| CD Reviews Last updated: 10.8.05 Dream Theater Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence Tracklist: Disc One: 1. The Glass Prison (13:52) (Lyrics: Portnoy, Music: Dream Theater) I. Reflection II. Restoration III. Revelation 2. Blind Faith (10:21) (Lyrics: LaBrie, Music: Dream Theater) 3. Misunderstood (9:34) (Lyrics: Petrucci, Music: Dream Theater) 4. The Great Debate (13:43) (Lyrics: Petrucci, Music: Dream Theater) 5. Disappear (6:46) (Lyrics: LaBrie, Music: Dream Theater) Total� 54:20 Disc Two: 6. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence (42:04) I. Overture (6:49) (Music: Dream Theater) II. About To Crash (5:51) (Lyrics: Petrucci, Music: Dream Theater) III. War Inside My Head (2:08) (Lyrics: Portnoy, Music: Dream Theater) IV. The Test That Stumped Them All (5:03) (Lyrics: Portnoy, Music: Dream Theater) V. Goodnight Kiss (6:17) (Lyrics: Portnoy, Music: Dream Theater) VI. Solitary Shell (5:47) (Lyrics: Petrucci, Music: Dream Theater) VII. About To Crash (Reprise) (4:04) (Lyrics: Petrucci, Music: Dream Theater) VIII. Losing Time/Grand Finale (5:59) (Lyrics: Petrucci, Music: Dream Theater) Total � 42:04 Introduction: Following the release of their successful concept album, Metropolis, Pt. 2: Scenes From A Memory, and live album, Live Scenes From New York, Dream Theater released their monster 2 disc album, Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, in 2002. Featuring five great, long songs on disc one and the massive title track, containing eight parts, Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence is definitely one of Dream Theater�s most impressive releases to date. Synopsis: The album opens up with �The Glass Prison�, one of Dream Theater�s most impressive songs to date. The song slowly builds up with some unique keyboard sounds from Rudess. Then it starts to get heavy, going up to an impressive opening solo from Petrucci. He plays really fast here. And in the middle of the song, there�s another outstanding guitar solo from Petrucci, as well as an awesome keyboard solo from Rudess. The song is definitely a definitive Dream Theater song, with crazy guitar solos, exceptional keyboard sounds, thundering drumming, fast bass riffs, and excellent vocals and lyrics. This is the best song on the album and one of their best ever. Now we slow things down a bit with �Blind Faith�. LaBrie sings really well here, and the lyrics he penned for this song are certainly intriguing and thought provoking. Petrucci delivers yet another great guitar solo here. He plays impressively overall on this album. �Misunderstood� is another one of my favorites on this album. It�s actually one of the softer and slower songs on the album. The song starts off with Petrucci playing slow and haunting chords on an acoustic guitar, with James singing the lyrics. Rudess eventually comes in with a low string sound, and Myung plays some low, depressing bass riffs. After about three minutes, the singing builds up, and Petrucci comes in with a heavy electric guitar riff. The song goes into an eerie instrumental part, back to normal, and closes out with the same instrumental part. The next song on the album is �The Great Debate�. The lyrics in this song pertain to stem cell research. Samples in the song and the lyrics make it obvious. The song also features strange samples and strange vocals. Gets pretty heavy, and is a fairly aggressive song overall. I�m not really into songs with political messages and such, but I like this song. The final song on disc one is �Disappear�. It�s a soft and slow song with a great ambiance, thanks to the keyboards. Unlike �Misunderstood�, however, �Disappear� doesn�t get that heavy and remains acoustic throughout most of the song. It�s a depressing type song that has strong lyrics. �Disappear� is a great closing track to disc one. �Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence� on disc two opens up with �Overture�, an instrumental. The beginning part sounds like something you�d hear in medieval times. Much of the song is made up of instrumental parts from the following parts. �About To Crash� follows up right after. It starts off with a light-hearted tune on the keyboard. Actually the whole song is fairly light-hearted. Petrucci has a beautiful solo towards the end of the song. �War Inside My Head� sounds just like, well, a war theme. The guitar and bass riffs are heavy, the drums are booming, and the vocals are aggressive. It�s the shortest part of the lot, though. �The Test That Stumped Them All� is probably the fastest part of Six Degrees. But it all slows down once �Goodnight Kiss� starts. It�s slow tune with a beautiful melody. The following part, �Solitary Shell�, starts out acoustic, and remains fairly slow throughout. I like this part as well. Next up is �About To Crash (Reprise)�, which has some similar parts to �About To Crash�, but it�s a bit shorter. Rudess has a good solo here. And the closing part of this mammoth of a song is titled, �Losing Time/Grand Finale�. It�s an appropriate final track that reprises themes from all of the parts of the song. Highlights: �The Glass Prison�, �Blind Faith�, �Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence� Overall: Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence is full of some excellent songs. This release is a bit more metal than progressive, but if you can get over that fact, then you�re in for a great album. Final Score: A+ Any questions, comments, submissions, or anything related to the site should be e-mailed to me: shadowdragonxx [at] hotmail [dot] com. Don't take anything from the site without permission. |
| Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence Album line-up: Mike Portnoy - Lead drums, percussion, and vocals John Petrucci - Guitars and vocals James LaBrie - Lead vocals John Myung - Bass guitar Jordan Rudess - Keyboards Additional Personnel: Howard Portnoy - Gong drum on �The Great Debate� Release Year: 2002 Label: Elektra Records Produced by: Mike Portnoy and John Petrucci |
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