| Music Review | A.C. Hall |
Dream Theater "Octavarium"
Every decade or so there’s a band or an artist that is
so great that they own their genre. Nirvana WAS grunge
music, Garth Brooks WAS country music, and so on and so
forth. For roughly the past fifteen years or so Dream
Theater has been progressive metal. And now you’re asking,
what is progressive metal, right? Well, it’s almost hard to
explain. One of those, you either get it or you don’t, sort
of things. Progressive metal could perhaps best be described
as “intelligent heavy metal”. It’s also commonly looked upon
at a style of music that only musicians enjoy, because they
can appreciate the extreme difficulty of the music. But both
of those definitions really don’t do progressive metal
justice. Progressive metal is Metallica’s “And Justice For
All” album. It’s shifting guitar riffs, double bass pedal
drumming, sometimes epic but always powerful lyrics. If
regular heavy metal is Ally McBeal, then progressive metal
is Law and Order. And on Octavarium, Dream Theater prove
once again that more than anything else, THEY are the
definition of progressive metal.
Now, it may be fair for me to mention that Dream Theater is
my favorite band in all the world. My original idea for this
review was to say “this is the greatest album of all time
and if you don’t like it you are a moron.” But I realized
that wouldn’t exactly be the best way to go about things.
The truth is, Dream Theater isn’t for everyone. It’s
honestly a bit of an acquired
taste for some. Let’s face it, a 12 minute metal
instrumental song isn’t for everyone. But for any of you out
there who do enjoy heavy metal or even rock, I can say with
quite a bit of certainty that this album has something to
offer you. While at one time Dream Theater was a bit “out
there” recent years and albums have seen them developing a
wonderful mixture of mainstream metal and the progressive
metal that they’ve made famous all over the world. This
album goes even further in that direction and proves that
Dream Theater can craft music that pleases casual listeners
and progressive metal die hards alike.
Octavarium represents a band at the height of their skills
and just all around on top of their game. The album kicks
off with a bang with “The Root of All Evil”. A lot of themes
and even a few familiar lines and melodies from earlier
Dream Theater releases make their way into this song. It’s
followed by “The Answer Lies Within” an uplifting song that
really proves that Dream Theater knows how to turn down the
volume from time to time. “These Walls” is in my opinion the
strongest track on the album. It’s the band at their best,
testing the limits of human ability on their instruments
while testing the limits of the human spirit lyrically. It
all wraps up with the 23 minute epic title track “Octavarium”.
I wish we lived in a different world, where music like this
was more widely accepted and appreciated. Like I said
earlier, it’s certainly something that doesn’t appeal to
everyone. But to those of you who do enjoy this style of
music or to any of you out there willing to take a chance
and try something different, Octavarium will blow you away.
The best release to date by the best band in the world.
FIVE OUT OF FIVE STARS