The opening salvo of "False Awakening Suite" is pure Dream Theater theatrics, setting the tone for the album to come in fine style. It feels like the opening to a show, with curtain closed ready to reveal the start of the movie or concert at any moment. Great stuff. Both songs that follow, "The Enemy Inside" and "The Looking Glass" focus very much on the progressive side of Dream Theater's music, both having their moments guitar riff wise but for the most part settling in their mainstream of James LaBrie's soaring vocals holding sway over a keyboard driven melody throughout.
The instrumental "Enigma Machine" is a triumph, not only the heaviest song on the album but the most technically proficient for all players. John Petrucci's shredding here is fantastic, tripping the light fantastic in a virtual riff-o-rma, and also featuring great work from John Myung and Mike Mangini in the rhythm section.
"The Bigger Picture" delves back into the slower tempo song that tend to send me off to sleep. It has its moments, both with a couple of great riffs fro Petrucci and some of LaBrie's better vocals, but when the band fall into this almost power ballad type of song, it loses me instantly. No matter how good the musicianship is and the vocals are, I can't say that I'm a fan.
"Beyond the Veil" and "Surrender to Reason" are both good rather than great songs. 'Beyond the Veil" again probably concentrates too much on the keyboard power/progressive material with LaBrie sighing over the top for the most part, while "Surrender to Reason" has a nice Petrucci riff underlying the song, along with great work especially from Myung and Mangini again.
Worse is to follow in the category from which "The Bigger Picture" lies though, with the wistful and remorseful "Along For the Ride", which involves even more of the kind of things that make me reach immediately for the skip button. Perhaps I just expect more from Dream Theater because of the band they are, but I find this to be really average on all levels.
The album (eventually) comes to its conclusion with the 22 minute monster "Illumination Theory", another of the band's songs that might come under one title, but with various acts that signify the change in tempo of the song at various points along the way. "I. Paradoxe de la Lumière Noire" acts as the introduction to the song, before "II. Live, Die, Kill" kicks in, starting this lengthy mind bender in the right mode. From here it morphs into "III. The Embracing Circle" which is more like a movie or musical score, so much so that it completely breaks up the mojo of the entire song, if only because it is so completely different and mood changing. It's like an ad break on television, it's a time to get up and make yourself a cup of tea. After four minutes of this it crashes back into "IV. The Pursuit of Truth", the best act of the song, with Petrucci and Rudess really hammering through their solo pieces with gusto. The concluding act, "V. Surrender, Trust & Passion" is much like it's title, a chance for LaBrie to croon as he does best over the top of a dramatic power ballad keyboard arrangement, before Petrucci's guitar solo closes out the major finishing piece, followed by two minutes of Rudess piano at the end. The song has it all, drawing from all corners of the Dream Theater entity, and though many will love it in its entirety, other like me will probably believe the best parts of the song could have been salvaged for a shorter, tighter delivery. But then, it wouldn't be Dream Theater if that happened.
Mike Mangini's drummingon Dream Theater is really just superb. Having come into the previous album with everything pretty much done, this is his real first chance to put his stamp on the band, and in reality he steals the show. His timekeeping is spectacular, his rolls and synchronisation are stupendous. Mike Portnoy may have entertained visions of returning to his band in the future, but one can't see that occurring while Mangini is playing like this.
Having gone through here song by song to review the album, it feels a little like I don't find a lot to like. But as with many Dream Theater albums, I find that you need to take on the album as a whole and not try and break it down in order to like it. Sure, some of the songs on their own would be painful to take over a period of time, but in just listening to the album from start to finish without any predetermination involved, I really do enjoy the album. It can never come close to matching my favourite Dream Theater albums, but it is more than pleasurable just the same.
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