Dream Theater - Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence

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• DREAM THEATER SIX DEGRESS OF INNER TURBULENCE

Music reviews of Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence

Music Review: Am I Listening to the Same Album as Everyone Else?
Rating: 4 Stars

So, I figured I'd listen to the whole album again, and review it as it goes. I should mention, I could care less about the lyrics and have nothing to say about them. With prog rock, for me, it's almost always about the instrumentation, the human voice being just another instrument.

The Glass Prison, at almost 14 minutes, is the longest individual song on the album. It opens with a very thick, crunchy guitar mess and develops very nicely to a variant of this heavy guitar line around minute 6 or so that is very satisfying; the vocalist alternates between howling and sung vocals over the top over the comparatively slow-paced guitar line. It gets right into the bones. Other reviewers have complained about speed for speed's sake - up to 9'45" there has been no gratuitous shredding at all; at 9'45" the band cuts loose for awhile (about 90 seconds), and then a variant of the heavy guitar line comes back, heavily treated, very flanged, and not at all gratuitous to my ears (in all the bridge is about 3 minutes). The whole thing wraps up with semi-epic sounding prog-metal vocals and an abrupt ending, yes. Those who complain about the ending, what's up? Obviously, the band is smart enough to know how to write a song; why not give them credit for making the decision for a sudden ending? After almost 14 minutes of music, the ending is surprising, and drives the whole thing home more for me. In any case, the whole song is very intelligently put together, and the reviewers who are complaining about lack of songs...what are they talking about?

Blind Faith (10'21") begins with what seems like a deliberate contrast to The Glass Prison with a rather conventional sounding rock arrangement, very song-like. This segues nicely into a chorus lick with wailing vocals and another heavy, slowish guitar line, none of the warp-speed shredding others are complaining about, then a groovy wah-wah pedaled riff that I'd like to hear more of. The song then repeats this, substituting a bridge for the wah-wah pedal riff. So far, this is standard verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge songwriting, so where the lack of song is here, I just don't get it. The bridge begins with a rather jazzy (and yes many-noted) solo, but then moves through a mid-tempo, developed series of themes and riffs by the whole band, led principally by the guitar. Nowhere in here do I find shredding for shredding's sake. Notes abound throughout here, but it hardly seems that they're gratuitous; they all blend right in with the music like they belong there. After two and a half minutes of bridge, the vocals return....verse-chorus form again, with a moody, quasi-atmospheric coda to round it out. So, even though it clocks in at 10 minutes, Blind Faith is entirely in standard song format. The whole thing hangs together very nicely.

It's worth noting that neither of these songs feels as long as they are. They don't drag, and they don't feel like 10+ minute songs. You know what they say, time flies....

Misunderstood (9'22") is, far and away, my favorite song on the album. It starts with a little acoustic guitar thing, the vocals follow, and then (oh joyous thing) the main lick is introduced, a super-low, slow, heavy, cello-like, snaky bassline, topped by a Frippian-sounding, slow guitar noodle barely discernible in the background of the mix. The acoustic opening then returns, and a variation on the vocals comes in, with soundscape-like guitars. The main chorus riff then bursts in again, the vocalist sounding very good through here. But then, see, the bridge comes in -- fans of recent Fripp and King Crimson will immediately note the influence. The main guitar riff here is huge, crunchy and compelling with a freaky, treble-chord solo on it....way too cool; it reminds me of the riff in KC's "Level 5" if you've ever heard that, and the solo could well be virtually an homage to Fripp. The chorus then returns, as if just to remind you of how neat it is, and then the band returns to the Fripp bit again -- this bridge alone would be enough to convince me to buy the album. (Have I mentioned thrashing and shredding yet in this song? No, because there hasn't been any.) The Fripp bridge the second time through thumps along, with chorus-like guitars swirling over the top and the keyboards getting off on an edgy, "experimental" (as one reviewer put it) solo, the whole thing dissolving into chaos and fading out. It's like the whole song breaks down, the guitar reduced to string-scratching wails while the Fripp lick creeps back in on bass....and then breaks off. This is not a conventionally assembled song, but the parts all work together. Even with it being 9 minutes long, I usually listen to it at least twice.

Disappear (6'46") counterbalances the heaviness of the last song (reminding me of how King Crimson used to do so in the old days) with a mellow, semi-movie-soundtrack sounding opening. The melody of the chorus is particularly nice here, even with the treated vocals. Again, the song form is verse-chorus, and at the end of the second time around, a new theme is introduced with full-bodied prog-metal orchestration (at slow-dance tempo, still no tasteless shredding). The song ends on a reprise of the opening lick. Totally conventional song form here, and no hint of Liquid Tension Experiment. The utterly fuzzed out guitar here, and the soulfulness of the vocals definitely recommend this song. I'm just not getting how someone could call the vocals trite or misplaced or awkward.

Thus ends CD 1. In my book, not an objectionable moment in the whole nearly 47 minutes.

CD 2 is a suite of songs, opening with an Overture (6'49"). One reviewer remarks testily that the "theme" makes him want to puke; I'm not sure which theme he is talking about, since an overture necessarily contains many themes from the music to come. By their nature, of course, overtures tend not to be the most amazing things, since they are a hodgepodge of pieces to come. I'm impressed with the orchestralness of the thing...the last time I heard a band sound this symphonic was probably Kansas way back in the "Song for America" days. (No tasteless shredding here either.)

About to Crash (5'51") starts off as a straightforward rock piece, with more verse-chorus song structure. The vocals seem to figure more prominently here than on the first disk; the guitar has fallen back to a more accompanying role (increasing the sense of typical songfulness here). Around 3'45", a bridge-vocal introduces a new theme, a not-too-heavy crunchy thing with fine vocals on top that segues into a very nice, glass-steel sounding solo (Gilmour-paced practically, not self-indulgently showy at all); the tempo then slows down even more, with a soulful, slightly predictable solo that reprises a section of the Overture by way of an introduction to the next song.

War Inside My Head (2'08") is the shortest song on the album, and features a nice, bone-jarring (but hardly warp-speed) opening theme; it reminds me of Testament for some reason. This is a "standard" sounding prog-metal song, but very ably accomplished--keyboards providing counterpoint on top, vocals howling. The main complaint is that it is short, and the way it cuts into the next track. Hearing it stand-alone, you'd be sure that the rest of the track was missing.

The Test That Stumped Them All (5'03"): Finally, 60 minutes into the album we get some tasteless shredding....and about time, considering how often reviewers complained about it <lol>. It lasts about 20 seconds, though, and then the keyboard and guitar become overlaid, and it's pretty cool sounding. This shortly settles into a heavy, fastish crunching thing with vocals, that sounds very Testament or maybe "Masters of Puppets" Metallica. Resemblances are dispelled by the chorus though, which has an interesting vocal and guitar counterpoint, if very short. Verse-chorus structure again carries us to the bridge of the song, which kicks in just just too deliciously--actually a solo (yes, with lots of notes) over the top of the main theme transposed up, the whole timbre of the song changing, becoming cleaner, like emerging from clouds or some such; a reprise of the opening shred, plus the heavy guitar lick takes us to another fast solo, a briefly introduced (not fast) guitar lick that is developed shortly with keyboards over the top, a little bit of stunt guitar to end the piece, a fade out and finally a full stop (the first on the side). In point of fac

Description of Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence

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