Six songs, 4 of them over 10 minutes, with another at nearly nine and another at 6, this isnt throwaway hook laden short stabs at commerciality. Dream Theater tread their own distinctive path through songs of epic length and proportion. It starts off great with "A Nightmare To Remember", a solid stab at furious riffing, barked rapid fire lyrics, a softer interlude and some shouted lyrics from Mike Portnoy to finish. Impressive stuff and sure to keep the fan base happy. It digs deeper into metal territory than Systematic Chaos dared go (lots of heavy riffage, and even a blast beat in 'A Nightmare To Remember'), but still somehow retaining the DT progressive edge, which shines out in the instrumental sections of some of the songs, notably the intro to 'The Count of Tuscany'.
'Wither', a ballad, and 'The Best Of Times' provide a slight reprise to all of this. 'Black Clouds & Silver Linings' deals with a couple of sentimental issues, especially 'The Best Of Times', which is an ode to the life of Portnoy and his father, who recently passed away. 'A Nightmare To Remember' is about a car crash that Petrucci was in when he was younger, and it is presented to us almost like a horror story. 'The Count Of Tuscany' is also another Petrucci experience, this time about a count that frightened him, and again, we are presented with an almost horror movie style description. At 19 minutes it is the album's longest track, with an Octavarium-style keyboard break seperating the pieces two 'sections'.
James LaBrie's voice is somewhat rested on this album. The vocal lines are lower than other albums, the highest note I think is a strained C5 in 'The Shattered Fortress'. He instead focuses on the lower part of his range to emphasise the deep metal choruses and riffs, which suits the songs fine, but I just feel there's something lacking, the high notes just made the songs that more special. In my opinion 'Black Clouds & Silver Lingings'is an instant classic. This recording combines all the technical prowess of Dream Theater with some genuinely moving and interesting music, not to mention some awesome Rush references (how they develop the Jacob's Ladder reference in the 'Count Of Tuscany' is genius). Based on my time spent listening to Black Clouds & Silver Linings I would recommend anybody to give it a try, be it progressive and metal fans, or just someone who appreciates music with that bit more depth.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
