Artist: Dream Theater
Label: Elektra Records
Release Date: 1/29/02
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Title: Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence Artist: Dream Theater Label: Elektra Records Release Date: 1/29/02 |
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Abyss's Review:
I can see the band meeting right now. The members of Dream Theater probably got together after the success of Scenes From A Memory, and asked each other for ideas of how they could take it to the next level... how could they make their next album even more laborious. Well they figured out a sure-fire way to do that, they came up with the idea of making their next effort a double album. It must be my lucky day.
"MY PROBLEMS WITH THIS ALBUM HAVE ABSOUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH THE PLAYERS' ABILITIES!" I guess I should have really started this review by asking the true Dream Theater fans to skip down to Death's review. You might as well, because as evidenced by the last review that I did of this band, none of you really read it anyway. The last review pretty much stated that, while these guys are technically adept musicians, the album sucked. Most of the angry responses I got defended the album by saying that the band was full of incredibly talented musicians, which, since I had already ceded that point, I believe in formal debate circles is referred to as the "Oh Yeah?" defense. I wonder if other critics get these types of responses. When a literary critic writes something like, "This book is really, really boring", do you think he gets responses like, "Yeah, but he used such big words and has a stunning vocabulary!" So anyway, I'll put it all in caps so that nobody misses it this time. THESE GUYS, ESPECIALLY THE GUITARISTS, ARE AMAZINGLY TALENTED MUSICIANS! If you like ten-minute solos and lightning-fast scales, you'll be completely satisfied by this album. MY PROBLEMS WITH THIS ALBUM HAVE ABSOUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH THE PLAYERS' ABILITIES!
Many of you probably think that I enjoy putting this band down, or that whenever I review them, I'm already so biased against them that I don't even give them a shot. Neither of these statements is true. In fact, this album actually started out rather promising. Its best song, "The Glass Prison," is the first track. It starts out with an eccentric, fuzzy intro that solidifies into a simple but catchy beginning riff. The song holds on to itself pretty well for its far too long running time of fourteen minutes, keeping even the casual listener interested with a memorable melody and frequent guitar and synthesizer breaks. It even has a nu-metal-like (minus the urban beat) riff about six minutes in, which gives the song some ballast (Progressive nu-metal? Now I've heard everything!). But for me, this album unravels fast after the first track. The album quickly becomes a compilation of ballads (especially disc 2), with only "Misunderstood" being mildly successful with a chorus that sticks with you long after the song's over. It's either haunting or annoying, depending on your tastes.
The rest of the album hits me as soulless, a collection of lackluster songs complemented by tedious attempts to impress the listener. Basically, you're either a Dream Theater fan, who will consider this an extremely accomplished work, or you're not, and you will find sitting through one of these discs boring and through both of them torturous.
"One word review: (Please,) Stop." This album probably would've rated a 2 skull score if they had cut their losses and stopped with disc 1, but I had to knock a point off for extending this one to such unnecessary lengths. Disc 2 is just one song, "Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence" separated into eight (bowel) movements. Is it just me? Or should a song with a title like that have six movements rather than eight? Anyway, pretty much all of disc 2 sounds like an alternate soundtrack to the film, 'An Officer and a Gentleman.' Every time I hear the first track, "Overture," I keep expecting Richard Gere to break down the door and whisk me away (Oh... I only hope... someday). But "Overture" only sets the pace. Things get really out of hand with "Goodnight Kiss" and "Solitary Shell." Songs that are so innocuous that Cat Stevens himself would've listened to them and said, "Couldn't ya add some balls to 'em?"
I'm a metalhead, and while a few ballads are acceptable, this album's got over an hour of them. This album is a little like the Use Your Illusion discs from Guns 'n Roses, it would've been better had they just come out with the stronger songs on one disc, and even then it wouldn't be that great of an album. The only times I'll probably listen to this one again is when I get drunk and want to make fun of Death.
One word review: (Please,) Stop.
Death's Review:
Contrary to what the band's detractors may tell you, Dream Theater are technically such excellent musicians that they are collectively almost beyond reproach. James LaBrie (vox), Jordan Rudess (keys) and John Myung (bass) are all excellent musicians, masters of their craft. John Petrucci (guitar) and Mike Portnoy (drums) are some of the best musicians rock music has even seen. Clearly, the members of Dream Theater can play, and I don't think there's any kind of a debate from anyone on that front. Still, while I respect jazz greats and guitar vituosos, I don't regularly listen to them and certainly do not write about them for Metal Judgment. Stated otherwise: just because a band is technically accomplished does not make me a fan. I may respect them, but I certainly will not buy the records on musical talent alone. Nope, to get me fully on board requires a certain something more.
Enter Dream Theater. From the band's debut When Dream and Day Unite, Dream Theater has been one of my favorite acts. By bringing post-Metallica/Megadeth/Slayer sensibilities and heaviness to the 1970's prog framework, and by sticking with a vocalist who at first listen sounds much more at home in the post-Geoff Tate, high-pitched power metaller school than in any kind of major label, mainstream act context, Dream Theater have always been able to successfully bridge the gap (with only a slight deviation from the course with the Falling Into Infinity record a few years back) and keep me banging my head while allowing me to remain emotionally connected to such complex music. No other prog or power metal band comes close, either in heaviness or talent. To me, Dream Theater represent the pinnacle of something, the ultimate example of the ultimate musician's metal band. Looking back, it makes the initial description I heard back in the late eighties (which made me go out and purchase the record), "Queensryche meets Metallica meets Rush," seem rather trite. Still, it almost is hard to come up with a better comparison, even today.
"To me, Dream Theater represent the pinnacle of something, the ultimate example of the ultimate musician's metal band." I thought Dream Theater's last album, Metropolis 2000, was great. Fantastic. One of the 50 or 100 best records of all-time, probably. I'm still absorbing the two-disc follow-up, Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, but I can tell you this: while carrying a different overall vibe, it retains the essential characteristics of Dream Theater and is at once accomplished, interesting and heavy. In short, this album kicks ass as well, and is surely another pure classic.
I must admit, I'm a bit bummed at the packaging, at least the album's "look" and "design". The band has totally forsaken the fantasy/conceptual imagery I've come to expect. A newer, more modern look is usually a bad sign, especially when it is combined with the prominent recent review (and decent "grade") the band received in mainstream American pop culture magazine Entertainment Weekly (generally a good read, by the way, but NOT for its coverage of music) and Dream Theater's continued existence on Elektra, a major label. It's enough to make me worry.
Except for the fact that I have heard the album. But I guess I didn't even need to do that to know this is no major label "sellout". Who besides Guns N' Roses or Smashing Pumpkins even has the balls to release two CD's of original music on the same day? Dream Theater has stepped up with almost 95 minutes of music, the "shortest" track being a mere 6:46 with only one other track coming in under the ten minute mark. Six tracks (get it, "six degrees") total. A decidedly non-commercial move, if you ask me.
But if you still are not convinced, just put disc one in your player and press play. Opener "The Glass Prison" is definitely heavy from the outset, with killer double bass and totally tight staccato riffs. The astute listener will notice a moment of hip-hop style scratching, but this can be easily excused among so many other instruments and such elaborate tracking. I love the middle riff from the second sub-part, "Restoration": "Run-- fast, from the wreckage of the past, a shattered glass prison wall behind me!" I can picture the heads banging now-- this one is going to shred live.
"As for a recommendation? For Dream Theater fans, this is a no-brainer, an obvious purchase." Some of the other tracks on disc one are much mellower, but like all Dream Theater ballad-type tracks, they work for me. And don't just listen to the beginning of any of them, because these songs twist and turn and change styles often. Another disc one highlight for me is "The Great Debate," which focuses lyrically on the legality of stem cell research. Of course the musicianship is top-notch throughout the entire disc.
Besides the awesome "Glass Prison" however, the real treat is the single-track disc two, featuring the eight-part title track, "Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence". Lyrically focusing on several different individuals (a war veteran, a rock star, a mother, etc.) suffering from varying "degrees" of questionable or decaying mental health, the song drifts from the opening symphonic sounding "Overture" to the killer, technical power/thrash of "War Inside My Head." If you have any doubt that Dream Theater indeed is a metal band play "War" (sub-track 3 of disc two) or "Glass" (track one of disc one) very, very loud and then revisit the question.
There really is so much to say about this epic new studio effort from one of the world's best bands, I cannot hope to sum it all up here. As for a recommendation? For Dream Theater fans, this is a no-brainer, an obvious purchase. If for some reason you have never heard this band, ask yourself whether you have an appreciation for expertly performed music, with clean vocals, that probably will not truly scare your parents, at least not the way Mortician surely will. If you do, you need to support Dream Theater, and you definitely will want to buy this record. Personally, I love it, and cannot wait to see them perform two straight nights at New York's Beacon Theatre at the end of March. Maybe I'll be able to fully absorb this masterpiece by then. At least I know I'll have fun trying.
This is what listening to music is all about.
Hel's Review:
Let me set the stage for you. I am a long-time Dream Theater fanatic. I have loved each and every album they have ever released, and have seen them live more times than I can count. I have substantial experience with this band. I have also heard a lot of amazing new albums lately, and this has caused me to approach all new releases with more stringent criteria than ever before. Dream Theater is no exception, despite my historic devotion. Now we may proceed.
What we have here is a 2 cd set. There are a total of 6 tracks, and apparently, each track is a "degree"-- I surmise this based on the fact that each track has a degree symbol following the number. Disc 1 is devoted to tracks 1-5, and disc 2 is devoted to track 6, which is comprised of 8 parts. You got all that? The long and the short of it is that you've got a lot of Dream Theater in that little package.
"This is extremely radio-friendly, very polished and emotive, and lacking that raw fire of the early albums." The music on this 2 cd set covers every aspect of Dream Theater's personality. There are a couple of really metal tracks, but the bulk of the material is the newer era epic, orchestra-y stuff they've been doing more and more of in recent years. It is extremely radio-friendly, very polished and emotive, and lacking that raw fire of the early albums. If you like that style-- for example, if you liked the last album-- this set will take you straight to heaven. If you're hoping for a deeply metal record, well, I'm not sure it is that.
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence is nothing if not ambitious. While it is not a concept record in the strictest sense, I have a feeling that if I spent enough time with it, I would be able to figure out how all the songs are linked together. After all, the title is a play on the adage "six degrees of separation" (not to be confused with "six degrees of Kevin Bacon" though I believe that approach would work as well) and therefore, you should be able to establish connections between the songs and ultimately come full circle. And if not, then I don't know a damn thing about this band, and have been giving them credit for cleverness they never possessed. I'm pretty certain it is the former.
As I mentioned, I've been a huge fan of this band for a long time. However, this is the first time I find myself not falling head over heels for the new record. Why is that? Is it because I can't decide if "Overture" (6°, i) sounds more like RPG music or like the music that accompanies a fireworks display at Disney World? Or is it because, after listening to what I like to call, "the stem cell song" many times, I still can't figure out which side of the issue they come down on? Or is it that I'm just dreading standing through all of those media blurbs when this song comes up in their live set? I do give them credit for the device-- it is a clever way to explain what the hell the song is about for those who are not up on it.
"Simply put, these boys know how to write metal songs, and seemingly chose not to do much of that." Do I oppose such blatant political rhetoric in music? No, it makes for interesting subject matter, and when a particular stance is supported, it provides a platform from which to espouse (something you'll all agree I know a bit about, I'm sure). Unfortunately, if the listener can't determine the stance being taken, it is difficult for them to be supportive, or alternatively, to be pissed. Why put such a topically charged song on the record if you're going to be all wishy-washy about it? At first listen, I was pretty sure they were against it, but upon repeated listens, I no longer am certain. I find this problematic, not necessarily because I care (honestly, I don't), but because of the reasons I just stated.
My biggest issue with this album is actually a rather minor one. This issue: too many times I find myself straining to hear the drum line. With one of the most fantastic drummers ever to pick up sticks sitting behind the kit, it is an absolute travesty that he is so low in the mix so often. What's up with that? And I know LaBrie is the focal point of both the band and they songs, but does he always have to be so high in the mix??
I know these are rather silly reasons for being down on the album, but there they are. I cannot reiterate enough how much I love this band, and therefore, they really had their work cut out for them this time. While there are many genuinely brilliant moments, and the musicianship is unparalleled, these are the things I expect from this band. It simply can be no other way. So in the end, I am let down by the overall direction the music has taken, more than anything else. Simply put, these boys know how to write metal songs, and seemingly chose not to do much of that. It is a worthwhile album, but I can't, in good conscience, give it a perfect score.
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