in his own creations and then it’s on to the final part. It all ends with a sound of glass sheet being broken after we had our first preview of the TDS main riff (oooh, such a cool part).
Glass Prison as a whole is really heavy (their heaviest song so far, undoubtedly) and although I’ve read many criticisms across the net, especially the fact the „modern metal/nu-metal“ aspect is way too pronounced and although I might prefer some of the other parts of 12 Step Suite more, that still doesn’t change the fact that it’s an excellent, complex and really heavy track that lives and breathes for its message and it will help you to understand the state of mind of the writer, in particular his peculiar problems. Believe me, I know.
Blind Faith… ooh, Blind Faith. What a marvelous song. It has it all, from the atmospheric buildup, with the catchy pre-chorus and this strange, „veiled“ chorus with this fuzzy guitar tone from Petrucci and the most flabbergasting instrumental section ever. Immediately after the second chorus, that is the triumphant bridge and that “jagged” part that flows directly into that piano part… these things elevate the song up to a higher level of existence, IMHO. That amazing interplay, that piano part by Jordan…
*shivers*
Oh, and that unison… That might be actually one of Petrucci’s hardest parts ever! (really, take a look
)
I believe this song might be actually in my Top 10, maybe even Top 5. I simply cannot get enough. Go and listen to it immediately, if you haven’t yet.
Misunderstood has always been this „dark horse“ tune for me. I mean, at first I didn’t even notice it among all the heavy hitters, but that beautiful acoustic intro (reminds me of Ten Years Gone by Led Zeppelin, BTW), that catchy yet devastating chorus, that Portnoy drums there, that backwards solo (really cool! looks like Petrucci did his Beatles homework), that crazyass weirdness (you know what I’m talking about) that’s downright creepy and don’t deny that. Those lyrics… are those about Jesus? About the complete and devoted adoration that Petrucci gets from his fans (and which he might not really be comfortable with, being a Catholic and all)? Something completely different? Who knows?
The Great Debate gets a lot of flak from DT fans, but I don’t really see why. Yes, it’s rather atypical, with the music getting close to Tool from time to time (and the lyrics also aren’t your general DT stuff, to be honest), but I really like the uncommon structure, I love the build-up/calm down (with keyboards being the sole thing that opens and closes the song) and I also appreciate the fact it’s so different, being another rare colour in the crayon box. I used to be bothered by those samples, but I get used to those in the end and I just accept it as it is. Nowadays my biggest complain is probably the lyrics – not the idea itself, but some of the lines are… a bit off, IMHO (
„What if someone said problems lie ahead“, „You could walk agaaaain.“) This album is quite heavy on the lyrics as is and this is one of the weakest parts, but still, nothing serious here. Pity they played it live so rarely.
Disappear is another very weird track here, a slow and quirky ballad that sounds very unclear, as if behind a veil. It’s funny – usually when I listen to it, I can’t help but to think of Peter Gabriel. I realise I’m probably alone in that regard, but there’s something… Freudian and „weird-artsy“ about the track that channels my thoughts right that way.
Also, as I’ve never been that secretive regarding my dislike for Space Dye Vest, I actually consider Disappear to be a much better example of a track in a similar vein. It's also atmospheric (even „ambient-ish“), haunting, depressing, downright creepy, in fact, yet to me it’s the „good“ kind of creepiness. The atmosphere of the song brings up many thoughts about the afterlife and the unpredictable and endless possibilites of what happens after death. The weirdness fits this concept too – you must realise that whatever might there be, it’s definitely going to be something very different from what we’ve experienced so far. From this point of view it fits the end of the CD very well, though I personally am glad that there’s still the second CD and the title track, because I would not want to end this album on such a note. Too „personally unpleasant“.
It gets my
vote, but only, and I repeat,
only because I desperately wanted to vote against at least one SDOIT track and with the title track being considered as one (so I could not vote against the single part), Disappeared suffered from that. So it’s more like I love the other tracks better, but I don’t really think there will be no tracks eliminated off SDOIT, so I have to do the tough choices here.
Now I know that for the purposes of this Survivor the title track is considered to be one song and you can vote only for the whole suite. I will still take it apart and discuss the individual sections, making some kind of summarisation in the end.
The overture is magnificent. It suffers a bit from the fact they did not have the orchestra present in the studio (that wasn’t until Octavarium, in fact, if I'm not mistaken), so the orchestrations are all „fake“, but the beauty of the track overcomes that and shine in all its glory anyway. And you can always watch/listen to
Score, where you have it with the orchestra, if you really needed that. That said, I really like both the themes and how they flow into each other. After years of listening, I still cannot hear some themes (where the fuck is Goodnight Kiss? Am I deaf?), but as the epic instrumental opener, it’s amazing. Probably not even Dystopian Overture managed to overcome it, though it’s hard to say. Also, let’s be honest – this track is probably the biggest argument for the suite to be considered a single song, because otherwise there’s really not that much of a connection.
About to Crash is this cool, „prog-poppy“ track that lets us meet a bipolar girl. Having known someone with a similar condition quite well, I appreciate the effort. Even though it might be a bit „encyclopedic“, that is, being obviously based on things you research than a personal experience, it still manages to capture that quite well. Well, the lyrics have their terrible moments, I agree (
„And all she wants to do is cry // No one ever knew she was so sad // ‘Cause even though she gets so high // And thinks that she can fly, she will fall out of the sky // But in the face of misery, she found hopefulness” - the emphasis is mine, of course), but that’s to be expected if the main writer is Petrucci
(just kidding, I love him, but sometimes his hand during crafting the lyrics is quite heavy, if you know what I mean). Musically it’s very catchy and somewhat complex (probably the most out of all the SDOIT tracks) and though it took me some time to appreciate it, it’s definitely a grower.
Now War Inside My Head definitely is not and it’s a pity one of the few heavier parts in the suite is like this - it’s an incoherent, chaotic mess with pretty much no melody, no real idea and it sounds more like a mere transition than anything deserving on its own. Cool Portnoy tackled PTSD in this one (on the other hand, there are other psychic problems as well and the selection they’ve made is somewhat weird, too…), but otherwise I see pretty much nothing redeeming this one and it would definitely get my vote if we voted for the individual tracks. Hey, at least you see I’m not searching only for the “heavy” parts with DT
But don’t worry! The very next song is The Test That Stumped Them All - amazing thing that you won’t be able to get out of your head (that 13/8 time is infectiously catchy), with some real juice and power. Fitting for a song about schizophrenia - the “coolest” of these disorders, probably. Both John and Jordan are on fire here and, like it or not, it’s surely my favourite part of the suite, because that vocal line combined with the rest of the instruments is probably the catchiest part of the whole title song to me. Also an amazing song to air drum to!
It all crashes down to Goodnight Kiss. I admit I
hated that track when I heard it, in fact I hated it for a quite some time afterwards. It was too broody, too slow, too creepy… but then I started to appreciate the little things, like the Petrucci solo ( yeah,
small things ) and, in fact, the whole second, “airport” part of the song (kidding). In fact, it reminds me a lot of
The Wall (well, this all album reminds me a lot of Floyd, so I guess that’s somewhat expected), preferably the second part/act of it. That gently melody is also good once you wrap your head around that one.
Solitary Shell is a sorely needed ray of sunlight in this suite/on this album, which are otherwise very “doom and gloom”. Yes, the happiness is not utter, because there’s still this weird nostalgia/melancholy in both the music and the lyrics, but after the downright morbid GK, when that acoustic guitar starts to play and you hear that joyful synthesizer, it almost brings a tear to your eye, now doesn’t it? (very Yes-like moment, by the way, IMHO) The lyrics are very cute and the chorus is just wonderful. My wife’s favourite part of the suite and I can definitely understand. Gee, what a beauty.
The reprise of ATC might be a bit unnecessary from a purely philosophic point of view, but then again, the intro sounds really good (cool tone by Petrucci) and it gives the song a much needed feel of cohesiveness. Well, honestly, it still sounds mostly like different songs strung together and that “one song” philosophy I never could identify with, but at least they tried… somewhat.
Losing Time/Grand Finale is a great ending, it’s epic and nostalgic and it really feels as a homecoming after a journey… I admit that it has two serious problems - 1. it comes too late, after the previous 35 minutes you are so exhausted you might not be paying enough attention (which was my case for the first few listens), 2. that ending chord is ridiculously overlong and feels like filler (so the song would exceed 40 minutes?). I get it might be a shout-out to A Day in the Life, but there it felt definitely shorter. Still a good one, though.
As a whole? Well… as I’ve written above, some of the sections were probably not that necessary (War – yes, you might take this as a proof I’m not a single-minded metalhead who only wants DT to
rawk) and some parts are definitely overlong and the lyrics are sometimes really heavy to take, but those are all mostly minor details. Though it’s not my favourite DT track (far from it, actually), I just can’t bring myself to vote against it. Probably ever. I would feel really silly if I did that.
To summarise, the album is very diverse, yet it also never falls apart for some reason. There’s not much that would actually connect the songs (apart from the lyrical themes), except for this dark and creepy and eerie vibe that permeates pretty much all the songs here. Fitting for and album centered about various dysfunctions. Also, if it’s atmosphere you search for, you’ll get a lot of that here. And like I said, it’s very Pink Floydish, at least to me.
Train of Thought is a different beast altogether. Heavy (mostly) from start to finish, it just drags you along until you really can’t go anymore. This is the album to turn to if you want your brains splattered on a wall. VERY cool album cover, too. But let’s see the songs themselves.
As I Am is probably the most obvious “Metallica channeling” the band ever did. That “As I aaaaam” is LaBrie trying to sound like Hetfield so much it borders on ridiculous. On the other hand that verse riff is … you know what?
All of the riffs on this album are amazing (most of them, at least
), but when I first heard this one, I knew Petrucci overcame the limits of a mere mortal. This is the riff you want to go mute from humming. The angry lyrics are fun and as a beginning of the album, it’s just awesome (even the fact it’s one of the simpler tracks works in its favour in that regard).
This Dying Soul used to be my #1 DT track and it still is probably somewhere in the Top 5-10. It is a continuation of the rollercoaster that begun with Glass Prison, but - as this album is their heaviest effort ever - it’s even more brutal, being the heaviest part of the whole 12 Step Suite.
Reflections of Reality (Revisited) is just… I honestly have no words. At first you get that amazing riff from the end of TGP, then your brain is blasted out of your ears and then you get this hypnotic section that serves as the first verse (it’ll get a repetition much later in Repentance). The lyrics are dead on, expressing the depression and hopelessness that overcomes you when you realise that that enemy, the one who wants to see you defeat (
“I wanna feel your body breaking…”) is
yourself, or the dark side of yourself, the one that feeds the demons in the darkest corners of your soul. But probably the best part is guitar harmony in the chorus. That’s just… so short, so simple, yet so effective. It sends shivers down my spine even as now merely think of it.
Release is 50/50 - the first, sung part, while cool, is the weakest part of the song overall (being a rehash of sorts of Restoration does not help, too), but that second part…
Now we’re talking! It’s so aggressive, yet thought-through, so heavy yet so collected… All up to that last minute and that unison. I say, there’s no other guitar/keyboards duo that could do something like this (not even Romeo/Pinnella). When it all ends with that intro riff once again, I feel… different. I don’t know what it is exactly, but there’s something amazing about the track that thrills me to the bone to this very day.
I have already praised Endless Sacrifice here before, so let me just cut and paste…
I wanted to keep this until we get to ToT in the survivor, but what the hell... Take Endless Sacrifice. I have heard (well, read) many times over how the instrumental part is an unnecessary wankery, mindless self-indulgence and it takes away from a great song. I'm sorry, but similarily to Sacrificed Sons or Ministry of Lost Souls, the song would not work otherwise! The song is a buildup of tension and desperation of a very emotionally attached bloke caused by the fact his significant other is far away. The final climax and the final chorus should be the "boiling point", so to speak. In this song (and in those other two, for example) that is achieved by the fact the song returns to familiar themes with increased intensity, but returns from where? I mean - you have to have a digression to appreciate the return, but what should such a digession be? It should be probably heavier than the early part and it should be different enough - the passage they've chosen sounds excellent to me in that regard (apart from the fact I like the King Crimson shout-out there). Ministry - again, the final chorus and Petrucci's amazing solo would have much lesser impact for me if there was no "chug section" or what is the denigrative term the haters use for the song to return from. I take those (any many others) songs as a journey - to me DT is a band that does a lot of detours, but that's also one of the reasons I love them so much. Take these detours away from these two songs and you'll have somewhat simplistic sappy ballads - good on their own, but not excellent, because those would be too focused on the final "goal". To quote Princess Irulan:
"Any road followed precisely to its end leads precisely nowhere. Climb the mountain just a little bit to test that it's a mountain. From the top of the mountain, you cannot see the mountain."
To me it's much easier to appreciate the song from within, if you know what I mean. From the very first moment I heard Close to the Edge by Yes I loved that chorus... and I was waiting the whole "I Get Up" section to get back to it... and it was amazing. To take away the "complication" would be to diminish the song itself.
Yes, the buildup is absolutely magnificent and it gets me to the edge of my seat any time I listen to it. Even lyrically this song is very close to me, but that second half, wow… If I could liquify this song (what am I saying, song, this
album) and shoot it up my vein, I would be happy as a little baby.
Honor Thy Father is inarguably the heaviest the band ever got. After TGP and TDS, the nu-metal influences reach their peak here (still not enough for me to be annoyed, though) and it's really funny to hear these lyrics next to the lyrics to The Best of Times (yes, I know one was about a stepfather and the other was about the real one, but still, does the casual listener know?
Should the casual listener know?) The song is cool and all, but: 1.) I don't like all the
Magnolia samples (not being all that enamoured by the movie unlike many others might have something to do with that
), 2.) The instrumental section is therefore a bit boring (the heavy chug under the samples, mainly), 3.) Although Jordan's solo's really great IMHO, I think JP's solo would liven things up a bit, 4.) The song
is a tad overlong. Remember that, because you won't hear me saying that too much when assessing DT songs, but here I feel completely justified. It gets my
vote, but I would still take it on a deserted island with me
Let's be open an straightforward, Vacant gets a
vote from me as well. And it's
not because I am a ballad-hater or whatever. You lot know that I love many of DT ballads, beginning with Hollow Years and ending with Chosen. But here it honestly sounds to me as if the band themselves did not care all that much. I can't help but to feel as if they were not really in a mood for a ballad at the time, yet they wanted to do one just to have something like a "breather" on the album. It just doesn't sound to me as anything special. Myung's bass drowns everything, too. They confuse "conscience" with "consciousness" (though they would repeat that mistake on the
Octavarium title track). And I'm just not won over. Yet I like how that melody transforms into the main theme of Stream of Consciousness; that might actually be the best thing about the song.
Stream of Consciousness is currently my favourite DT instrumental, and it's mostly about the buildup. Not that the Petrucci solos were bad or anything, but when the song returns (again! The return to familiar themes!) to that main theme in the end, with those Jordan "pseudo-harpsichord embellishments" from the 9th minute onwards, I just feel something moving in me. The track is just so emotional...
In the Name of God is the epic closer to the epic album. First of all, the main riff might be the best riff
ever (yes, even better than the As I Am riff, in fact), being just the right amount of Black Sabbath and this
blasé/nonchalance that makes you live and breathe for it... the chorus is very epic and the instrumental part leaves me Breathless (yes, just like Meadow was singing with the Corrs in that Sopranos episode). I have heard nasty things being said about that unison part ("masturbating monkey" was the phrase, I believe), but again - it's just great and you don't get that from your usual keyboards/guitar pairings. Masturbating monkey or not, it's an excellent and even emotional (though also shamelessly technical) buildup to that last chorus. IMHO, again.
You see, there’s this thing - when absurdly proficient bands like DT or Symph X pull all the stops and decide to get heavy, their talent with their instruments and their inner melodic feeling allows them to blow the competition out of the water. I mean - it’s easy to be as heavy as possible, what’s hard is to contrast the heaviness with some real melody. If you can do that, it’ll sound subjectively much heavier, because of the contrast; in fact it’s going to sound as if the band was much heavier than it is (and if you have the chops, the riffs etc. will sound much better then, too).
Also voting against Strange, Home and Fatal Tragedy. Again, I love the latter two tracks, but I simply love the others more.
TL;DR - Both albums are great!
I actually went back each time to read your and Mosh's essays on each album while I was listening 
