Dream Theater

Systematic Chaos (Roadrunner)

Reviewed by Phil Ashcroft

I always approach a new Dream Theater release with some trepidation. It’s not that I don’t trust them to make a great album – I’ve grown to love everything they’ve put out thus far – but almost all of their albums have required time and effort to fully appreciate. For the second time in recent years – the first being ‘Train Of Thought’ – time isn’t something I have an awful lot of, and their first album for the Roadrunner label certainly isn’t an easy one to get to grips with – but here goes nothing!

‘Systematic Chaos’ is certainly a very varied record and incorporates all of the different styles that the band have worked in before, but that’s only a small piece of it as there are parts of this album that are totally unlike anything from their past. Like its predecessor, ‘Octavarium’, there are eight tracks and each one has its own flavour – but it’s as if the band have looked at its simpler song structures and less over-the-top instrumentation and have compensated accordingly.

Kicking off with ‘In The Presence Of Enemies Part 1’ it’s Dream Theater doing what they do best – complex arrangements, speedy ensemble playing and unorthodox rhythms, similar to the more cohesive parts of Liquid Tension Experiment. The song slows down four minutes in for an amazing John Petrucci guitar solo and a very melodic song part with James LaBrie in great voice, before speeding up again with some great guitar and keyboard parts. In contrast, ‘Forsaken’ is DT at their most melodic, some catchy riffs, another fine vocal and a suitably big chorus – probably the most instantly accessible song on the album.

In contrast. the next two songs may raise a few eyebrows. Maybe not so much ‘Constant Motion’ with its Megadeth riffs and Metallica vocals, as it’s something the band have touched on before with tracks like ‘Lie’ and ‘As I Am’, but this time with more hooks. There’s Mike Portnoy’s fantastic bass drum work as well as trading vocal lines with LaBrie, Jordan Rudess’ frantic keyboard soloing and those little guitar twists that can only be Petrucci. On the other hand ‘The Dark Eternal Night’ starts with a monstrously heavy riff and some Meshuggah-style distorted vocals (from Portnoy?) The pre-chorus and chorus twists the song on its head with LaBrie’s melodic vocals and takes it full circle with a quirky instrumental bit that features the return of Rudess’ ragtime piano and ends on a slow grinding riff.

After the heavy onslaught there’s a change of pace with the slow building ‘Repentance’ – subtle guitar and piano gives way to a ‘Peruvian Skies’-style moody piece which hints at both Pink Floyd and Porcupine Tree, and although it features one of Petrucci’s most beautiful guitar solos it does go on a little too long and the spoken dialogue is distracting. Portnoy’s Muse obsession rears its head again on ‘Prophets Of War’ where the synth and vocal verse borders on techno and is at odds with the more guitar-based chorus and chant vocals. The fourteen minute ‘The Ministry Of Lost Souls’ is the album’s ‘Sacrificed Sons’ with its balladic intro and stirring chorus, and builds to a lively crescendo of great guitar and keyboard solos before returning to the song at the end.

The more low-key latter half of the album continues with the gentle opening of the sixteen minute ‘In The Presence Of Enemies Part 2’, which features many recurring themes and majestic musical bits of the first part. Inevitably though it also changes pace several times and has some faster sections with both vocal parts and instrumental sections before going out on an epic high.

Despite Mr. LaBrie’s assertion that this is the finest material they’ve written so far there are a few minutes in the second half that I could have lived without. Having said that it’s their most varied album since ‘Awake’, and with the engineering expertise of the excellent Paul Northfield it’s certainly one of their best sounding records ever – John Myung has never had a bass sound this good. A few minor quibbles aside this is a great Dream Theater album that shows the competition how it should be done.