After toying with some experimental moments on ‘Octavarium’ Dream Theater have returned to the darker metal overtones of ‘Train Of Thought’ and combined them with the progressive elements found on ‘Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence’ on this, their ninth studio album in a career that has now spanned some twenty-two years.

Bookending the album is the 25 minute ‘In The Presence Of Enemies’ which contains all of the trademarks of what make Dream Theater such a compelling band. There is a substantial amount of interplay between Rudess and Petrucci during the lengthy instrumental introduction that leads into a solid vocal from LaBrie, who it has to be said is sounding better than ever. Complex arrangements, heavy riffing, fast and slow solos all combine to make this one of the albums real stand out efforts. By using it to open and close the album, as Pink Floyd did with ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’, the band clearly hold it in high regard and justifiably so.

‘Forsaken’ is the albums ballad and probably the most accessible song here, not their greatest moment in the lyric department but a song that is high on melody and has some more nice touches from Petrucci. A tip of the hat to 80’s Metallica it may be but I find ‘Constant Motion’ to be one of the weaker songs and it really doesn’t stand up to repeated listening, one to be skipped over. ‘The Dark Eternal Night’ takes us back to ‘Train Of Thought’ and, despite the irritating double vocals during the verses, is a solid metal number, high on atmospherics and typically over the top.

The other jewel in the crown here is ‘Repentance’, the track that takes us through the next journey of Mike Portney’s AA saga. An air of melancholy hangs over the whole piece and it is probably the bands most Floyd-esque moment to date. After a perfect delivery from LaBrie there is a period of spoken passages by various individuals (including Steve Wilson and Steve Hogarth) expressing regret for an event in their life. This is eleven minutes of haunting progressive metal and a contender for one DT’s finest songs to date.

The modern sounding ‘Prophets Of War’ is something of a filler track and, despite the similar subject matter, is nowhere near as good as ‘Sacrificed Sons’ from ‘Octavarium’. If this had ended up being left off the album it wouldn’t have been missed. Fortunately it is followed by another strong piece, ‘The Ministry Of Lost Souls’, that finds the band back in the more familiar territory of accomplished soloing and dark, emotion packed, lyrics.

Overall then, this is something of a difficult album to mark. If they had gone for ‘less is more’ and left off ‘Prophets Of War’ and ‘Constant Motion’ it may well have been a 10. But, of course, that is not the DT way and so we end up with a CD of 70-odd minutes where roughly two-thirds is classic stuff and the remainder forgettable. But when they do deliver they have few peers and this is a band that seems like it will just continue to amaze, perplex and confound in equal measures.

Let us know your views on Systematic Chaos

Track Listing

In The Presence Of Enemies Pt. 1
Forsaken
Constant Motion
The Dark Eternal Night
Repentance
Prophets Of War
The Ministry Of Lost Souls
In The Presence Of Enemies Pt. 2

Line Up

Mike Portnoy - drums
John Petrucci - guitars
John Myung - bass
James LaBrie - vocals
Jordan Rudess - keyboards