Dream Theater, prog metal posterboys. After the success of Images And Words and Awake, surely they couldn't resist shooting for the moon and trying to make an album that brought in the big bucks, as they say. Their label thought along exactly these lines, but the band wasn't prepared to give them that. After a lot of hassling with the label and the record companies and everyone involved, the band finally came up with their fourth studio album, Falling Into Infinity.
Now most Dream Theater fans seem to dislike this album for its accessibility and slightly softer sounds. Perhaps they thought the record boring or otherwise had their own selfish and ulterior motives to claim this album to be the worst one the New York boys ever recorded. However, if this album is the band's poorest effort, then many bands should be devoid of the status they currently have, because this record, despite having a different sound from other DT records, simply isn't that bad.
The album's first half is especially strong in my opinion. Peruvian Skies is a climaxing monster, which starts off slowly with a really cool bass line, but grows and grows in intensity until the band thinks it's necessary to go all Metallica on the song's ass and ends up in thrash mode at the end. A perfect example of the different styles of music the band incorporates into its music. Hell's Kitchen is a rather concise (by the band's standards) instrumental but also the best they ever recorded. Of course it's wankery, but the song still has a flow and rather than losing steam (like most Dream Theater instrumentals tend to do) it builds up to an excellent climax with some crippling guitar work from Mr. Petrucci, and leads perfectly into Lines In The Sand. Burning My Soul is a straight-up intense rocker that should get any crowd pumped. Sure, it's slightly less complex than the average DT song, but it's still highly enjoyable and it works admirably, nothing worth complaining about.
Aforementioned Lines In The Sand is one of the album's twin epics. Whereas the other one, Trial Of Tears, is one of the best songs the band ever did, with excellent synth passages from Mr. Sherinian, who had taken over from Kevin Moore on this record, Lines In The Sand is a dodgy affair, with the chorus being especially horrible. James shrieks offkey notes with JP (or is it someone else?) doing a terrible falsetto echo in the background. One of the more erratic performances of LaBrie on a Dream Theater album. And it seems like he's lost his ability to hit the high notes too. He had ruptured his vocal cords prior to the recording of this album, which shows: hardly any vocals are sung in a high register, and when he does, they sound awful due to that. On the whole they don't let him stray into that region too much, which is probably a wise decision, but we've simply seen the lad perform a lot better.
Another thing is that due to the accessibility of the album it is more of a progressive album and less of a metal album. With the exception of Burning My Soul, the end of Peruvian Skies and Just Let Me Breathe, this album is more in rock territory. It may therefore be a hindrance to listeners who got into the band through the metal side the band has displayed on earlier and later records; some parts of the album just require more intricate listening due to layering, complex solos, and other proggy things the band has thrown in. Especially Lines In The Sand is guilty of becoming boring, with too many annoying synth passages, plus that terrible chorus, no doubt the worst epic the band has ever recorded. Hollow Years is one of the cheesiest ballads the band has ever written. I have nursed a soft spot for it as time has gone and passed, but if you didn't like Another Day, Vacant or The Answer Lies Within this one is a no-no for you too. The amount of sap dripping off this one is just incredible.
The last couple of tracks also stand out as drabble. After Lines In The Sand comes Take Away My Pain, with some touching lyrics about JP's father, but other than that it is simply a boring affair. Just Let Me Breathe is a little too obviously directed against MTV, an angry rant the band is simply not suited to write or execute. With the whole commercialism thrown in, it's obvious the band would feature a song like this, but it does not work out on the whole, Dream Theater was never meant to appeal to the masses like that, and I'm glad they've ditched the whole "us against society" theme, instead reverting to a more neutral standpoint on later releases, or using a more mature way of making their voices heard. Anna Lee is a very remarkable track, everytime I play that song I forget to actually listen to it. It's an excellent song to get lost in, so to speak, but it's also very forgettable and I have to say it counts as a filler song. The album ends on a good note with the best track on here, Trial Of Tears, which is a 11 minute progressive epic that really delivers the goods from the band (and excellent Myung lyrics who sadly has too little influence on the songwriting; Learning To Live was really awesome).
However, the good moments overcome the bad on this record. The musicianship is top notch on this album, apart from James LaBrie's less-than-great offering Petrucci still delivers all the goods we've come to expect from him. Portnoy is still a master on the drum kit. Derek Sherinian is no Kevin Moore or Jordan Rudess but he sure as hell knows how to use his instruments, plus it allowed for some really cool live antics, and John Mying remains the most underrated bassist since the invention of the concept of underrated. Most songs are just a little less heavy than usual. This album shows that just a little compromise to a slightly different side is not a bad thing, especially if you have the musical skill to pull it off like these guys do. The band sacrificed only a little musicianship and gained a lot of appeal in the process, which is really the way to do it, plus they took their musicianship over the top on later offerings anyway. A solid release from one of the best bands in both the progressive and the metal genre, which wasn't quite as excellent as some other discs, but a worthy slab of music nonetheless. Congratulations guys, on showing that you don't have to sacrifice talent to still be able to have mass appeal.
