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Dream Theater - Black Clouds and Silver Linings
| Sputnikmusic |
| Dream Theater have gained a reputation within the metal community as the kings of musical masturbation. Whenever a negative comment is made about the band it generally includes the fact that they can’t write actual songs and only seem capable of jerking off their instruments and blatantly emulating their influences. Of course, fans know that these accusations are false but even they’d have to admit that actual songwriting doesn’t seem to be as big of a priority as it used to be. There was a time when the band put musical composition first and integrated their need for extended instrumentals into that structure. This formula worked well and resulted in two of the band’s most highly regarded albums - Images & Words and Awake. It wasn’t really until Jordan Rudess joined that the focus seemed to change from songwriting to extended jams. This wasn’t necessarily a bad thing since it did result in Scenes from a Memory, but the lack of actual songwriting has still been missed. With the release of Black Clouds and Silver Linings it won’t have to be missed anymore....full text |
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| Head-fi |
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Rich Wilson, author of the official Dream Theater biography, ‘Lifting Shadows’, has penned the Hammer track-by-track of their latest album, ‘Black Clouds And Silver Linings’. A Nightmare To Remember Opening with a creepy piano introduction before some dark and imposing chords, some truly blistering kick drums appear before a weighty riff takes control. A few minutes on, and the headlong pace breaks into a lighter guitar motif, before another guitar melody drifts in. LaBrie’s vocals sound controlled and as with the rest of the album, this is Dream Theater sounding just so much bigger than before. This song lasts a mesmerising sixteen minutes, but at no time does it sound contrived or laboured. With that amount of time to play with, the track has a flurry of time signature changes. John Petrucci is inspired and delivers a fret melting solo nine minutes in, directly followed by keyboard wizard Jordan Rudess cranking out some crazy riffs of his own, before the pair trade off licks and unisons. There are a few of the growling vocals that caused a certain amount of controversy on their last album Systematic Chaos, but they are fleeting and quickly disappear as more curveballs are thrown in. Some typically wacky Jordan Rudess melodies take the track in a new direction before a more explosive version of the original riff from all of ten minutes ago returns. For an opening album tracks, it’s an enthralling and exhausting musical journey....full text |
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| Bbc |
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One doesn't so much listen to Dream Theater as get overrun by them, and ten studio albums in, the band are still pursuing their uber-muscular progressive metal agenda with ruthless dedication. Their undoubted collective instrumental firepower is deployed like a bunch of marauding marines with anger management issues, slipping the leash and swarming over everything in their path....full text |
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