Review

Bought Dream Theater's new album Systematic Chaos (damn chunted title rite??) on Deepavali day. Eight songs in all and it doesn't disappoint. If the last album (Octavarium) sounded more hard rock than prog rock, then my friend, fret not.

Like it's title, the songs are chaotic. I meant the time signatures for the songs. It's unnatural to a casual listener, but for one who understands music, the time is literally chaotic. But it's systematic. Lol

I fell in love with the first and last songs- they are actually one song, broken into two parts. In The Presence of Enemies is collectively nearly 26 minutes long. It has the typical DT parts: Kick-ass intro (this time it's 5 minutes of intrumental before the lyrics start), funky chorus ("Dark Master, I will fight for you"), multi-part, offtime music; more intrumental section and by the time the song comes to an end, you want to replay it.

Other songs include Forsaken, Constant Motion, The Dark Eternal Night, Repentance (feat. a whole lotta singers including Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Corey Taylor of Slipknot and others), Prophets of War and The Ministry of Lost Souls.

I definitely recommend this to anyone who appreciates good music but if you're the kinda person who prefers songs to be in 4/4 time, then this is definitely not for you. Instead, go wank.