The Bathtub of Adventures

Dream Theater
'Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence'

Vocals: James LaBrie
Guitar: John Petrucci
Bass: John Myung
Keyboards: Jordan Rudess
Drums: Mike Portnoy

Homepage: http://www.dreamtheater.net/

CD1
1. The Glass Prison - 13:52
2. Blind Faith - 10:21
3. Misunderstood - 9:32
4. The Great Debate - 13:45
5. Disappear - 6:45
CD2
6. 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

To me Dream Theater as a whole were always a sad case of a band of musicians whose obvious talent was wasted in a sacrifice of musicality for dexterity i.e. each album turned into just an excuse for general musical masturbation. But 'Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence' is refreshingly different. The majority of the band seem to have matured, and now it's only Portnoy that seems stuck forever in a brash New Jersey adolescence containing all the subtlety of a flying (or should that be flaying) mallet.

Concentrating on CD two's 8-part concept 'Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence', the opening 'Overture' is the album's biggest surprise. This is pure unadulterated Symphonic Prog and I would suggest new listeners start here. If it wasn't for Portnoy's ever-enthusiastic drumming, you could swear that the opening minutes were straight off a 70's Enid album. In fact throughout the album Jordan Rudess's keyboard work comes over as a cross between Robert John Godfrey and Bruce Hornsby.

Overall 'Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence' is a fine slice of 'Prog Americana'.
Once you get past 'Overture', other than the trademark Dream Theater Thrash Metal workouts (which are kept, thankfully, to a minimum on this piece), you can detect a range of native American Prog influences all the way from Kansas and Styx to Zappa and Phish!

So what's changed? I can only assume that Portnoy's stint in Transatlantic has had some effect on Dream Theater's material if not his actual playing. However, interestingly enough, while Transatlantic seems dominated by Neal Morse's writing, this new Dream Theater album owes far more to Roine Stolt's The Flower Kings than any Spock's Beard album. Or perhaps it's simply that Jordan Rudess replaced Derek Sherinian and has brought a sense of taste and subtlety so lacking in the band's previous exploits. This is definitely 'his' album.

All in all, despite its 'Spinal Tap' moments, this is a great 'Prog' album. It's by far the best thing Dream Theater have ever done and I would even go as far to say also far better than anything Transatlantic have achieved to date.

Ian Oakley January 2002

P.S 26/01/02 One week later.............

Well I have to say that at least two thirds of CD 1 has really grown on me now. Its just the opening track ('The Glass Prison') and maybe the next ('Blind Faith') that I still find too heavy for my sensitive
old bones ;-)

Anyway I like this album so much so that I have just returned from my very first DT live experience (Hammersmith London) and have to say I rather enjoyed it. When DT are good they are extremely GOOD when they
are bad - well 'Spinal Tap' always springs comfortably to mind.

The guy that impressed me most tonight was Jordan Rudess. A very 'tasteful' keyboardist. Perhaps its Jordan's writing that I think I have to thank for giving the band this more instrumentally melodic and indeed
experimental focus that I hear and very much appreciate on the new album.

It was funny though at the points I was really getting into the band (especially the end section of 'Misunderstood') I looked round to see the hard core fans either looking a bit bemused or maybe even slightly 'bored'. However, at what I considered the 'Spinal Tap' moments those same people were clapping along and banging their heads for all their worth against the bloke in front of them.

I cant give you a set list as I don't know enough DT to tell you. However BIG disappointment was that they didn't play side CD2 tonight.I can only think its either too difficult to reproduce live or ,more
likely?, it was too bigger risk for the band to play to its 'traditional' audience. I'm guessing 'more likely' because from a peep at the DT and Portnoy newsgroups the hard core DT fans are not liking this new direction....

Reminds me of an interview I once read with Portnoy which said something to the effect of "The band have one foot in the Prog market and one foot in the metal market they are quite liked by both but 'embraced' by neither". Is this new album a deliberate ploy to finally wholeheartedly embrace that 'Prog' audience without losing the more hard core 'metal' fans? (Recording 1 CD for each) Its going to be interesting to see how this plays out...

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