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 |
| A review by: | Daniell |
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
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?
I will save a lot of time this way at least. Not having to type seven names of songs saves a lot of typing time, which I can otherwise spend picking my nose and admiring the yield that came form my private excavation. It'll be also more interesting than the dubious pleasure I was privy to while I was giving the album my mandatory 10 listens. I'm a coffee guy, so caffeine always manages to keep me awake. If it hadn't been for this legal drug, I'd never have finished listening to this turd of an album.
During the ordeal of listening to A Dramatic Turn of Events I pricked up my ears only twice. "Lost Not Forgotten" is half-decent, and its chorus has some bite in it, making the song at least memorable. "Breaking All Illusions" is the only trace of Dream Theater's former glory - adventurous, intriguing, surprising, with a great, well-composed, labyrinthine guitar solo. The only really outstanding song, the only pearl among swine.
The rest of the songs are a gray mass containing craploads of forced, uninspired instrumental wankery, multiple showoff passages, incredibly drawn out fragments, boring singing and flat, lifeless choruses. Sometimes the songs are sickeningly sweet and reek of badly disguised desire for radio exposure, sometimes they are overly complicated, but put together using unmatched parts, resulting in a bigger mess than my 3-year-old niece would make if I left her in the kitchen for 2 hours. All the inspiration that Dream Theater had this time around went into 2 songs. And what the hell is wrong with Jordan Rudess? He crammed his damn keyboard passages into every nook and cranny he could find in every song, and when there was no room to cram, he put the goddamn thing on top. The omnipresence of his instrument is extremely annoying and makes the album even worse. I know he is a virtuoso, but must he prove it five times per minute?
Come back Mike, please.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 9 |
| Songwriting: | 5 |
| Originality: | 6 |
| Production: | 8 |
 | Written on 21.09.2011 by Writes overly honest and totally subjective reviews when fancy strikes him. Which is not often. Which is probably good, all things considered. |
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 ›› |
Rating:
5.0
5.0
|
Rating: 5.0 |
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. Read more ›› |
Comments
Comments: 186
Visited by: 948 users
| Yavanna Posts: 616  |
I couldn't agree more with this review... I listened this album many times, and it's simply boring to me, I can't like it 
---- Carry me to the shoreline Bury me in the sand Walk me across the water And maybe you'll understand
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| Parasomnia Posts: 50  |
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| Mr.Wilson Posts: 60  |
Worst...Review...Ever! you got it all wrong! this album may not be their best but is in fact an improvement since Octavarium! biased review indeed, i hope someone else review this album on a objective point o view!
---- "..Damned in any Language..."
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| Daniell _爱情_ Elite Posts: 6100  |
 Explain how it is biased? Because it goes against your opinion?
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| Marcel Hubregtse Grumpy Old Fuck Elite Posts: 40071  |
Totally spot on review. btw I love how the lovers gonna love and start yelling that the review is not objective. there is no such thing as objectivity when it comes t reviewing
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996 
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| X-Ray Rod Skandino Staff Posts: 18374  |
Let the fangirls complain. This is hilarious. 
---- Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29 Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
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| Ivor Staff Posts: 5492  |
While I think you're being too harsh on the band, I have to agree on quite a bit of what you said. Truth is in there, so to say. The only stand out song for me was "Breaking All Illusions" and that one is pretty brilliant but it doesn't outweigh the rest of the album, though, which can mostly be summarized as faceless. There are sparks here and there but the direction is missing. Chronologically speaking the last two albums I really enjoyed to the core were 6 Degrees... and Systematic Chaos. The rest, while good, have somewhat passed me by. As will this one. Doesn't mean I don't like the band as such, and I will in all likelihood be attending one of the upcoming gigs. I was expecting quite a bit more from the album with all the buzz that's been rising around it. I.
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| wrathchild Staff Posts: 14090  |
Can't say I fully agree. I haven't listened to the last three albums but decided to check this one out. The teasers sucked so I had no big expectations. And surprise, the first 3 songs are excellent to me. "Lost not forgotten" being more or less exactly what I want this band to sound like. After that I began to lost it, the ballad-like passages are awful, and LaBrie's singing is boring when he's not adding a slightly aggressive touch. And maybe you're right, Ruddess could keep it quiet at times. Where the review is flawed is in the last sentence: it's not up to Portnoy at all...
---- La belleza no reside en lo que puedas crear, sino en lo que eres capaz de transmitir Beauty resides not in what you're able to create, but in what you're able to communicate Txus, Mägo De Oz
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| Daniell _爱情_ Elite Posts: 6100 |
Written by wrathchild on 21.09.2011 at 23:55 They seem to have lost it on the first album without him. I do see a connection...
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| Fat & Sassy! Elite Posts: 3857  |
Written by Parasomnia on 21.09.2011 at 23:00 I'm a huge progressive rock/metal fan and love a good amount of Dream Theater's work... but I almost 100% agree with this review. I think this album is pretty much a boring, uninspired and tedious piece of shit. But I mean, I'm a big fan of the band, so I don't have a negative bias towards them... so what's my excuse then?
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| Danyael Posts: 91 |
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| Darth Mitchell Mitchell Posts: 84  |
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| Milena gloom cookie Staff Posts: 4603  |
"The rest of the songs are a gray mass containing craploads of forced, uninspired instrumental wankery, multiple showoff passages, incredibly drawn out fragments, boring singing and flat, lifeless choruses." I thank you for this sentence. But I think they're better off without Mike. he turned out to be the bigger asshole here, so I was rooting for them to make an awesome album so he'd shut his mouth already. And I got THIS. Written by Daniell on 21.09.2011 at 23:57 Nah, there ain't really a connection, it's just that they were so full of themselves and thinking their 'musical chemistry' will do the job in a few months and that it's gonna be so awesome and jackety jack. Well, guess what DT boys, you can't make a half-assed effort and expect it to turn to gold because you used to shit brilliance.
---- 7.0 means the album is good
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| Risto Wandering Midget Posts: 1115  |
Compared to other large music community sites I regularly visit, this one rates ADTOE lowest in relation to the rest of their catalogue, be it the staff or regular users. And that is by far. Metal Storm's opinion about this album now officially sucks  Not I only disagree with the review, but I also think radio exposure is a turd of an argument when it comes to Dream Theater in general. They've done cheese before without people getting overly annoyed. Oh, and stop lying to people.
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| Fat & Sassy! Elite Posts: 3857 |
Written by Risto on 22.09.2011 at 02:01 I think I speak for everyone, staff and non-staff here at Metal Storm, when I say that we sincerely apologize for having shitty opinions. I'm sure Daniell is already working on writing a positive review of an album that he doesn't like to make it up to you as we speak.
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| R'Vannith ghedengi Elite Posts: 3099  |
There may not be such a thing as objectivity when it comes to writing reviews but their is such a thing as subtlety. This is a blatant slap to the face of every DT fanboy.  And I totally agree with it, this album is tediously drawn out and stale.
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| Quinaitor Posts: 51  |
Written by Fat & Sassy! on 22.09.2011 at 02:28 Totally loved the sarcasm here, On the main subject wich is the album review, I am a DT fan, I bought the deluxe version of it just because of the documentary, the single was already a dissapointment to me, so I felt the album deserved an opportunity. The only 2 songs I liked were Bridges In The Sky and Outcry, Lost Not Forgotten is an OK song and the rest are average songs. I'm sad, dissapointed, depressed since my favorite band lost the main piece of it, MP is not responsible for this album, but the band lacks of his creativity and vocals, wich make a perfect mach with LaBrie's. Jordan's paper on the songs has turned into an overwhelming pressence, pleasant just in few moments. I'm just too sad about this album. "DT returns stronger than ever with their most powerful album"... BULLSHIT!
---- Metal is flowing through my veins...
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| JohnDoe Account deleted |
JohnDoe
Account deleted
I agree about Rudess' work on this album; IMO he did it right just on the last two songs; I never really liked him that much, but on this album he annoyed me big time. 
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| godisdead Posts: 84 |
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| Evil Chip Posts: 505  |
I think they don't want to be commercial BUT "modern" as they said was their direction for systematic chaos and I think has been their direction since Train of Thought. The thing about the concept of playing this "modern" music doesn't lead to good music but to a mass of cliche moments. When they think about modern music they must think about Muse, Lamb of God, and more miscelaneous things. They lost some of their reflexive side along this way.
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| Aluminum Alloy Posts: 47  |
Written by R'Vannith on 22.09.2011 at 02:51 that's where i find a problem with the review. having/expressing an opinion is of course essential to a review, but so is good writing. this is not an example of good writing.
---- Here at the edge of this world Here I gaze at a pantheon of oak, a citadel of stone If this grand panorama before me is what you call God... Then God is not dead
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| JohnDoe Account deleted |
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| jhook Posts: 37 |
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| Void Eater Account deleted |
Void Eater
Account deleted Written by Daniell on 21.09.2011 at 23:19 Every album that I like deserves a ten, and if you disagree than you're not being objective, which, as Bittercold knows, is the best way to write reviews. Anyways, never cared about Dream Theatre, don't care about this album, just trying to increase my post count.
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| JohnDoe Account deleted |
JohnDoe
Account deleted Written by jhook on 22.09.2011 at 05:20 4.2 on PA?! that's close to the "masterpiece" rating. I'm surprised at all these rave reviews (metalmusicarchives has rave reviews, too). The negative reception on MS of DT's last album has nothing to do with MS being a metal site; there are users here that listen to prog and they're dissatisfied, too. 
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| BitterCOld The Ancient One Admin Posts: 15287  |
Written by [user id=111774] on 22.09.2011 at 06:23 apparently the point of the article flew right over your head. frankly, i am not surprised. and as for increasing your post count, well, i bet i can dole out -(everything) a lot faster than you can +1. 
---- get the fuck off my lawn. Beer Bug Virus Spotify Playlist crafted by Nikarg and I. Feel free to tune in and add some pertinent metal tunes!
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| Parasomnia Posts: 50 |
Written by Daniell on 21.09.2011 at 23:19 Na man, mostly because of the juvenile name calling being thrown around everywhere in the review. That makes it impossible to take the review seriously. I don't like this album that much either, but show your point without resorting to simply insulting the band.
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| Daniell _爱情_ Elite Posts: 6100 |
Some stories here are so touching, I'll send Oprah a link to this thread.
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| wrathchild Staff Posts: 14090 |
Written by Daniell on 21.09.2011 at 23:57 What I mean is that Portnoy clearly longs to rejoin DT, but the others won't accept him.
---- La belleza no reside en lo que puedas crear, sino en lo que eres capaz de transmitir Beauty resides not in what you're able to create, but in what you're able to communicate Txus, Mägo De Oz
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