By Cody Avdek
Contributing Writer
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Dream Theater is one of the most famous, iconic, and innovative bands of the progressive metal genre, and debatably were one of the bands that invented the genre. They have been so influential to other musicians that every new prog metal band that comes out gets compared to them, and often people refer to them as “Dream Theater rip off bands”.
This is a piece that is impossible for me to write without any kind of personal bias. As a musician and fan of the genre, Dream Theater is a band that has had untold influence on me and my own music, and is the band that introduced me to the genre. Through their influences and recommendations, I discovered prog bands from past decades and new bands with different takes on the genre.
That is why their most recent work is so much of a disappointment. The albums A Dramatic Turn of Events and their self-titled album Dream Theater have been incredibly underwhelming, and I have had a difficult time pinning down exactly why.
On the surface level, it sounds exactly like Dream Theater. It has the speed, the technique, the complex meter changes, and the heavy riffing of all other Dream Theater releases. Why were these less appealing than the others? Could it have been that even the past releases weren’t that great and my feelings are out of nostalgia?
The reason why the new albums aren’t as interesting is exactly because it sounds exactly like Dream Theater. The new albums don’t sound like Dream Theater, they sound like a band trying to sound like Dream Theater. The music has less energy, it’s uninspired, and it tries too hard. It’s a very difficult thing to put into words because it’s a very abstract thing to describe. There is a very real sound to a band that is trying too hard. It sounds over the top, yet somehow restrained and safe, and the new music is draped in that sound. The new music sounds like it’s trying very hard to remain relevant, using tropes like over the top shredding and schizophrenic theme changes, but they’re used to the point of not even making musical sense. It just feels sloppy and lazy, and that’s the last thing a musician wants.
When Mike Portnoy left the band in 2010, he stated that the band needed to take time away to recharge, work on different projects, and come back to make something more interesting. He felt that the band hadn’t had a break and the sound was wearing thin. The band disagreed, and caused him to leave, and you can hear the difference in sound. The music is much more guitar focused, using taking over all of the lead parts.
The vocals are much more subdued and usually compliment the guitar, and the drums don’t feel important as they did in previous recordings. The texture and focus of the band has completely shifted, and as a result, become much more shallow and feels less like a band dynamic. You can tell when a band sounds like they’re having fun, and no one in the new releases sounds like they’re enjoying themselves.
These new albums signal the end of an era. All of the legendary bands of prog at a certain point entered an era of their career where a new era of musicians takes over the spotlight. They continued to make music but they prevalent in the genre, and Dream Theater has started to enter that. This isn’t to say that it disgraces their old work or that the band is no longer talented, but that it’s simply time to move on.
There are several bands that carry on the spirit of Dream Theater’s experimentation, bombast, and sense of musicianship and do it in new and interesting ways. Bands like Haken, Between the Buried and Me, Mastodon, and Seventh Wonder are doing interesting and great things with their sound and expanding progressive music to a new era of listeners. Opeth, a band in the same era as Dream Theater, abandoned their sound entirely to go in a different direction. Other bands are evolving and leaving Dream Theater behind.
I don’t write this because I want to see Dream Theater start fail, I write it because I love the band and want to see them succeed. They’re phenomenal musicians and I want to see their music continue to flourish, but nothing gets done if no one points out that a band is recycling their sound.
They remain some of the most influential musicians in my personal life and musical career, but when I don’t get excited to hear that one of my favorite bands is coming out with a new album, something has gone wrong. No matter what they do though, they will still remain a legendary name in prog music.
