Dream Theater - Train of Thought

Dream Theater
Train of Thought
Elektra, 2003

James LaBrie - vocals
John Petrucci - guitars
John Myung - bass
Jordan Rudess - keyboards
Mike Portnoy - percussion

1. As I Am
2. This Dying Soul
3. Endless Sacrifice
4. Honor Thy Father
5. Vacant
6. Stream of Consciousness
7. In The Name of God


As anyone who actually knows me could tell you, I absolutely love Dream Theater. Which is why I hate to say that they really shot themself in the foot on this one. They came together on this one for the sole purpose of making a heavy album, and heavy it is. Pointedly so. It comes
off more as a Metallica ripoff than a Dream Theater album.

Now I'll get into the songs. I'll admit to enjoying As I Am very much. It's one of the best songs on this album. A lot of Metallica influence here too, but this is the song where they manage to do it right. This Dying Soul isn't bad lyrically, featuring many of the lyrics found in other parts of Portnoy's "AA Suite." However, musically, its 11-minute length is not justified, and LaBrie's delivery of the lyrics is terrible. It even resembles Linkin Park-esque rapping at times. Endless Sacrifice isn't exactly bad, but like many of the others, it is a bit overlong. Honor Thy Father is more of the same.. There is some very good soloing in this one, but it's buried late in the middle of a 10-minute song, and you have to sit through more LaBrie-rap (a term I hope to never use again) to get to it. Vacant is a throwaway ballad. (Which is a shame that when they chose a song from Train of Thought to include on Score, Vacant is the one they used, instead of either As I Am or Endless Sacrifice.) Stream of Consciousness isn't a bad instrumental, but it suffers from taking 6 or 7 minutes worth of good ideas and dragging them out to fill 11 minutes of CD space. In The Name of God is similar to Honor Thy Father musically, but it's even longer, and equally unjustified.

So, the final verdict on the album: Hardcore Dream Theater fans will want it for As I Am and This Dying Soul, the latter because it fits into the AA Suite. Furthermore, anyone who knows what that IS is probably so much of a Dream Theater completist that they already have this
(kinda like me.) For casual Dream Theater fans, As I Am is probably going to be the main interest here. This review will probably get me a lot of contempt from Dream Theater and Metallica fans, and a lot of people will probably disagree with me. But I feel that this is one of
Dream Theater's worst. (Which is odd, because I prefer their other two heavy albums the most.)