The gusting "The Road to Revolution" and the regal stride of "Brother, Can You Hear Me? " are superb. "The Answer", "When Your Time Has Come", "Act of Faythe", "Chosen", "Begin Again", "Losing Faythe" and "Whispers On the Wind" will capture the hearts of the band's more sentimental listeners. The reprised melody spanning many of these songs ring like ABBA's more eloquent offspring, think "The Winner Takes it All". The fact he not only perseveres but submits himself to this marathon and gives life to "The Astonishing"'s cast of characters: it's flat-out, well, you know.īallads abound on this album.
Keep in mind, LaBrie battled back from a potentially career-threatening vocal impairment years ago. It gracefully drifts to close with a brief symphonic bomb and a siren-chimed outro as sweet as James LaBrie's tireless crooning on the whole album. The sweeping strings and solemn piano melody on "Act of Faythe" are gorgeous (ditto for the acoustic euphoria on "Heaven's Cove"),as the song assumes a seventies pop swoon through the first four minutes. "Lord Nafaryus" (as in nefarious, get it?) is pushed with as much stamping theatricality as can be gained, even with morose slowdowns designed to increase agitation. In their case, with a more operatic methodology. The tough chomp and street scrapping noises on "The Walking Shadow", "The Path that Divides" and "A Tempting Offer" are reminiscent of QUEENSRYCHE's "Operation Mindcrime", to which DREAM THEATER partially aspires on this album.
Otherwise, this album takes its time in more ways than one "The Astonishing" rolls and glides more than explodes as it does in the early moments of each act.Ĭrunchy marching, horse neighing, gutter clashes, computer bit noises and nerdy noodling bring DREAM THEATER's totalitarian realm to life behind staggering numbers like "A Better Life", "Brother, Can You Hear Me? " and "A Savior in the Square". Similarly, the stirring and emotive "Moment of Betrayal" swoops out of its Act II setup from "2285 Entr'acte". "The Dystopian Overture" launches "The Astonishing" with a burst of energy carrying into the brisk and peppy "The Gift of Music".
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Think of it in the old movie theater days of "Ben-Hur", "Doctor Zhivago", "Spartacus" and "The Ten Commandments" with actual intermission breaks and overtures signaling viewers to their seats during each portion. "The Dystopian Overture" and "2285 Entr'acte" are the most rousing parts of this colossal undertaking as DREAM THEATER pours cinematic overload into it. It's not without spectacle, but it is an excessive and largely trudging prog affair that challenges even "The Postman" for excess.
The grand perspective to "The Astonishing" is to say it's a 34-song dystopic sci-fi opera, and even for DREAM THEATER fans, it's a demanding excursion. In DREAM THEATER's case, "The Astonishing" is glossed by cinematic overtures, lovesick melodrama, seventies pop and perhaps one Disney film score too many.Ī project this vast is best analyzed with an overview as opposed to track-by-track dissection.
Mechanical wheezes and tinny street wars set in a distant future replace the roundabout (pun intended) audile tempest fluttering about Jon Anderson's rampant interpretation of the Hindu shastras. DREAM THEATER's latest work, "The Astonishing", is hardly "Topographic Oceans", yet if you're hanging all the way through this one hundred thirty minute, two act set, you'll detect a wanton kindred spirit in spots. Coming into a DREAM THEATER album, one sometimes suspects the band is out to build their own "Tales From Topographic Oceans" minus YES's copious splooges of ultra-weirdness-the latter being a double album both revered and reviled.