Buy for
$6.59
(12 items) |
Album info
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Release date:
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5 June 2007 |
Rating:
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8 | 470 votes |
Owners:
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608 have it
33 want it
1 trades it |
Disc I
01. In The Presence Of Enemies - Part I
1 - Prelude
2 - Resurrection
02. Forsaken
03. Constant Motion
04. The Dark Eternal Night
05. Repentance
1 - Regret
2 - Restitution
06. Prophets Of War
07. The Ministry Of Lost Souls
08. In The Presence Of Enemies - Part II
1 - Heretic
2 - The Slaughter Of The Damned
3 - The Reckoning
4 - Salvation
Disc II [special edition DVD]
+ The Entire Album Mixed In 5.1 Surround Sound
+ Chaos In Progress - The Making of Systematic Chaos
Reviews (3)
Lyrics (8) |
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Produced by John Petrucci and Mike Portnoy
Engineered and mixed by Paul Northfield |
Review by Demonic Tutor
In this decade, every Dream Theater release has been a huge question mark. Some fans loved them, some fans completely turned away from the New York combo. Ever since 2002's "Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence", the band that influenced, and continues to influence so many other bands, has been trying to create something different. And while this album won't probably avoid the same fate of being criticized down to the last detail, it is in my opinion their best effort since 1999. "Systematic Chaos" actually reminds me a lot of "Awake", harboring the same consistency within the songs and a similar dark and aggressive atmosphere.
Of course, the opener is a classic Dream Theater of late, with borderline annoying keyboards all the way throughout, but the strength of this album is yet to come. The guys each brought back a lot from their solo career on this one. While James Labrie's solo album influences on the band can clearly be heard on a track like 'Forsaken', the guitar solo on 'Constant Motion' is a clue that John Petrucci spent most of his time on the G3 tour with fellow guitarist Joe Satriani.
The anchors of this album are definitely 'Constant Motion' and 'Prophets of War', which are sure to be stage favorites on the upcoming tour. Overall, the song structures are a lot catchier than what they released lately. Don't be surprised if you start humming the choruses of those songs in the middle of the day.
Dream Theater finally came partially back to reason with "Systematic Chaos". While their latest musical direction left me cold and wondering, this album breaches the gap between their new material and their glorious anthems from the past. It may not change your mind about the band, but if any of their recent albums will, this should be the one. Obviously, if you like "Train of Though" and "Octavarium", you won't be disappointed one bit. It will be interesting to see what comes next from Dream Theater. That is after they release their usual post-studio 12 live CDs/DVDs.published 08.07.2007 | Comments (37) |
Rating:
8.2
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Performance:
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9 |
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Songwriting:
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8 |
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Originality:
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7 |
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Production:
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10 |
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Review by Arian Totalis [Guest reviewer]
Here we have the long anticipated ninth release of Dream Theater, 'Systematic Chaos'. I have seen first hand that this album has caused some commotion, as well as some controversy in their fan base. One thing is for sure though, this is better than 'Octavarium'. It definitely pulls some feel from 'Train Of Thought' retaining very few elements from their previous release.
The instrumentation definitely does not live up to the legacy they created for themselves in the 80's and the early 90's, but I must admit it isn't really bad. The opening track 'In The Presence Of Enemies' is really good, and the harmonization of the instruments together are quite impressive. As for the album overall though, it has some noticeably radio friendly aspects to it. This can be seen on 'The Dark Eternal Night'. It starts with a riff that almost reminds one of the now very over played Pantera, and the vocal effects are quite annoying. Speaking of annoying vocals, Mike Portnoy actually has some vocal parts for this album and...he should stick to drumming.
The overall guitar playing for this album is pretty good; Petrucci provides some really interesting lead work and has some good rhythm sections as well. Mike Portnoy also does some good drumming on this album. As is seen on 'In The Presence Of Enemies' (both parts one and two), as well as in 'Forsaken'. I don't care what any of you say by the way, I like 'Constant Motion' as well (in every instrumental aspect). Rudess of course provides some melodic backgrounds with his keys, along with some wicked solos. John Myung does in general a decent job of keeping the rhythm section aligned. The overall vocal performance is okay, but let me tell you, I think James has lost it. I just don't hear that same passion he used to have in his voice.
This album is alright, and definitely a redeeming point after Octavarium, but still, it's no 'Images And Words' or 'Metropolis Part 2'. If you already own all their albums except for this one and Octavarium, then pick this one up next. Otherwise, there are a lot better things you could do with your money.
Album Highlights: In The Presence Of Enemy's Part I, Constant Motion, In The Presence Of Enemy's Part II
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Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
published 03.10.2007 | Comments (6) |
Rating:
8.0
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Performance:
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8 |
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Songwriting:
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8 |
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Originality:
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8 |
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Production:
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9 |
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Review by Spyroid [Guest reviewer]
With every album in the "new era" of Dream Theater, the band has tried to do something new. "Six Degrees" was experimenting with extreme track lengths, "Train of Thought" was written in three weeks and shows the extreme discipline in the studio. "Octavarium" might be one of the most thought-through albums ever with every track in a new key, all the connections to the number eight and so on. But "Systematic Chaos" is just a more or less ordinary album in their discography, but that doesn't mean it should be despised. I guess Dream Theater will never let me down.
The main reasons why I like this album are the production and the incredible skills of the musicians. Even if they've always been awesome musicians, I think I can hear some progress on every album, especially with Petrucci, and that's really fun. Also, the production must be one of the clearest in prog metal history - sometimes crunchy productions can add several numbers to the rating but in the case of Dream Theater I prefer as clear production as possible. We also have some things I don't like that much, of course. I would've liked Myung to get some more space and I also think it's sad that James doesn't use his calm voice (like in "Human Equation") in this album because I really think Dream Theater needs some contrast in the vocals. It's nice that both James and Mike do some rap stuff to provide the contrast, but I would really have preferred calm parts instead of rap. The most important thing with this album for me is that it, at last, totally made me accept all the harder stuff in their new era. At first I hated songs like "Constant Motion" and "Dark Eternal Night", and the second even more after reading the lyrics. But when I listened to them closely I heard some stuff that just made me love them. The solo part in "Constant Motion" is one of the best ever, and the bridge between 02:48 and 02:58 is insane, just like the riff at 05:53 in "Dark Eternal Night". Discover more yourself, there are some nuggets in almost every track.
Not the first Dream Theater album you should buy, except maybe if you only heard "Train of Thought" and loved it. But it's still totally worth checking out. And for all the fans of older Dream Theater - the track "In the Presence of Enemies" - god damn it!
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Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
published 30.01.2008 | Comments (6) |
Rating:
8.4
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Performance:
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9 |
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Songwriting:
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9 |
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Originality:
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8 |
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Production:
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10 |
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