Dream Theater – The Astonishing

Intro: Christos Minos
15 / 02 / 2016

Two years ago, the choice of Dream Theater to give their name to the album they released, was a symbolic movement which completed the first circle of their career. Having created albums such as Images and Words, Awake, Scenes from a Memory, Falling into Infinity and their debut, they had managed to forge the progressive metal of the ‘90s and after like no other band. The remarkable Train of Thought and Six Degrees…, which followed chronologically, would prove to be the borderline of the band between a golden era which they tended to abandon gradually and an ambiguous time which would be introduced mainly after “Octavarium”.

From Systematic Chaos onwards, their regular discography would make them known to a broader audience, who enthusiastically welcomed their obvious musical skills, but quite a few were disappointed by their new direction.

This year’s Τhe Astonishing starts a new chapter in their eventful career and is framed with grand ambition for a new start. Will all the talk about the most ambitious project they have ever tried be confirmed? Will they be able to meet the high demands that a 2-hour album inevitably creates?

Great expectations

In every dystopia, either out of a novel’s pages (e.g. 1984) or found in the long course of human history and totalitarian regimes, freedom of expression is subject to the control mechanisms of the tyrannical regime which, in order to ensure integrity of its power, did not hesitate to banish everything that appeared threatening to it. Music, eminently the most directly conveyed art, always carried messages of resistance to each imposed injustice from higher-ups and was the first victim of manipulation.

The new Dream Theater album takes place in such a future dystopia, in the territory of which the sole music produced comes from machines and is as cold and lifeless as their creators. Faced with this oppression generated by the curtailment of freedom of expression, some will revolt demanding the restoration of “real” music.

The story of the album is Petrucci’s inspiration (and has many similarities with the legendary 2112 of Rush), who composed the album with Jordan Rudess to create an absolute concept that every ambitious prog musician dreams of moulding, ensuring his eternal posterity. From Yes to Dream Theater themselves, the attempt to create a perfect album evokes the effort of Icarus who, despite the admonitions of his father, will fly so high toward the sun meeting his own demise…

The Astonishing is the last work of Dream Theater to confront their limitations, composing a double album which both exceeds 2 hours in duration and also attempts to narrate a fictional story. This is a vast undertaking for obvious reasons: how easy is it to compose songs that will keep your interest undiminished for so many hours while unfolding a narrative that lacks credentials of literary quality?

The truth is that this album is a return to the good old days of Dream Theater. Focused on a more balanced conception of their pieces, fairly close to prog rock, melody is brought back to centre stage along with their endeared influences, reconstructing a sum that is friendlier to the listener. Although the ossified of all warmth production puts obstacles to the final result, the album creates feelings and does not drift into a graceless demonstration of musical skills.

Petrucci creates nice solos and together with Rudess, who appears in his best form in a long time, are leading the tracks. LaBrie is surprisingly good. His voice, aided by the style of the tracks, is finally pleasant. In contrast, Muyng has disappeared, as his bass is barely heard, while Mangini, simply fulfilling his duty, is a pale presence relatively to Portnoy.

This lack of collective partnership results in the negative aspects of this project. Many compositions are one-dimensional and unimaginative, while the element of surprise is permanently absent. Given the excessively long duration of the album, the blemishes are magnified: a sense of repetition haunts the entire album, the excessive number of tracks based on Rudess’s piano are tiresome from early on in the first part, and, most importantly, there are no large pieces, not only in length but also in value, which could be heard independently and be committed to the listener’s memory. The feeling that comes to anyone who is brave enough to listen to the whole album –no matter how many times one can listen to it- is exhaustion.

Dream Theater with The Astonishing seem to stumble on their own ambitions. The final result, to some extent, rekindles the interest in their music, but fails to impress. No mood to talk about the past dictates the reference about the superiority of their old masterpieces, and therefore there is no intention of bias for or against their current work. The truth is that they had created a utopia that is impossible to reinvent today.

6.5 / 10

Christos Minos

2^nd opinion 

A comeback to what they do best for Dream Theater. A double concept album with references to Kansas, Spock’s Beard and pre-2000 Theater makes me engage with their music for the first time in more than 10 years. Surprise (positive): there is no piece lasting more than 8 minutes. If it were somewhat shorter, missing the pointless interludes and the insistence on the ballad, it would have been even better. Perhaps the most interesting album since the era of Scenes from a Memory.

8 / 10

Thanos Patsos