There are 34 songs and over two hours of music, which is a monumental chunk, and so much that I haven’t fully gotten into it. Yet, this new record is taking me a bit to get into. Some more, some less but they always have made music that appealed to me and I took it to heart. I have likewise championed them and the progressive metal style they helped create ever since. Dream Theater are a band I have liked pretty much from the beginning, before they got popular somehow when MTV of all places picked “Pull Me Under” and was able to get their name out to the general music audience. This is one disc I have been listening to for a few weeks now and am trying to find the right words to do justice to. Coming into a DREAM THEATER album, one sometimes suspects the band is out to build their own "Tales From Topographic Oceans" minus YES's copious splooges of ultra-weirdness-the latter being a double album both revered and reviled.The Astonishing is the newest release from Dream Theater, a band I have been following for many years. DREAM THEATER's latest work, "The Astonishing", is hardly "Topographic Oceans", yet if you're hanging all the way through this one hundred thirty minute, two act set, you'll detect a wanton kindred spirit in spots. ![]() Mechanical wheezes and tinny street wars set in a distant future replace the roundabout (pun intended) audile tempest fluttering about Jon Anderson's rampant interpretation of the Hindu shastras. In DREAM THEATER's case, "The Astonishing" is glossed by cinematic overtures, lovesick melodrama, seventies pop and perhaps one Disney film score too many.Ī project this vast is best analyzed with an overview as opposed to track-by-track dissection. The grand perspective to "The Astonishing" is to say it's a 34-song dystopic sci-fi opera, and even for DREAM THEATER fans, it's a demanding excursion. It's not without spectacle, but it is an excessive and largely trudging prog affair that challenges even "The Postman" for excess. "The Dystopian Overture" and "2285 Entr'acte" are the most rousing parts of this colossal undertaking as DREAM THEATER pours cinematic overload into it. Think of it in the old movie theater days of "Ben-Hur", "Doctor Zhivago", "Spartacus" and "The Ten Commandments" with actual intermission breaks and overtures signaling viewers to their seats during each portion. "The Dystopian Overture" launches "The Astonishing" with a burst of energy carrying into the brisk and peppy "The Gift of Music". Similarly, the stirring and emotive "Moment of Betrayal" swoops out of its Act II setup from "2285 Entr'acte". Otherwise, this album takes its time in more ways than one "The Astonishing" rolls and glides more than explodes as it does in the early moments of each act.Ĭrunchy marching, horse neighing, gutter clashes, computer bit noises and nerdy noodling bring DREAM THEATER's totalitarian realm to life behind staggering numbers like "A Better Life", "Brother, Can You Hear Me? " and "A Savior in the Square". The tough chomp and street scrapping noises on "The Walking Shadow", "The Path that Divides" and "A Tempting Offer" are reminiscent of QUEENSRYCHE's "Operation Mindcrime", to which DREAM THEATER partially aspires on this album. In their case, with a more operatic methodology. "Lord Nafaryus" (as in nefarious, get it?) is pushed with as much stamping theatricality as can be gained, even with morose slowdowns designed to increase agitation. The sweeping strings and solemn piano melody on "Act of Faythe" are gorgeous (ditto for the acoustic euphoria on "Heaven's Cove"),as the song assumes a seventies pop swoon through the first four minutes. It gracefully drifts to close with a brief symphonic bomb and a siren-chimed outro as sweet as James LaBrie's tireless crooning on the whole album. Keep in mind, LaBrie battled back from a potentially career-threatening vocal impairment years ago. The fact he not only perseveres but submits himself to this marathon and gives life to "The Astonishing"'s cast of characters: it's flat-out, well, you know.īallads abound on this album. The reprised melody spanning many of these songs ring like ABBA's more eloquent offspring, think "The Winner Takes it All". "The Answer", "When Your Time Has Come", "Act of Faythe", "Chosen", "Begin Again", "Losing Faythe" and "Whispers On the Wind" will capture the hearts of the band's more sentimental listeners. ![]() The gusting "The Road to Revolution" and the regal stride of "Brother, Can You Hear Me? " are superb.
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