When I first got onto this site, I was very surprised to see that Octavarium had gotten such low ratings compared to the other albums of its caliber. It I was the best Dream Theater album up to that point. It includes eight exceptional songs to go along with it being the eighth DT album so far. These are my thoughts on all of the songs.

1/8 "The Root of All Evil" is the third installment of Mike Portnoy's 12 step AA program and may be considered to be the weakest but with its classic thrash jam, catchy riff, and chorus it is defiantly a good song. The Alcoholics Anonymous suite also includes "The Glass Prison" from 6 Degrees of Inner Turbulence, "This Dying Soul" from Train of Thought, "Repentance" from Sysmatic Chaos, and "The Shattered Fortress" on Black Clouds and Silver Linings.


2/8 "The Answer Lies Within" starts out with nothing but bells but turns into one of the better songs on this album. It is a very slow song with guitar and chorus all through out the song and it is driven by the piano. It is also the main ballad of this work and has heavy emotions throughout the whole song.


3/8 "These Walls" is the first of three DT classics on this album. In the beginning it is a mix of heavy and soaring sounds and this continues through the whole song. Throughout the whole song there is awesome guitar and on the choruses Portnoy's bass kick and Rudess's keyboard playing is masterful.


4/8 "I Walk Beside You" is one of the slowest songs put out by Dream Theater but it is still an awesome song for prog rock fans. It starts out with a soft ticking sound which turns into drums than leads into more guitar and drums. While the song starts out kind of dark it grows into a lighter song and has good vacals.


5/8 "Panic Attack" is one of the songs that shows why DT is such a great band along with Octavarium and some others. It has very good riffs in it with some amazing drumming tucked in. In the middle of it all John Petrucci nails a difficult drum solo which puts this song over the top.


6/8 "Never Enough" has very good keyboards and is one of the better metal songs on this album. The heavy riffs and Labrie/Portnoy lyrics blend together perfectly. The instrumental mid- sectional is owned by Rudess and Petrucci.


7/8 "Sacrificed Sons" starts out with what sound like prayers and actual broadcasts from the 9/11 tragedy. Throughout the whole "broadcast" you can hear a wandering violin in the background. Then in the middle Petrucci hits an amazing solo that transfers great back into the main piece. This song gives you the right kind of emotions for this kind of song; anger and sadness.


8/8 "Octavarium starts out with a Pink Floyd opening that shows signs of Shine on You Crazy Diamonds. After the opening it turns into a small flute solo that sounds very good along with the intro. Than in the middle it turns to a bit of Yes, Rush, and some Black Sabbath. Even though they put all these different bands together they still make it sound awesome. Then they end the song with a great French horn outro.


Great album. Great Rating. 5 stars.

Written by The Block on 10.01.2010 at 05:51

5/8 "Panic Attack"..... In the middle of it all John Petrucci nails a difficult drum solo which puts this song over the top.

That's impressive considering he has to play guitar as well.

Written by Regolith on 26.11.2011 at 22:32
That's impressive considering he has to play guitar as well.

I love little errors like that. Makes me imagine him jamming on guitar and then running over to the drums and just laying waste to them during a solo while...maybe playing the guitar with his dick? Or maybe his tongue.

Written by Troy Killjoy on 26.11.2011 at 22:41

... Or maybe his tongue.

At this point John can play guitar with his eyes; just by looking at a guitar it plays for him.

Written by Regolith on 29.11.2011 at 19:56
At this point John can play guitar with his eyes; just by looking at a guitar it plays for him.

You're saying he's the Chuck Norris of guitardom.

Quote:

Written by Troy Killjoy on 29.11.2011 at 20:14

.

You're saying he's the Chuck Norris of guitardom.

You could say that. I was thinking he's the Yoda of guitardom. Or maybe better yet, he's the orgin of the midi-chlorians that control all other musicians abilities. From John flow the springs of guitar life.

Too far?

Written by Regolith on 30.11.2011 at 01:32
Too far?

I don't listen to DT so I actually can't say if he's a good guitarist or not. I'm sure a lot of fans agree with you though.

This album should get a 50 not a 10
i don't think that any band not even dreamtheater themselves can surpass this album

The song "Octavarium" is so well pulled off and so powerfully illustrates the "full circle" principle on which this album was built, it makes the rest completely redundant. There is a couple of songs I dislike here, and the rest get a "yeah, it's kinda nice". The only one I really like, apart from the title track, is "These Walls". And I have a soft spot for "I Walk Beside You". As annoyingly poppy as it is, it's a good upbeat tune.

Probably their best post-Six Degrees album. It's still inconsistent and some songs work better than others. The title track is the obvious highlight but even that drags in places - the final section is glorious though.

I found very little to enjoy in this album, I'd put it at around the same level as their latest release. Often impressive yet empty noodling and absolutely forgettable.

Without the title track this would be a big fail. Sacrificed Sons is a good one also, but the rest is meh.

Okay, the last four people posting on the thread more or less agree. I believe we have a Metal Storm first here.

I can totally relate to Panic Attack.. Describes how the person feels better than a psychologist or the person himself can..

As a person who never liked progmetal, after getting into OPETH and PORCUPINE TREE a lot, I decided that no man should die without having listened to Dream theater. Concidered as a classic band for the genre, i thought I should give it a shot, and, damn, I wish I ciuld have done this before. I begun with Octavarium, which, too bad, isn't loved as mich as should be - panic attack, according to many people, saves the album, but if you listen deeply, from very beggining to the very end, you realise just how great songs flow one to another, how different yet catchy the music is. Not only the panic attack is a great song, the whole album, each note is the where it should be. Everyrhing is great. Of course it isnt Image and Words, but come on, people do have to change sometimes. Music as well. Great album in all terms. Deffinetely a must buy. I did and never regreted.

This one has a very interesting concept and way to work the music inside this one.

My favorite ones: The Root of all Evil & Octavarium

Good album, but it lost me at the last three songs. I wanted to like the song Octavarium, I really did...

This is my favorite album. Strong lirics in octavarium.

This is an academic paper on music theory. Dream Theater showing their jazz roots are in full force.

This one is a very mixed bag. I pretty much only like half of the songs and despise with all my heart the second half. The ones I love are Octavarium, The Root Of All Evil, Panic Attack and Never Enough. Sacrificed sons is alright, a bit too long but nothing terrible there. However, the other three songs, god do I hate them. I pretty much always forget the existence of The Answer Lies Within, probably one of the most passable songs in the history of music. These walls is alwyas the one that destroys all forms of happiness inside of me because of how terrible it is, and I Walk Besides You just finishes the job. I don't have anything against ballads, but these ones are just so terrible, I can't stand them. Thankfully, the second half of the album more than makes up for it, especially with Octavarium being the masterpiece it is. Overall, big letdown of an album with some amazing stand out tracks. 7.5 leaning to an 8 (I might have been a bit harsh).

Dream Theater may not be one of my favourite bands (I think Images & Words is one of the most overrated Metal albums of all time), but even I have to admit that Octavarium is one of the greatest songs ever recorded in the history of music.

Written by nonZero on 18.03.2021 at 12:42

Dream Theater may not be one of my favourite bands (I think Images & Words is one of the most overrated Metal albums of all time), but even I have to admit that Octavarium is one of the greatest songs ever recorded in the history of music.

Images & Words most overrated? How? It was a groundbreaking album when it was released, influenced a ton of other artists. TBH I cringe when people call the early DT albums overrated. Such a relevant contributor to the progressive metal scene. I guess one needs to understand context to appreciate certain albums.

Written by JoHn Doe on 18.03.2021 at 13:18

Written by nonZero on 18.03.2021 at 12:42

Dream Theater may not be one of my favourite bands (I think Images & Words is one of the most overrated Metal albums of all time), but even I have to admit that Octavarium is one of the greatest songs ever recorded in the history of music.

Images & Words most overrated? How? It was a groundbreaking album when it was released, influenced a tonof other artists. TBH I cringe when people call the early DT albums overrated. Such a relevant contributor to the progressive metal scene. I guess one needs to understand context to appreciate certain albums.

It's not that Images & Words is a bad album (8.0/10 from me), it's just a very messy one. The songwriting simply isn't as strong as their later releases (e.g. I can get on board with calling Metropolis Pt. 2 an excellent album) and LaBrie's vocals were at their weakest.

Historic value makes no difference to quality IMO, it's just an additional benefit.

Written by nonZero on 18.03.2021 at 13:42

Written by JoHn Doe on 18.03.2021 at 13:18

Written by nonZero on 18.03.2021 at 12:42

Dream Theater may not be one of my favourite bands (I think Images & Words is one of the most overrated Metal albums of all time), but even I have to admit that Octavarium is one of the greatest songs ever recorded in the history of music.

Images & Words most overrated? How? It was a groundbreaking album when it was released, influenced a tonof other artists. TBH I cringe when people call the early DT albums overrated. Such a relevant contributor to the progressive metal scene. I guess one needs to understand context to appreciate certain albums.

It's not that Images & Words is a bad album (8.0/10 from me), it's just a very messy one. The songwriting simply isn't as strong as their later releases (e.g. I can get on board with calling Metropolis Pt. 2 an excellent album) and LaBrie's vocals were at their weakest.

Historic value makes no difference to quality IMO, it's just an additional benefit.

it's got historical value because of its quality.
LaBrie is at its weakest on I&W?! I disagree, he did a fine job here.
LaBrie damaged his vocal cords on the Awake tour (or so I read).But if you ask me, his vocal delivery became worse o later albums.

I won't get you started on Awake, it's my favorite DT album, I don't want to see it bashed again.

It's very proggy and experimental, there are alot of Pink Floyd influences here, especially the title track, in fact they mentioned tge bands name several times throughout the song. Unfortunately I found the album just plain dull in parts, and although there is clearly quality musicianship here, It just seems like they tried too hard to resemble somthing similar to Pink Floyd, it never worked for me, I much prefer the style of Images And Words, and the concept of the Metropolis album.

"Panic Attack" is my favourite song on here, but I can't say much else really stood out for me.

After Images and Words was released, DT took a long road of experimentation until finally, after Train of Thought was released, I realised they finally tightened all their loose screws.