Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence <\/i>is a stupid mouthful of a title. If you research the phrase a bit, you will read that it refers to the six songs on this double album. \u201cOnly six songs on a double album?\u201d you say. Well, kind of. The first disc has five songs, most of which are quite looooooong. The second disc has one 42-minute song, \u201cSix Degrees Of Inner Turbulence,\u201d but it is split into eight tracks. And six of those tracks deal with what could be called \u201cInner Turbulence.\u201d So it seems the title refers to both the six songs on the album and six parts of the sixth song. Add another six of something and this could have been stupid and<\/i> Satanic. <\/p>\n
But hell, that\u2019s metal. Plus, I\u2019m sure Dream Theater was feeling pressure to top their last conceptual mammoth, Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From A Memory<\/i>. <\/p>\n
Dream Theater is easier to listen to in small doses, and that\u2019s why I prefer the second disc of this album. Because of this favoritism, I\u2019m going to sum up the first disc now: disconnected. The songs are too long with dozens of riffs and metamorphoses. They definitely have the technical side of music down, and if you listen to the first disc for this reason, you\u2019ll be satisfied (or perhaps tired after you burn yourself out on years of technical listening like I did). Speaking of disconnected, I have lost focus in this paragraph, but you know how lame Aerosmith sounds when they save the sappy and slow song for the last track of an album? A bit of that is going on with \u201cDisappear,\u201d the \u201cHome Tonight\u201d for a new generation. <\/p>\n
On to the second disc. Some of these songs are poppy, particularly \u201cSolitary Shell.\u201d But things start off on the opulent side with \u201cOverture.\u201d Guess what? It\u2019s an instrumental with solid technical playing from all parties! <\/p>\n
Moving on, the second track, \u201cAbout To Crash,\u201d should have cut the noodling and not taken so damn long to end\u2026part of me likes the song because vocalist James LaBrie seems to have restrained himself, a welcome sound given the yelping on the first disc (he\u2019s restrained on \u201cDisappear\u201d as well, but it\u2019s a boring and misplaced song). Then you hear \u201cNapalm Death,\u201d a quick and fun metal song \u2013 even better, LaBrie only goes over the top a little. The album soon slaps you into a demented speed assault. \u201cThe Test That Stumped Them All\u201d is a nasty tune, reminiscent of the best Metallica, and gets strange, almost like an evil Yes. Alas, it runs out of gas like \u201cAbout To Crash\u201d and leads into \u201cGoodbye Kiss,\u201d a fragile pathetic song I like half the time for perhaps a fragile pathetic reason. It reminds me of when I first heard 1970\u2019s rock ballads. Oh, and guess what? \u201cGoodbye Kiss\u201d is too long. <\/p>\n
\u201cSolitary Shell\u201d is essentially the end of the album. Or at least the last thing I can remember from the second disc, even after years of listening. \u201cAbout To Crash (Reprise)\u201d (I swear to Christ these guys love Pink Floyd) and \u201cLosing Time\/Grand Finale\u201d are the actual two last songs, but they\u2019re inoffensive and, more importantly, things I cannot remember. What makes \u201cSolitary Shell\u201d memorable? Keyboardist Jordan Rudess manages to be\u2026not a showy center of attention. He also seems to channel Keith Emerson before the first couple of verses. Trust me, Emerson, I\u2019m a lunatic for giving progressive rock\/metal chance after chance with often nothing but a mediocre five-minute guitar solo to share with friends, but every once in a while you find a band like Yes or Dream Theater. They can have the same flaws as the most annoying progressive music, but they also generate enough good material to justify exploration. If nothing else, Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence <\/i>is this dichotomy. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":29784,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5988],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-41394","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-dream-theater","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/73"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41394"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}