DREAM THEATER — Octavarium (review)

DREAM THEATER — Octavarium album cover Album · 2005 · Progressive Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
5/5 ·
Warthur
After an album which saw their "prog" side cranked up to 11 (Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence) and one which saw them give more prominence to their metal side (Train of Thought), Dream Theater used Octavarium to slam the two halves together and recombine them in a way which feels simultaneously familiar and different.

Take, for instance, opening track The Root of All Evil - sure, you've got all the band members present and correct and doing more or less what they do best, but there's a different air to it. James LaBrie's vocal performance isn't as up-front and bombastic as we might expect for such an aggressive track - instead he's this sort of elusive presence lurking in the depths, like a transmission from somewhere far away and more than a little malevolent.

Then from the murk comes clarity, in the form of moving ballad The Answer Lies Within - the sort of material which could very easily cross the line into being cheesy, were not not clearly heartfelt. Again, LaBrie deserves applause here - from the murk of Root of All Evil he suddenly steps forward into a spotlight of crystal-clear clarity, and he absolutely nails it.

The song benefits from the sensitive addition of a string quartet, and isn't the only time on the album the band bring on some guests - the last 35 minutes or so of the album (accounting for a bit under half the running time) is performed alongside an orchestra, who add a classical touch to the concluding tracks, the 10 minute Sacrificed Sons and the 24 minute epic title track of the album. The former track is a 9/11 thinkpiece, though once the news snippets at the start die down it's a general enough anti-war sentiment to rise above that; Octavarium itself is a meandering, somewhat self-indulgent/self-celebratory piece which ends up being more endearing than I'm making it sound largely through sheer chutzpah.

As well as the inclusion of the orchestra, the album is notable for a new mellowness entering Dream Theater's music - captured on tracks like The Answer Lies Within or during the verses of These Walls, it's these moments of tranquility shot through with an underlying tension which gets across the idea that these moments of peace are fragile things, always at the risk of being shattered. (In other moments, they go absolutely frantic; Panic Attack and Never Enough sound like Dream Theater doing Muse better than Muse were by this point in time.) On the whole, Octavarium finds Dream Theater continuing their stylistic evolution in magnificent form.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

The Goblin Sessions Heavy Metal
THEM
Buy this album from MMA partners
Tormenta De Arena Metalcore
VORAGO
Buy this album from MMA partners
Infinite Metalcore
FUTURE GHOST
Buy this album from MMA partners
Heretic Melodic Death Metal
SUNCINDER
Buy this album from MMA partners
The Skull Burned Wearing Hell Like A Life Vest As The Night Wept Mathcore
FRONTIERER
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

Future Ghost - Wolves (Official Music Video)
FUTURE GHOST
Bosh66· 1 day ago
Future Ghost - Nemesis Game (Official Music Video)
FUTURE GHOST
Bosh66· 1 day ago
Harrowed TwentyTenVideo
HARROWED
Bosh66· 3 days ago
Sunmancer - Realms of Dilemma (Official Visualizer)
SUNMANCER
Bosh66· 8 days ago
Sunmancer - Lower Cavalier (Official Visualizer)
SUNMANCER
Bosh66· 8 days ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed