Fifteen years after its release, Dream Theater's fifth LP remains not only the quintet's truest masterpiece, but arguably the greatest progressive metal album ever made.
Dream Theater, now in its third decade, suffered what could have been a crippling blow, the loss of drummer Mike Portnoy. The band found a replacement and got (to everyone's surprise) better. This new DVD is proof.
That Dream Theater decided to make their twelfth LP their self-titled is not an indication that it's finally figured things out. This collection of overcooked pop-prog metal, more than anything else, exemplifies a band trying to make the most out of a withering identity.
More than a year after leaving Dream Theater, Mike Portnoy has moved ahead with his music career and not looked back. The prolific drummer talks about his latest supergroup, PSMS, the hardest part about singing and drumming simultaneously, and how he misses Starbucks whenever touring overseas.
The first decade of the new millennium proved to be a fruitful time for great progressive rock. While some of prog’s most legendary bands took turns for the worse, others rose to meteoric prominence.
In 2011, there were only a few high-quality progressive rock releases, but those that managed to stand out are some of the best the genre has seen in awhile.
A couple of strong songs does not a full album make, and this constantly-working cycle that Dream Theater is on seems to have passed the point of diminishing returns.
Dream Theater's third DVD in the past five years is chock full of fresh material, but it's still their third DVD in five years, and it's all starting to feel like business as usual.
Listening to this compilation is a little like watching Revenge of the Sith... you knew it had to exist to bridge the gap, but you can't find another reason for its necessity.
Systematic Chaos does not represent chaos, but the backwards progression of a formerly great band. You heard that right: this is the worst Dream Theater album yet.
