When Dream Theater formed in 1985, none of the Jonas Brothers had been born. Reagan was president, the Nintendo Entertainment System was the hot new toy, and Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” was the top-selling album of the year. In other words, a lot has changed.
Except ““ for the most part ““ Dream Theater.
Since James LaBrie took over the vocalist position after their debut album, the band has distinctively and consistently epitomized the progressive metal genre and maintained one of music’s more militant fan bases, almost entirely without the help of the popular media. Few things stay so constant over a quarter of a century, and it is a testament to Dream Theater’s vast creativity that, after all these years, they’re still finding new ways to rework the old formula.
This time they’ve nearly outdone themselves.
“Black Clouds & Silver Linings,” the band’s 10th LP and second for Roadrunner Records, is a more energized and organic improvement upon its direct predecessor, “Systematic Chaos.” There are only six songs, four of which surpass the 10-minute mark, evoking the classic Yes and Rush albums of the ’70s. And the embarrassingly silly monster growls featured so prominently on “Systematic Chaos” are used sparingly this time around. There are still a few, but it’s a step in the right direction.
As the title implies, “Black Clouds & Silver Linings” seeks to balance the darker elements that have ruled the last few albums with a welcome dose of buoyancy.
“A Nightmare to Remember” moves from an opening riff as heavy as anything on Metallica’s recent “Death Magnetic” to a melodic midsection reminiscent of Dream Theater’s still-crowning achievement, “Images and Words.” The most consistently dense track, “The Shattered Fortress,” concludes the band’s treatment of the 12-step recovery process, reprising the themes from the first four songs in the series and stopping maybe one idea short of hyperactive.
Even for a band whose cornerstone has always been technical proficiency, the individual performances on “Black Clouds” are unusually exciting. Guitarist John Petrucci contributes some of his most imaginative solos ever, drummer Mike Portnoy works astonishing percussive magic, and LaBrie sounds more in his element than he has in years.
Keyboardist Jordan Rudess takes a larger role this time around, leading the “Relayer”-inspired instrumental section on the superbly intricate, nearly 20-minute album closer, “The Count of Tuscany.” He also takes the coolest sound award for the spaced-out solo he conjures up on the rousing lead single, “Rite of Passage.” Ignore the fact that the song is about centuries-old cults ““ it would have sounded awesome back then, too.
The members of Dream Theater clearly have an extraordinary grasp of the language of music. Unfortunately, they’re not nearly so good with English; the band’s lyrics have grown steadily less poetic since keyboardist Kevin Moore left after their third album. Petrucci does the honors on four songs, and the worst moments sound as if someone found a first draft of a short story he was writing and set it to music, especially on “The Count of Tuscany.”
“Wither,” the album’s shortest song, is Petrucci’s best attempt. It’s laced with at least some amount of emotion and ambiguity; not quite artistic, but at least ““ okay, never mind. It’s about writer’s block. Pretend it’s not. It’s one of the band’s best attempts at the ballad form, and the album’s most sentimental track ““ more so than the one about the death of Portnoy’s father, oddly enough.
Which is not to say that “The Best of Times” is anything less than heartfelt; rather, Portnoy’s eulogy is where the “silver lining” of the album’s title comes in, thanking his father for “all the unconditional love/that carried me for miles.”
Not that it much matters how good or bad “Black Clouds & Silver Linings” is. The Dream Theater fan base is an established entity that, like the band, doesn’t change much from year to year or from one album to the next. They’ll dissect the album exhaustively, locate it somewhere among the ranks of the band’s work, and meanwhile, the rest of the world will go right on changing.
Here’s hoping that, at least in whatever ageless parallel universe Dream Theater inhabits, the next quarter-century is as good as the last.
““ Alex Goodman
E-mail Goodman at agoodman@media.ucla.edu.