DREAM THEATER — A Dramatic Turn of Events (review)

DREAM THEATER — A Dramatic Turn of Events album cover

Album · 2011 · Progressive Metal

4.5/5 · 2011-09-12
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A Dramatic Turn of Events is the aptly but perhaps also slightly inappropriately titled eleventh album from US progressive metal giants Dream Theater. The 2011 album is the first release from the band to not feature drummer Mike Portnoy, who parted ways with Dream Theater on lets be fair, not so good terms, making this the first Dream Theater album not to feature the same line-up as the last one since their 1999 masterpiece Metropolis pt. 2: “Scenes from a Memory”. Portnoy is replaced here by Mike Mangini, who certainly has the skills to replace a talent like Portnoy behind the kit, but on this album Mangini is just a drummer, he contributes no writing to the album like Portnoy did.

A Dramatic Turn of Events is mostly a John Petrucci and Jordan Rudess penned affair, but James LaBrie and John Myung have contributed to the writing more than they have in recent years, with Myung having lyric credits for the first time since Metropolis Pt. 2, and LaBrie featuring writing credits again after a total lack on the prior Black Clouds & Silver Linings album (2009). The material that they have come up with varies in style from ten plus minute epics, and some shorter tracks, the shortest being the ballad Far From Heaven. There are nine songs in all with a total playing time of just over a whopping seventy-seven minutes. In this respect not much has changed for Dream Theater, they’re still giving you the quantity, and naturally, the quality as well.

Recent Dream Theater albums have been going down a ‘heavy as possible’ route, and have even featured some harsher vocals (from Portnoy) alongside James LaBrie. With Portnoy out of the picture we’re back to just James, which ultimately can only be a good thing, as at the end of the day Portnoy’s vocals in Dream Theater did leave something to be desired, despite the fact the man can actually sing really well (check out some of his vocal stuff with Transatlantic for evidence), and James LaBrie puts on a top of his game performance on this album. I dare say this is the best that LaBrie has sounded in years. Hang on, I said that in my review for Black Clouds & Silver Linings as well...just goes to show that LaBrie seems to get better and better with every album released.

While A Dramatic Turn of Events is still a pretty heavy album, it also differs from the last couple of albums by the band because it’s got more leanings towards albums such as Images and Words, finding something of a balance between being extremely progressive and being heavy. John Petrucci’s guitar playing is spot on as always and Jordan Rudess’ keyboards have a noticeably larger role in Dream Theater’s sound, with parts of the album even having a symphonic sound to them.

A Dramatic Turn of Events has done the opposite with me compared to Dream Theater’s previous album Black Clouds & Silver Linings. I loved that album right from the off, but over time I didn’t regard it quite so highly. This one on the other hand sounded somewhat patchy at first listen, but started to grow on me after I’d given it a few more listens, although even now it’s still the tracks that I really dug straight away that stand out as the album’s highlights. This pretty much means the bulk of the epics, especially Lost Not Forgotten, Breaking All Illusions and Bridges in the Sky, which includes what is possibly Dream Theater’s weirdness introduction ever, which also closes the track. This track was originally known as The Shaman’s Trance and listening to this it’s not hard to understand why. It’s almost a shame that they changed the name of this one, and Bridges in the Sky as a title doesn’t let you know so well just what it is meant to be going on. The track is a real belter though, with some really amazing instrumental work.

Despite being a well balanced album, and a nice nod back to the more progressively influenced sound of Dream Theater, at the end of the day A Dramatic Turn of Events is still a metal album, and I personally think that for a metal album there’s a bit too much focus on the balladry on this album. This is the Life is the first such track, and although it gets going and features some great and emotive lead guitar from Petrucci, it’s the first of three ballad pieces, which also includes Far From Heaven and Beneath the Surface. Now all these tracks are incredibly well crafted, in fact they’re pretty much unfaultable, but I do feel it is worth mentioning just how much time on this album is given over to balladry. Of course this fits well with the more progressive rock leanings of the album in general, but as I say, A Dramatic Turn of Events is still a metal album, and from a neutral perspective I feel obliged to point out that the amount of balladry here may not be to the complete appeal to Dream Theater’s metal fans, especially those who have been big fans of the last couple of albums. Fans who are more into them through progressive rock on the other hand will lap them up I expect. And fans such as myself who like both styles of Dream Theater I suspect will be like me, and couldn’t care less, in fact I think that of the shorter tracks on the album Beneath the Surface is easily the best. And for the record when I say shorter, I mean less than ten minutes since it’s only Far From Heaven that is under five.

If I had to evaluate this album briefly (which as you can see is not happening with this review, you’re getting a book), it would be to say that the album is a grower. This maybe because it’s quite a jump in sound from Systematic Chaos (an album I don’t really see as so much progressive as it is technical) and Black Clouds. Black Clouds in my opinion, although it hasn’t weathered quite as well as I thought it would, is still for me one of Dream Theater’s best albums, being only just short of Metropolis pt. 2 and Images and Words. In line with my opinion that A Dramatic Turn of Events is a grower, at first I actually had this down with the weaker albums in their discography, namely Falling into Infinity and to a lesser extent Awake and When Dream and Day Unite. Now however, several listens down the track, this album sits just as comfortably with the best of Dream Theater as my all time favourites by the band, and I suspect that if given the proper time many who may be disappointed with it at first may come to think the same.

I have to admit that I did have my concerns with Mike Portnoy leaving, but A Dramatic Turn of Events proves that these concerns were ill founded and ultimately I’m just glad that Dream Theater finished the Alcoholics Anonymous suite before they parted with him, as the thought of Adrenaline Mob finishing it just leaves me cold. I like Mike Portnoy, but after hearing this album I can’t help feeling that him leaving Dream Theater is for the best. This is easily Dream Theater’s most consistent album for many years and features some of their very best songs. All in all A Dramatic Turn of Events must surely signal the start of a new epic chapter for Dream Theater. An improvement on the already really good Black Clouds & Silver Linings, I may even go as far as to say that this is Dream Theater’s second best album. It’s not quite up there at the same level of Metropolis pt. 2, but it’s certainly the closest they’ve ever come. As they say as one door closes another opens and the door to the Portnoy days has just closed, and after this the one that’s opened could well lead to their next Metropolis.

Special editions of the album also include a second disc which features the whole thing as an instrumental, just the same as was done with Black Clouds & Silver Linings. Like with that album I have little to no interest in this personally, but I guess if you’re in the camp that dislikes James LaBrie then this will be for you; however I find the inclusion of this to be largely unnecessary.

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven, scored at 9.3/10 - "Very Exceptional Album")