DREAM THEATER — Octavarium (review)

DREAM THEATER — Octavarium album cover Album · 2005 · Progressive Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
Pekka
Over the years this album has gone through an interesting rollercoaster ride from "pretty good" to "meh" to "their worst" to "not that bad" to "actually quite nice in fact". To me this is probably the most difficult DT album, not necessarily because the music is so hard to grasp, but my mind thinks differently than whichever organ handles the feeling side.

It begins with the very first riff of the very first song, I'd imagine that's a great riff to play and bang your head to, but my foot doesn't tap and my head doesn't nod. It's difficult to say where the problem lies, but later I found that I liked the Score version of the song much more, so I guess I could say that the drive and passion is missing on the studio recording and that they later found it playing live. The Root of All Evil is a decent prog metal tune, but one of the weaker tracks of the AA saga.

The next three tracks show DT at their most straightforward, something for which this album gets a lot of flak at times. For me especially the gentle ballad The Answer Lies Within and the U2-like rocker I Walk Beside You are some of the most enjoyable material on this album. Two of the most middle-of-the-road DT pieces ever, which can be seen as a bad thing, but it still proves that if their limbs slowed down in the future they could still craft some fine songs.

At the time of the release the band offered an edited version of Panic Attack as a teaser, and that got my hopes up. A great piece of full on aggressive prog metal with an interesting tone choice by James LaBrie in places. Very feminine and surprisingly fitting. Unfortunately I never came to like the rest of the album as much as that track, the only exception being the epic title track. Often praised as their finest piece ever, I'm not quite that enthusiastic but still find it one of the highlights of the new century DT. The opening section screams Pink Floyd with block letters and exclamation marks - a homage or a rip-off that's for each one to decide on their own - and after a lengthy keyboard and guitar soundcape comes the single most beautiful moment of their entire career delivered by an acoustic guitar and a touching flute. Wish they had more bits like this in their discography, this is absolutely marvellous. Through the patented DT twists and turns the track comes to a grand closing at exactly 24 minutes making it the second longest DT epic ever and my second favourite after the masterpiece that is A Change of Seasons.

One of the most versatile DT albums both in style and quality
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