DREAM THEATER — Systematic Chaos (review)

DREAM THEATER — Systematic Chaos album cover

Album · 2007 · Progressive Metal

2/5 · 2010-04-19
Stooge

Well, the album name is certainly apt when it comes to describing the band. Much of their work consists of well-structured songs that allow for a good amount of frantic and fluid instrumental interplay. When it comes to Systematic Chaos, Dream Theater's ninth album, both those aspects of the band seem less inspiring.

"In The Presence Of Enemies: Part 1" starts off with quite a bit of promise, but after a few minutes, I start to lose patience with where the Prelude is heading. Resurrection finally rolls around and breathes new life into the song. The first few minutes alone help make this one of the finer moments of the album.

"Forsaken" is an OK song. A bit more stripped down than most songs on the album, which is a good thing. However, there is nothing about it that I feel strongly about in either a positive or a negative way.

The next two tracks, "Constant Motion" and "The Dark Eternal Night", basically sum up why two years after purchasing this album I rarely get the urge to listen to it. When the band joined Roadrunner, what I feared most appeared to be happening: they attempt to become more "metal". I am a big fan of the metal genre, and many of my favorite Dream Theater moments are when the band explores dark and heavier parts of their sound (much of Awake, for instance), but these songs miss the mark horribly. The main riffs during the verses of both songs seems like throwaway metal riffs, and the rhythmic vocal deliveries bring out a side of Labrie's vocals that I don't really care for. I'm not a fan of Portnoy's backing vocals on these songs at all, especially with that awful distorted vocal on "The Dark Eternal Night".

"Repentance", a song that I gave little attention when I first bought Systematic Chaos, is actually now what I would call the strongest track on the album. A rather beautiful, somber song with some touching lead guitar playing by John Petrucci. The track ends with some spoken word confessions by an assortment of musicians (many of whom feature on Prog Archives) to contribute to the AA theme of the Portnoy-penned lyrics.

"Prophets of War" reminds me of some techno/metal hybrid bands (sort of like Rammstein) from a musical standpoint. The lyrics are fairly standard for a more political song. Like "Forsaken", it is more of a bare bones song. When I first read the song title, I expected the song to be one of the heavier songs on the album. Overall, I can't say I'm a fan of this track.

"The Ministry of Lost Souls" has some of the best vocals on the album, but much like the previous track, it seems kind of sappy. The instrumental section seems to do little but stretch out the length of the song. The fault is not on the musician's execution, it's just that I literally just listened to that portion of the song five minutes from when I'm typing this sentence and can't think of any part that I can clearly remember.

The album closes with the second half of "In The Presence of Enemies". Naturally, it share a lot thematically with Part 1, but it lacks the power of the first part. I've yet to listen to both parts back-to-back, but I already get the impression that I wouldn't be getting another "A Change Of Seasons".

I'll be honest, while I'm giving Systematic Chaos a 2-star rating, the album barely made that grade for me. I've been following this band for seven years, and am familiar with all of their studio work. They are capable of so much more than this. If I didn't own the special edition of this album, I do not know whether or not I would still have it in my collection.