Dream Theater: A Dramatic Turn of Events

(This is gonna be short cuz I'm tired)

Dream Theater's A Dramatic Turn of Events

 DT's first album without Portnoy was pretty interesting when it was released just after Black Clouds & Silver Linings, and it's even more of an odd one now that Dream Theater is a thing. Deliberately retro and full of little nuggets, it's a bit more consistent than Systematic Chaos or even Octavarium but sometimes I don't think that's a good thing: this is one of those CD's I really need to be "in the mood" for.

The biggest change is obviously Mangini replacing Portnoy on the skins. Even before Dream Theater everyone knew Mangini had monster chops, but on this record his playing is pretty subdued. Part of that is due to him being kind of buried in the mix (John Myung is somewhere down in there too, if you can find him), but some of it is also because of the newness of the situation. 

The songs on this album are also part of it -- they're much more prog than metal, with a heavier emphasis on melody and catchy choruses than usual. It's honestly pretty impressive how well the album flows, but I guess it isn't surprising since they were going for that "Images and Words 2.0" vibe. Also, I find it funny that that fact is considered controversial or a "nugget" - upon hearing the first 20 seconds of the first track, you'll probably get reminded of "Pull Me Under". Some people love that, some don't - personally, I think it's a nice nod to the fans. 

That said, the song quality here is definitely a mixed bag. There are some real ear-worms in there - the choruses to "Bridges in the Sky" and "Lost Not Forgotten" are crazy catchy. "On the Backs of Angels" is a solid opener, but it drags a little bit towards the end, but pseudo-epics "Bridges in the Sky" and "Lost Not Forgotten" are not only excellent in the context of this album, but just in DT-land in general, and the latter is one of the band's best songs period.

What's more surprising, though, is how good the ballads are here. "This Is The Life" is simply sublime, with some of the best orchestration and composition on the disc, and the other two examples, "Far From Heaven" and "Beneath The Surface" are excellent as well. Yup, the cheesy ballads really do some good work here.

Of course, there are some stinkers. "Build Me Up, Break Me Down" is boring as hell and has shit lyrics, "Outcry" is far too long and far too boring -- they honestly ruined this song's good riffs and chorus with another Dream Theater© instrumental section that goes on for about 4 minutes too many. "Breaking All Illusions" has some nice atmosphere (especially with the samples! Use them more often, guys!) but it's also just too damn long.

In conclusion: a solid album, and a nice throwback to that "classic" DT sound (even though they only sounded like that for one album). A couple of awesome songs (especially the ballads) and a couple of real lame ones -- definitely worth a spin if you've got a hankering for more melodic DT stuff.

PS all those long songs = great road trip music

Tempel's "On the Steps of the Tempel"

On the Steps of the Tempel

If you listen to as much metal as me, you probably can agree that the genre has a problem with creativity. I realize that homogeneity is a problem that affects all areas of music (and most other forms of art, come to think of it), but it's always seemed to me that metal music suffers from this more than other genres. While there are countless new bands popping up, a sizable portion of them seem to either be content with occupying - at least to me - already well-explored subgenres (e.g. neo-Thrash bands like Evile, Havoc,  Savage Messiah, etc.), or competing to see who can drive farther off the map of extreme music, which can be seen at different ends of the spectrum in bands like Pig Destroyer, The Black Dahlia Murder, and The Dillinger Escape Plan vs. Soma, Boris, and Sunn 0))).

So in the middle of all this polarity, it's refreshing to see a band like Tempel come up out of the woodwork. On the Steps of the Tempel is their debut album, and it's an excellent of example of how to make music that is supremely heavy without sacrificing hooks or appropriate song lengths. The first track, "Mountain", is eight and a half minutes of chugging riffs that do an excellent job of sucking you in before getting sludgy with the follow-up, "Rising from the Abyss". From here the boys give you some quiet time with "Final Years" before repeating the pattern all over again with the last three tracks.

While the riffs and musicality are deserving of praise here, I'm more impressed with the band's inclusion of quiet, sparse pieces to give you a chance to catch your breath and to give the really crushing tracks like "Avaritia" more punch.

All in all, really solid. Highly recommended.