Review: Dream Theater - The Astonishing

(Re-posted from my old blog. February 5th, 2016)

Now that 2016 has started and the albums are rolling in, I figured it would be a good time to start off my year of reviews with this massive project – Dream Theater’s The Astonishing. Giants in their genre, Dream Theater have been steadily churning out their brand of theatrical and heavy progressive metal even after drummer Mike Portnoy’s departure from the band in 2010. With two previous albums under their belt alongside new drummer Mike Mangini, the band has taken on a double concept album for their newest effort. The album is a mammoth. It is two discs and a total of 130 minutes in length. So, you’re going to have to sit through a lot of music. It is a big risk, so it’s crucial that it delivers for such a lengthy project.

The Astonishing is a very musical-like album. The songs flow in a pleasant, seamless fashion and it never feels disjointed. But this is one of those albums where it would have been beneficial had the band taken a few more risks for such a lengthy project. It’s not necessarily a bad album, but the songwriting is extremely lofty and has little to no impact. It just seems to float on and on with no emphatic or interesting themes. It’s the exact opposite of another concept album of theirs, Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From A Memory, which also had a seamless element to it, but had songs that worked extremely well individually and established themselves musically. Now, with albums, I always think they should work well as albums first, and have great standalone songs second. But this new effort just doesn’t have a lot of the intricate, fascinating soundscapes which have been a trademark in prior releases. I don’t like to drum up past releases for comparison and contrast purposes, but when I feel there has been a bit of a regression (no pun intended, DT fans), then I must emphasize where I think their current work has fallen flat.

I have seen many impressions and reviews that have praised the album for its ambition. Unfortunately, I just don’t see the same kind of ambition that has been more apparent on past works. I think it’s easy to see the album’s length as an ambitious undertaking, but the music itself still has to be worthwhile, and I just don’t think this album showcases that kind of strength in its songwriting. Conversely, I am appreciative of the effort it took to complete such a large-scale project. However, as stated previously, though the album flows fairly well and has a nice musical, Disney-esque quality, the songs themselves tend to be lifeless and drawn out for dramatic purposes. There are a few standout songs on here with terrific ideas. The singles The Gift Of Music and Moment Of Betrayal come to mind. Other songs such as A New Beginning and Three Days showcase glimpses into that classic Dream Theater wizardry with some interesting twists and turns. However, some tracks have good ideas that just aren’t fleshed out enough, or have cliché climaxes in order to make them feel more grandiose than they need to be. By the time you approach the closing track on the second disc, Astonishing, you feel like you have already heard that kind of grand finale several times over. If you were expecting some kind of momentous conclusion, then you will most likely be disappointed. Dream Theater’s previous self-titled album ended with the magnificent 22-minute epic, Illumination Theory. Which, minus a misplaced orchestral break in the middle of the piece, was a tremendous way to wrap up an album. The Astonishing is an album that is missing that kind of piece. It doesn’t have to be 22-minutes, but the album certainly lacks that specific statement that Dream Theater efforts always seem to have.

The band itself still sounds great. James LaBrie is still a stellar vocalist, and brings his A-game for this work. Musicians John Petrucci and Jordan Rudess complement each other throughout, creating competent sounds. Unfortunately, the sound of the album leaves a bit to be desired when it comes to the triggered drum sounds and the complete absence of any bass guitar (John Myung, where are you?). After years of having less-than-audible bass on their albums, Dream Theater seemed to have finally solved that problem on their newer releases. However, it seems like they have stepped right back into that territory with this new album, leaving the problem to, once again, go uncorrected. Thus, the sound of the album is good in some cases, but sorely lacking in others.

A lack of variety in many songs, along with the “floaty” songwriting make The Astonishing a bit of a chore to get through, as it is mired by repetition. This will definitely be a project that is divisive within the fanbase, and something that doesn’t necessarily reward multiple listens, unless you are really going to focus on the concept/story elements of the album. I will be looking forward to seeing where Dream Theater goes from here, but this new release doesn’t quite have the wow factor that I was anticipating.