Dream Theater

An album review, for me, is a lengthy process which involves listening to different parts that make up the whole. So I usually start off concentrating only on the music and the sound of the album, and then move on to the lyrics. And this, here, would be the first instance where I have actually yanked off a star, after listening to the lyrics.

Musically, Black Clouds & Silver Linings is right up there with the best of Dream Theater albums. It takes the band’s trademark odd-time signatures, sudden pace changes, frenetic drumming, monster riffs and wailing vocals, mixes ”˜em all up and then cranks up the h.e.a.v.y. factor on it. Tracks like the album-opener, ”˜A Nightmare to Remember,’ and the first single, ”˜A Rite of Passage,’ are vintage Dream Theater ”“ nice and heavy with great riffs, and a few more headbanging opportunities thrown in. Then there are the regulation DT ballads, ”˜Wither’ and ”˜The Best of Times,’ the latter Portnoy’s tribute to his late father ”“ it’s brilliant musicianship all around.

Unfortunately, when it comes to the lyrics part of it, Black Clouds is just that. Sample this: “It’s a miracle he lived/It’s a blessing no one died/By the grace of God above/Everyone survived” from ”˜A Nightmare to Remember,’ reportedly a song guitarist John Petrucci penned about a car crash he was involved in as a child. Or “Let me introduce my brother/I’ve been a gentleman/Historian/Sucking on his pipe/Distinguished accent/You’re making me uptight/No accident,” as sung on the otherwise epic-sounding ”˜The Count of Tuscany.’ It’s almost as if the band got so involved in coming up with great music that they forgot they needed words too, until the night before the recording.