A Dramatic Turn of Events

I love it when I get a new album from a favorite band.

Ever since I gave into the iTunes store, I download so haphazardly and impulsively that I’ve probably purchased more music in the past three months than most people reading this have in the past year. So new albums are in my rotation almost constantly. But when a new album shows up from a favorite band, particularly a long-awaited album that has all kinds of back story and context attached to its release? It’s fair to call that an event.

I found Dream Theater about twenty years ago. They had a song, “Pull Me Under,” which was getting some airplay on rock radio. I liked the song well enough but didn’t think of buying the album until my cousin Kelly gushed at me about how awesome it was. I bought a cassette (back then, my personal symbolism for ‘I’m not committing myself to this band just yet’ because cassettes cost a few dollars less) and it soon started getting some serious Walkman time at the Moore Lake Athletic Club. The song that stood out was “Metropolis, Part 1,” which had so much musical complexity on display I would just listen to it and wonder who these guys were who could compose that kind of music and then actually play it as well.

The following years saw “Awake,” which wasn’t the commercial breakout it deserved to be. But it was the album that, years later, was the first step in converting my friend Dax into a disciple after I convinced him to check the band out. They followed that with an EP, “A Change of Seasons,” which was a collection of live cover songs and one new song, the title track. Which was just over twenty-three minutes long. I had never come across a rock song like that before, one piece of non-classical music that was that long and continuous, broken up into different themes and movements. It was a revelation. The album after that, “Falling Into Infinity,” was the record-company directed attempt at a money grab. Commercial songwriters were hired, the keyboard player had been replaced after the previous one had quit, and tensions within the band nearly broke it up. But instead they followed that up years later with “Scenes From a Memory,” a concept album that to this day stands as one of my three favorite albums of all time. And that doesn’t mean it’s in third place -- it means I have three albums that I love so much in different ways I can’t choose one over the other two. And if you had a glimpse at the volume of my music library, you’d know this is really saying something. They toured with that album and I saw them play for the first time, playing that album straight through, note for note. And if you knew the album, you’d know this was no small accomplishment.

I couldn’t think of how they’d follow that up, but they managed to with “Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence,” a 2-disc package that saw one forty-two minute song taking up the entire second CD. Each subsequent album that followed saw the band go in slightly different directions, putting their own musical interpretation to whatever influenced them at the time: “Train of Thought” was heavy and intense, “Octavarium” was more melodic and a little poppy (though it did have a 24-minute closing epic), Systematic Chaos was dark and intense, flirting a little too much with some of the less than appealing conventions of modern rock (you’ll want to do a search for “cookie monster vocals” here). And then in 2009 they released their most recent album, Black Clouds and Silver Linings, which I wrote a little bit about back here. A great album, and significant because this was the first time a Dream Theater album had cracked into the Top 10 for sales. We fans were ecstatic about this. They were finally starting to get the recognition they deserved.

My greatest appreciation for this band is the musicianship. Each player is one of the best there is at his instrument, and the singer holds his own just fine in that company. But when you have five guys performing at that level of consistent virtuosity, egos will inevitably play a part. And a year ago, ego got the best of one of them. The drummer, Mike Portnoy, had been the leader of the band for a long, long time, and for reasons that I suppose will only ever be truly understood by him, he decided the band should go on a five-year hiatus. He felt they needed a break from each other, and after that break they’d all come back stronger than ever. Well, the other four guys didn’t see it that way, and when Portnoy saw the rest of the band wasn’t going to play by his rules anymore, he picked up his ball and went home.

It was a huge shock to find out that one of the founders and defining personalities of the band had quit, but I was comforted when they quickly announced they’d be auditioning new drummers and planned to record a new album in early 2011. The auditions brought forth an insanely talented replacement, Mike Mangini, who gelled with the band so immediately they felt they could have played a show with him the night he auditioned. Months later Portnoy reportedly had a change of heart and tried to get his spot in the band back, but things were going so well for the band with their new drummer in place, they declined his offer. So now, predictably enough, he doesn't seem to have much positive to say about his former band mates all over the Internets. (And by the way, his new band is truly, truly awful. But that’s just my opinion.) Which is kind of tough for me, because I'm a big fan of the band, and I'm a big fan of Portnoy. It's tough to be caught in the middle like this, but it just seems to me that he hasn't handled this as well as they have.

So, enough prologue. The new album, “A Dramatic Turn of Events,” came out this past Tuesday. I have listened to nothing else since downloading it late Monday night. I’ve gotta say, there are few joys in life like getting to learn a new album that you love. I have different parts of songs in running through my head before I realize I’m awake in the morning. I choose which song I want to play during my drive to school in the morning so I can program it into my head for the next eight hours, even though half of the songs on the album take longer to play through than my drive to school is. I almost feel like I’ve conquered something when the lyrics start coming together for me, because that means I’m finally learning the album as a whole. It’s a great experience for someone who lives and breathes music the way I do.

And even though I openly admit that I’m still deep in the throes of new-album infatuation right now, I really think this one will stand up over time. Does this mean it’s accessible? Hardly. It is decidedly a rock album that has more than a few moments that border on being full-on metal, but it also has quiet, gentle acoustic songs that are driven by understated guitars and piano virtuosity. In fact, instead of labeling it accessible, I’d go the other direction and call it challenging. When you hear two guys playing guitar and keyboards and identically matching each other note for note through more time-signature changes than most music majors could keep up with, you’re either going to be amazed by the talent or decide it’s too much for you. And I get this. Dream Theater is not a band for everyone. But for the people who can appreciate what they do, this album is, in many respects, a masterpiece. Whether you think about the cinematic quality of the epic songs or the reserved nature of the quieter ones, this album really doesn’t miss a beat anywhere.

“On the Backs of Angels” -- The opening song and the single they released midsummer. In a nice little twist, Dax and I got to hear this for the first time at the same time when I was visiting Seattle when it was released on YouTube. It was the first taste we had of what the Post-Portnoy band would sound like. Very familiar, but also something of a battle cry from a band making sure the fans knew they weren’t going anywhere.

“Build Me Up, Break Me Down” -- This one could almost pass for a rock radio song, which is rare for a band that has songs that commonly stretch over ten minutes long. It has a rare touch of electronic music to it that isn’t overplayed, and really works well. This one was added to the workout mix almost immediately.

“Lost Not Forgotten” -- The first epic. It opens with a grand piano sound, and soon transitions into the steam-engine chugging orchestral rock song it really is. A story song about ancient battlefields and the culture surrounding them. That’s right. You aren’t going to hear anything about a Bad Romance or Fireworks here.

“This is the Life” -- Introspective, very much a quiet ballad with occasional eruptions of guitar work. A very effective song that doesn’t come across as a pandering attempt at the rock-ballad convention that so polluted radio back in the late 80s and early 90s.

“Bridges in the Sky” -- Right now my favorite song on the album, though that could change by tomorrow. Just over eleven minutes. A song so powerful and spiritual that it had me choking up a little on an early listen. So complete and atmospheric it almost feels like a novel could be written about it.

“Outcry” -- Another huge, broad epic of a song. Again with some electronic touches and some very hardcore guitar. This one has an instrumental passage in it that is (and I have to watch what I telegraph here, but there’s no better way to describe this) completely bat$%*! crazy that I think the band actually had to invent some new time signatures to finish writing it.

“Far From Heaven” -- Shortest song, not even four minutes. Quiet, palette-clearing. Voice, piano, some backing strings. Peaceful.

“Breaking All Illusions” -- The last epic, and the biggest; over twelve minutes long. I got to this one and was just amazed to think that after everything that had come before it in the album, they were still able to put together something this complete. Everything the others before it were, but in completely different directions.

“Beneath the Surface” -- The closing song, and again a quiet, mostly acoustic one. This one is driven more by the guitar melody and supported by subtle keyboards and strings, but all of it works together to serve the lyrics and the overall song.

It’s going to take something historic to come along and knock this one out of my rotation any time soon. A year ago I was concerned about what was going to happen to one of my favorite bands in the wake of losing one of the key members. Not so much anymore.