Album Review: Dream Theater – The Astonishing (2016 LP)

There seems to be a growing trend in the entertainment industry of over-hyping. Some new whatever comes out, or is announced, and it whips everyone into a frenzy just thinking about the potential for a new whatever-the-hell-is-being-hyped. Unfortunately, the other growing trend is letting those who are hyped up for something down, and as a result leaving often dedicated fans of said whatever with a bitter taste in their mouth as they pitchfork and torch their way across the Internet, screaming abuse and crying foul.

And I have to admit, as a co-head of the Australian and New Zealand Fan Club of the band in question, Dream Theater’s new album The Astonishing managed to do just this to me. I was suckered in by the artwork, the snippets, the single released song, and the hype surrounding the new album from my favourite band.

Across the internet it was called “astounding” and “ambitious”, complex and cinematic and, reading between the lines of some reviews, also divisive. Truth be told, it is certainly all of those things and more, however the most heavily weighted of those is definitely the latter.

Now, before I get too deep into this review, I am going to tell you my honest, short and succinct overall impression of the orchestral-arena-rock opera the band has created. That is – it’s simply lacking. I’m not certain why this is. It could be due to the aforementioned over hype for the album (likely), or if it was the fact I didn’t get a copy of the album which could be played truly seamlessly. Perhaps it was simply missing the whole arena aspect – a whole other live dimension to the show which is promised to be as big as The Wall. The latter is most probable.

However I have to note the simple fact that the majority of the good tracks on the album – at least those which sounded like Dream Theater – lie in the latter half of the album. Even then, they aren’t plentiful. Tracks “Our New World”, “The Walking Shadow”, “Losing Faythe”, “The Path That Divides” and “My Last Farewell” come to mind and moreover, to have five alright tracks on an album containing 28 music tracks (and four weird bleepy, bloopy ones) is somewhat underwhelming. Even the intro track (once you’ve finished with the robot talk) is grabbing but not stellar. I detected hints of Scenes from a Memory and Six Degrees vibes, but with a more modern orchestral twist that worked, but lacked something.

The story too, got a little murky past about track ten. Partly due to the fact that the mix (like the last Dream Theater album) was average at best. Not enough bottom end unless you’re listening with a sub and listening through a pair of cans just doesn’t cut it anymore. Further, when your lead singer sings all of the parts, and they are from a first-person perspective instead of an third or second person view such as on Scenes, this can be a bit of an issue. Admittedly, it having lyrics to follow along with didn’t help either, but I feel that I shouldn’t have to.

Even though I’ve read most if not all of the available supporting documentation including character bios, maps, synopses and even interviews with the members, it is still hard to follow along. I’m sure the story is in there, as the band is renowned for writing amazing stories, but it doesn’t exactly jump out at you.

Mind you, the overall theme wouldn’t be much of an issue on an album such as Scenes. Every song on that album (and even others, and the infamous “12-Step Suite”) is individually wrapped pieces of sonic pleasure. Every song is separate but comes together to make a massive picture. Think of it like a series of complete jigsaw puzzles. You look from picture to picture and you get the bigger story. In the case of The Astonishing, the jigsaw puzzles are still incomplete and you have to try and figure out what’s going on without vital pieces. It’s honestly a bit of a mess.

Not only are the majority of the tracks very short (around five minutes) but they have a Broadway feel to them with all the piano and strings flying about the place. The lack of length doesn’t allow the track to expand and move away from the piano and vocal solo spot, to a full band. This happened far too often on The Astonishing. I will note here that may be also due in part in the lack of seamless play through I encountered, which I guess may have changed the feel somewhat.

Further, there were a few more tracks which began amazingly and ended tragically. They ramped up the intro with guitars and the band and you think it’s going to be a ripping track – and all of a sudden the breathy James LaBrie sticks his head out and starts singing over a piano and acoustic guitar. It happened way too much. Songs like “A Life Left Behind” are great examples of this – sure, it’s got the Rush thing going on but it’s not Dream Theater. And that is one of the massive key problems – the album needs to sound like Dream Theater, not like Rush, or Yes, or Genesis, or My Chemical Romance, or Disney. This album just didn’t sound like Dream Theater.

At this point you may be thinking that clearly I have demonstrated why the album is divisive and I’ve come down on the side of not liking the album. But to be divisive, an album also has to be able to be appreciable and I’m sorry, but this album just isn’t a Dream Theater album. It is missing the bigger picture, the bigger story. This is the reason I hope it will be phenomenal live; it just feels like the listener isn’t getting all of the information – whether that is due to the information becoming distorted due to the writing, or if there are parts intentionally left out to go with the big shows they have planned for the upcoming tour.

I still feel however, that if the latter is the case, this album would have been better released as a live DVD so the viewer can get the full picture, not in an audio format which feels like a supplementary disc to something we aren’t yet privy to. As an album in this case – the songs just scrape up an average. In comparison, look at the musical of The Book of Mormon. Bare with me here. The songs from that musical are fantastic, at their core. You can listen to the songs and just love the songs. Did it make it better seeing the show? Absolutely. Did I have to see the show in order to understand the songs? Not at all. I get the feeling with this album though, seeing the show is a must, and with the luck Australian fans have had over the band’s history, we might just miss out, which would leave us in the dark until a DVD is released – if there even is one.

Admittedly, there are three stand out tracks – “A New Beginning”, “Moment of Betrayal” and “My Last Farewell”. These are a true return to form within a non-conformed album and are the tracks with the most replay value on the entire album – but they go to highlight exactly what I’ve been saying. It takes nearly 20 tracks for the album to become awesome, and to have tracks with some decent individual replay value. Sure, “The Gift of Music” is a great track too, but the song released by the band to being one of the best individual tracks off the album is very un-Dream Theater like. I recall A Dramatic Turn of Events, where the released track was the weakest on the album. And that was a pretty normal Dream Theater trope, which seems to be reversed on this album.

Another example of a trope which was somewhat broken is one massive gripe I have with the album. James’ voice is auto-tuned. It’s painfully obvious in at least five tracks, including the single. At first I thought maybe it was used for effect to distinguish certain characters from each other.  I thenrealised it was just a shoddy mixing job unless James suddenly sounds like the Ol pitch master, Paul McCartney, all of a sudden. For a band of this magnitude to use auto-tune, and moreover have it blatantly noticeable, is unforgivable. You have to ask if LaBrie can’t hit the notes in the studio, what is going to happen live? Sure, practice might help in preparation for the tour, but if he then can do it on stage then it should have been perfect in the studio.

Also, what is with the machines? Are they talking? Are they sentient? Are they some kind of weird tool used by the government? Are they deluxe traffic cameras? I don’t think it is ever explained as to what purpose these tracks with the bleeps and boops serve, save to showcase Rudess’ new toys and apps on the iPad. Further, they seem to jolt and jar the atmosphere of the album (what little of it it had) and between the machine talk, the piano solo spots and the brutal metal parts, the album seems to lack an overall identity. This is feel is the core of the problem.

Despite all my ripping though, overall it is a solid album, despite its problems. It’s great conceptually and decent in comparison to the rest of the albums around these days. But it’s not a Dream Theater album – and that is the primary issue. It sounds a little like modern Dream Theater, sure, but the truth is it doesn’t have enough of that Dream Theater essence which makes up one of their LPs. Even Falling into Infinity had more Dream Theater than this album – and fans of the band will know exactly what I’m talking about. It’s a good album – but not for Dream Theater.

The album seems, in part, to be a spiritual successor to Scenes. You know, like Perfect Dark was a successor to Goldeneye. Only unlike the 64 game, the successor wasn’t as good. It also seems to want to do the whole orchestral double album awesome thing we saw on Six Degrees and in the meantime, be supported by an animated movie with walking hammers to give you the rest of the story you’re missing. But unlike The Wall, I really need to see the live or movie adaptation to get what the hell is going on, and every song isn’t a song – it’s a piece of a 10,000 piece puzzle and you’ve only got 9,000 pieces.

And one final point before I wrap this up. The hype and build for the album was pointing to something completely amazing and epic – which we didn’t get. In all honesty, the whole “Choose a Side” thing was completely irrelevant. I had thought they’d do something tricky, like tell the same story from two perspectives and you chose which side you preferred. That would be a unique concept idea, and admittedly a sight better than the re-hash of Westside Story we got. At the end of the day there is a right and wrong side to be on. It’s not so much a choose a side, as it is a “make an uninformed decision about who you think might be on the good side, because you’re going to change it later when you listen to the album.” Thoroughly disappointing.

Unfortunately, The Astonishing seems either too ambitious for the Long Island based five piece, or just a general mess. From the lost and murky storyline, to ultimately forgettable songs, and the lack of memorable ones, right through to the horrific auto-tune disaster, this album comes in at a decided just above average. It is certainly no spiritual successor to Scenes, and is by a long shot my least favourite album by my favourite band. Perhaps it will make sense if I get to see the show, but as I’ve said, I shouldn’t have to.

The album should stand on its own, and it just doesn’t. It’s upsetting that an LP with this amount of work put into it from choirs, to orchestras and unconventional instruments, right through to the usual Dream Theater mix of instruments just doesn’t stack up. I honestly expected a lot more form the band this time around, and sadly they didn’t deliver.

With a weak opening, disjointed messages and motifs and an ultimate identity crisis, The Astonishing is certainly all of the things I mentioned at the beginning of the article. Brave, ambitious and astounding, but not for the reasons you’d think. With few memorable tracks, through to a simple lack of Dream Theater in the album, the album was certainly overhyped, and overhyped to what should be beyond some arbitrary legal limit. It is however, certainly divisive. But the only divide it is creating is one between the fans and the band themselves.

And I hope it isn’t permanent.

REVIEW SCORE: 6.5 out of 10.

Dave is a Journalist based in Sydney, and the co-head of the Dream Theater fan Club of Australia and New Zealand. You can join by clicking “like” on Facebook.

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