First things first Dream Theater are officially a different band now with too many changes to their line-up to be considered the same group that recorded Falling Into Infinity and Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence. The current crew has done exactly what I hoped for on the new album and that is write more accessible music that still has the progressive elements without all the annoying vocal gymnastics and awkward time changes just so Portnoy can prove his mettle. I won't lie I absolutely love Mangini and was excited for him to sit in with this band. The band does their thing without going to that place so often visited by prog rock bands. James gets better with age or production techniques either way he is so much better today than he was in 1992. As with this sort of band and album you are always the sum of all the parts and songs aren't really so easy to pull apart and dissect in this realm. But there are some place where music just becomes a sonic sound of joy and on the third track "Lost Not Forgotten" that becomes the case. At 1:59 the absolute amazing guitar work that transpires is epic. Petrucci never fails to impress no matter what. James sounds completely demented and right where his voice is most effective on this 10:11 epic. I don't even care what the lyrics are because it all just works so well together that encompassing the whole sound scape is more important that listening to the lyrics.
The has many more moments of glory and supreme instrumentation that one could go on for days and pages. I will say that with the ever brilliant return of Yes this year Dream Theater upped their game as well creating one of the bands best albums. I just love this record and it might become my favorite album by Dream Theater if I'm still this engrossed with the majesty of it over the next few months.
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