Dream Theater - Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence


Year of Release: 2002
Label: Elektra
Catalog Number: 62742-2
Format: CD
Total Time: 96:19:00

Really, there is nothing that I could say here about Dream Theater that hasn't been said or written elsewhere before. On top of it all, there seems to be the community of DT aficionados out there who just love these prog metal gods whilst a few other fans of the genre simply don't like DT for whatever reasons. Given these circumstances, I will try to summarise the new album as simple and as broadly as possible.

The first disc carries 5 tracks with an average length of about 10 minutes per song whilst track number 6, the title track, is just over 42 minutes long. That would hardly fit onto one disc and that's why this release is actually a double disc. The benefit here is that the last song is broken up into 8 parts, which makes the individual sections of this monstrous song more accessible.

The album shows a slightly different direction of music as every Dream Theater release has had in the past. The good news is that Six Degrees ... is definitely not branching into the Falling Into Infinity direction, so no commercial material here. The better news is that DT have found their way back into the heavier side of music, reminiscent of the Images And Words and Awake days - at least on some of the songs. The bad news; if you didn't like DT in the past then this release won't change your outlook on the band.

All the Jordan Rudess fans will be pleased to hear that his input on the album has had an incredible impact on the overall presentation and ambience and there seems to be a lot of sequencing going on in some parts which is different but well fitting. Being a heavier album, it was up to James Labrie to bring that certain element of melody to the songs and his vocals do this ever so beautifully but I don't know why Mike Portnoy and John Petrucci decided to (over-) produce his vocals in some places with distortions and panning about? The lyrics are a real treat, dealing with various subjects (e.g., alcoholism, stem cell research, and religion). I found the drums lacking some of the air and impact compared to Awake or Scenes From A Memory but overall, the sound and production is again way above standard.

Dream Theater have remained self-indulgent show-offs with no thought of the more commercial straight-eared listeners and definitely don't give a hoot about what others (people, bands, labels, etc.) say or think. They seem to be in the music business just for the music's sake and that's what we all love about this band.

[This review originally appeared November 2002 at the ProgPower Online review site -ed.]
Tracklisting:
Disc One: The Glass Prison (13:52) / Blind Faith (10:21) / Misunderstood (9:32) / The Great Debate (13:45) / Disappear (6:45)

Disc Two: Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence (42:02): i. Overture - ii. About To Crash - iii. War Inside My Head - iv. The Test That Stumped Them All - v. Goodnight Kiss - vi. Solitary Shell - vii. About To Crash (Reprise) - viii. Losing Time/Grand Finale

Musicians:
James LaBrie - vocals
Jordan Rudess - keyboards
John Myung - bass
John Petrucci - guitars
Mike Portnoy - drums

Discography:
When Dreams and Day Unite (1989)
Images and Words (1992)
Live At The Marquee (1993)
Dream Out Loud (1994)
Awake (1994)
A Change in Season (1995)
Falling Into Infinity (1997)
Once In A Livetime (1998)
Scenes From A Memory (1999)
Cleaning Out The Closet (Xmas CD 1999) (1999)
Scenes From A World Tour - Christmas CD 2000 (2001)
Live Scenes From New York (2001)
Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence (2002)
Train Of Thought (2003)
Live At Budokan (2004)
Octavarium (2005)
Score (3CD) (2006)
Systematic Chaos (2007)
Greatest Hit (...And 21 Other Pretty Cool Songs) (2008)
Black Clouds & Silver Linings (2009)
A Dramatic Turn Of Events (2011)
Dream Theater (2013)
Live At Luna Park (2013)
Breaking The Fourth Wall - Live From The Boston Opera House (2014)
The Astonishing (2016)
Distance Over Time (2019)

Metropolis 2000: Scenes From New York (DVD) (2001)
Live At Budokan (DVD) (2004)
Score (DVD) (2006)
Chaos In Motion (DVD) (2008)

Genre: Progressive-Power Metal

Origin US

Added: December 13th 2004
Reviewer: Peter Fundeis
Score:
Artist website: www.dreamtheater.net
Hits: 2336
Language: english

  

[ Back to Reviews Index | Post Comment ]