Dream Theater - A Dramatic Turn Of Events review
| Band: | Dream Theater |
| Album: | A Dramatic Turn Of Events |
| Style: | Progressive metal |
| Release date: | September 07, 2011 |
| Guest review by: | Roman Doez |
01. On The Backs Of Angels
02. Build Me Up, Break Me Down
03. Lost Not Forgotten
04. This Is The Life
05. Bridges In The Sky
06. Outcry
07. Far From Heaven
08. Breaking All Illusions
09. Beneath The Surface
Dream Theater is my favorite band. They've been for a while now. However, a lot of people classify their music as mindless wankery and dislike them because of that, and while it's true that their 2000's releases to some extent fall in that category, for a long time I never really could understand what made that so unappealing to some. However, after hearing this album, I instantly knew what they meant. Following the pretty good Black Clouds And Silver Linings, which was a huge step up from the very mixed Systematic Chaos and Octavarium, it seemed like everything was going great again for Dream Theater. However, the departure of founding member Mike Portnoy left them in quite a weird spot; he had been one of the lead writers for two decades and was one of the pillars behind their success. The band now had to prove themselves capable of writing great stuff without him, using their new drummer Mike Mangini. And I'm gonna be honest, they did anything but succeed.
The album is quite long, clocking up at 77 minutes, with four of its tracks going over the 10 minutes mark. Talking about the songs, there are a few major issues that everyone will probably notice. First off, the songwriting is ALL OVER THE PLACE. Some songs will start out with technical madness and then be stopped by our second problem: a cheesy chorus that completely breaks the rhythm, making the song as a whole way less interesting. They're definitely the worst thing on the album. There's literally only one track with an enjoyable chorus and it's "Lost Not Forgotten", a track plagued by our third problem: Petrucci and Rudess being the major composers for the album. All of the songs are based solely around the guitar and keyboard and eventually end up in a contest of who can play the most notes. It just ends up being mindless wankery, with pointless instrumental sections that add absolutely no substance whatsoever to the music.
The fourth is the random elements. Now randomness itself is not really a problem for me, although it wouldn't really fit the precise and calculated side of Dream Theater, but starting a song with Mongolian throat singing that has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the track isn't really the most well thought out decision. This is amplified by the weird keyboard sounds Rudess uses at times, most notably in "Beneath The Surface", which is already a painful enough track without it. Talking about Rudess, the keyboard is omnipresent, and it becomes quite annoying because once again, it's just pointless wankery. I'd say the most enjoyable track is "Breaking All Illusions", it's the only song here that proves that Dream Theater can still slap, although it of course has a mediocre chorus. But absolute rock bottom is hit with "Build Me Up, Break Me Down", which many rightfully said reached the level of a Disturbed song. Sorry for all of you Disturbed fans out there, but it's not a compliment.
This is a painful album to listen to, and not the greatest start to the new decade for Dream Theater.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 9 |
| Songwriting: | 4 |
| Originality: | 6 |
| Production: | 7 |
Written by Roman Doez | 29.12.2020
Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
Rating:
5.8
5.8
|
Rating: 5.8 |
It seems that something like that must have happened eventually. Mike Portnoy is gone, and A Dramatic Turn of Events is the first occasion for the metal community to find out how Dream Theater fares without their co-founder and co-leader. Let me tell you straight away that it sucks. It sucks much more than I feared it would having heard the first song off the album, whose name I won't even bother to mention. Why would I want to waste time typing names of crappy songs? Read more ›› |
Rating:
7.9
7.9
|
Rating: 7.9 |
There is no denying Dream Theater has been an enormous influence on progressive music for the last two decades. Every new release of theirs usually generates a buzz among fans and media alike. But since founding member, natural leader and revered drummer Mike Portnoy left the band unceremoniously last year, the free press the band is getting has been off the charts. After an overly publicized series of auditions whence drumming instructor Mike Mangini came triumphant, expectations were at an expected all-time high. A lot of doubts and uncertainties were lingering in the air. So what? You ask. Well, it all depends who's giving you the answer. Reviews have been split across the internet spectrum. But since you're stuck with me, here are my thoughts. Read more ›› |
Comments
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Comments: 52
Visited by: 135 users
| nikarg Staff Posts: 7351  |
Welcome to reviewing! Cannot comment on the album because I haven't listened to it; I stopped listening to DT long before Portnoy left and, judging from this review, the album encapsulates everything I hate about prog.
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| Roman Doez Hallucigenia Posts: 973  |
Written by nikarg on 29.12.2020 at 19:00 Thank you ! I tried to do my best but obviously I'll get better with time, I'm still not sure of whether or not a negative review was the best place to start but here I am ! And concerning Dream Theater, I'd say that after Train Of Thought, every album only has a few good songs and a lot of filler, this one definitely being among the worst, I might do a "getting into Dream Theater" someday or something along those lines
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| Troy Killjoy perfunctionist Staff Posts: 21306  |
Pfft, Dream Theater wish they were as good as Disturbed.
---- "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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| Roman Doez Hallucigenia Posts: 973 |
Written by Troy Killjoy on 29.12.2020 at 19:14 Down with the sickness >>>> Octavarium
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| Oracles Posts: 139  |
By far their worst album and for me I just find a lot of their songs on this album boring, lacklustre, and going into "Iron Saviour same sound" territory on this one. Even the cover art is quite pathetic and ridiculously stupid looking. Now that doesn't mean they've regressed because their self-title is a great album, I liked The Astonishing more than most, and Distance over Time is a solid release too. It just seems that DToE is the poor execution of Portnoy leaving when DT clearly needed a break from music for a little bit and giving Pertucci/Rudess too much of the creative process especially with a new drummer. I think a 5.0 rating is even high for me...
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| Oracles Posts: 139 |
Written by Troy Killjoy on 29.12.2020 at 19:14 Is this a jest? Disturbed is a great band no doubt, but DT is on another level.
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| Roman Doez Hallucigenia Posts: 973 |
Written by Oracles on 29.12.2020 at 19:21 I probably agree with the fact that it is their worst, although I'm not the biggest fan of The Astonishing, at least it tried something. They couldn't really handle not having Portnoy and ended up relying too much on technicality and it kinda felt like they forgot who they were and what made their music great
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| nikarg Staff Posts: 7351 |
Written by Roman Doez on 29.12.2020 at 19:13 I think that starting from a band you know very well is a good move. When reviewing, it is always useful to be aware of a band's discography, history, etc. Negative or positive is irrelevant I think, as long as you provide arguments for your opinion (and you certainly do in this review). Along with the stats article, this is a pretty cool way of introducing yourself to the MS community 
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| Roman Doez Hallucigenia Posts: 973 |
Written by nikarg on 29.12.2020 at 21:15 I made sure to read Apothecary's article on becoming a reviewer hahaha, starting with Dream Theater was my obvious choice, I grew up with them, and as I had a lot to say about this release I said why not ! I'm glad you like what I posted so far !
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| Bad English Tage Westerlund Posts: 62020  |
Written by Troy Killjoy on 29.12.2020 at 19:14 Man once ana misselled name, she wrote porntroy.
---- I stand whit Ukraine and Israel. They have right to defend own citizens. Stormtroopers of Death - "Speak English or Die"  I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
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| Bad English Tage Westerlund Posts: 62020 |
Nice intro about wankery, well to me it is and I dislike their after images n words. Fates Warning is much much better song writing even now as this band was, not talking about it now. I dislike it same as dont KD and MF, Venom and few other big names in the game.
---- I stand whit Ukraine and Israel. They have right to defend own citizens. Stormtroopers of Death - "Speak English or Die" I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
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| Robdog Posts: 167  |
How can anyone rate this so low!? It's better than Nu Metal and it's still listenable.
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| Roman Doez Hallucigenia Posts: 973 |
Written by Robdog on 29.12.2020 at 23:31 5/10 = bad I found this album to be bad, simple as that, and it being better than nu metal doesn't mean much if you consider nu metal as 4/10 for example. It's listenable for sure, but still bad
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| CWA Posts: 285  |
This review was really just a pointless parroting of all the points that the "Dream Theater sucks now" hate mob likes to spam on internet forums; not that I'm in full disagreement with the review by any means. I was surprised however, to not see a comment about how James Labrie is the worst singer ever. That's standard these days when talking about "bad" Dream Theater albums, lol.
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| SoUnDs LiKe PoP Posts: 1060 |
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| Robdog Posts: 167 |
Written by Roman Doez on 29.12.2020 at 23:36 After reading your review I listened to this album again today on shuffle to see if I could find anything "bad" about it, sure it has it's less interesting moments but I never found myself thinking "that's bad, this is bad, that's terrible" etc. I was still able to listen to the whole album without cringing. What I don't get is why people are in love with Ayreon! That stuff totally messed up. Ayreon is like the official hippy to metalhead transitional therapy program.
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| Bad English Tage Westerlund Posts: 62020 |
Written by Robdog on 29.12.2020 at 23:31 Are you trying to start provocative shitstorm? Hmmm you got point, in that case we need re vote in Nu metal whit 2 or 3. Well indeed Nu metal is bad, but this is bad as well, then I will say nu metal is even worst unless its old MTv2 teenage colage video songs whit teenage chicks n teenage party in it
---- I stand whit Ukraine and Israel. They have right to defend own citizens. Stormtroopers of Death - "Speak English or Die" I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
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| Robdog Posts: 167 |
Written by Bad English on 30.12.2020 at 11:15 Would you suppose that if this album was written by some other band you haven't listened to before you might actually rate it higher for what it was... But because this is Dream Theater we're talking about you agree that it's "bad" compared to their previous work? If so then that is not a fair or accurate rating. Dream Theater is not my favorite band but this album in my opinion as it is, on it's own and not considering who wrote it is definately worth a 7/8-10.
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| Bad English Tage Westerlund Posts: 62020 |
Written by Robdog on 30.12.2020 at 11:45 I never liked this band, they are bad song writers. Check out my old comments
---- I stand whit Ukraine and Israel. They have right to defend own citizens. Stormtroopers of Death - "Speak English or Die" I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
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| Robdog Posts: 167 |
Poor songwriting goes like this: 4/4 - intro-verse-chorus-verse-chorus-verse-chorus-outro. That junk is for Sesame Street. No inspiration, no effort, no passion and no creativity.
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| Robdog Posts: 167 |
Written by Bad English on 30.12.2020 at 11:50 Well Fates Warning Parallels has incredible songwriting and from memory I don't even think they used double-bass but lots of hi-hat work which was unique.. Too bad all their other albums are slightly alternative and boring although I haven't heard any of their old-old albums.
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| Bad English Tage Westerlund Posts: 62020 |
Bass dont means, FW songs works, not DT somehow they compose boring music what dont work, its like riverside.
---- I stand whit Ukraine and Israel. They have right to defend own citizens. Stormtroopers of Death - "Speak English or Die" I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
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| musclassia Staff Posts: 7629  |
I think this is a very mixed album - Breaking All Illusions is a fantastic song, and On The Back Of Angels, Bridges In The Sky and Outcry have very good stretches. However, the other songs are very subpar; the ballads (why they included 3 I do not know) are very bland, and Build Me Up is very uninspired. I fluctuate between a 6 and a 7 for this album; it's better than The Astonishing for sure, but the self-titled is a tad more consistent and Distance Over Time is a far better album
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| Roman Doez Hallucigenia Posts: 973 |
Written by CWA on 30.12.2020 at 01:43 I actually enjoyed the self titled and Distance Over Time quite a bit, it's just this one that I can't seem to get into. And James is definitely not that bad, people tend to overexaggerate that, I don't find his voice annoying by any means
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| Roman Doez Hallucigenia Posts: 973 |
Written by Robdog on 30.12.2020 at 11:06 It all once again comes back to the eternal "this is just my opinion, yours might differ" point, of course some people will enjoy this album, some others won't, that's the case with all music. I found this album bad, you found it good, just a matter of opinions in the end. And about Ayreon, I'm definitely not their biggest fan either, although I enjoyed The Human Equation, the rest of what I listened to from them doesn't do much for me
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| Roman Doez Hallucigenia Posts: 973 |
Written by musclassia on 30.12.2020 at 12:13 I pretty much agree with all that you said, apart from the ranking. I especially don't understand why the hell they chose to include so many ballads, considering they've always been pretty bad at them
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| Robdog Posts: 167 |
Written by Roman Doez on 30.12.2020 at 15:03 I used to think that James LaBrie was a long-haired pure-blonde lanky-homo-gay-man singer when first heard his voice.
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| Robdog Posts: 167 |
Written by Bad English on 30.12.2020 at 12:12 I just saw your profile... Your list of "favorite bands" pretty much contains the whole metalstorm database! How can you possibly love every other band except for DT and Riverside??? With a list like that you must have only listened to half of each of those album only once in your life! So I am questioning your judgement...
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| JoHn Doe Posts: 5101  |
Written by Bad English on 30.12.2020 at 12:12 Riverside and DT are two rather different bands. what's "bass dont means"? WTF are you trying to say?
---- I thought the two primary purposes for the internet were cat memes and overreactions.
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| JoHn Doe Posts: 5101 |
Written by Troy Killjoy on 29.12.2020 at 19:14  apples and oranges
---- I thought the two primary purposes for the internet were cat memes and overreactions.
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