Friday, February 15, 2013

*** Black Clouds & Silver Linings by Dream Theater – The Least Essential DT Album to My Collection


I won’t say that this is a bad album.  However, I will say that Dream Theater seems to have something both similar and better than everything on this album that they have done prior to BC&SL.  Prior to this, I won’t say that Dream Theater had done no wrong.  I did think 6 Degrees of Inner Turbulence was a weak and repetitive effort.  However, that much was all cleaned up when I heard 4 Degrees of Radio Edits, which is I think is totally awesome.  I’ll also say that I can’t tell if A Nightmare to Remember is supposed to be comedy or is serious, which probably means that the band was serious. Lol!
I guess what I find most disappointing about this album is that physically it offers nothing more than a typical hair band album, like say Poison, or Warrant.  Yes, I admit to liking Poison, but I don’t have any delusions about their technical grandeur, and when it comes to technical grandeur that is what I expect from them, and I feel that their offering of technical albums fills a very important role in many people’s lives, in the same way that folks where angry when Pantera broke up because Pantera filled a very important niche in peoples’ lives.
Wither is nothing but an mediocre ballad.  You know the standard ballad Dream Theater puts on an album that is just trash to attract new fans to the other stuff that they do that is better.  Except, what is different on this album is that the cheese ballad is one of the better songs on BC&SL.  Enough said!!!  .  As for this album, it doesn’t have any redeeming greatness, just mediocrity that might help them get popular, so I suggest moving on to something that will challenge you more intellectually, and not stuff that would have made it on the radio in the 1980s.
My best advice is not to buy this one and to buy a real Dream Theater album like Awake or A Dramatic Turn of Events.

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