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Description
Special Edition includes the Black Clouds & Silver Linings CD, plus a CD of 6 cover songs, and a CD of instrumental mixes of the entire Black Clouds & Silver Linings album. 'This album's a musical and emotional rollercoaster, but most of our albums are,' Mike Portnoy says of Black Clouds & Silver Linings, Dream Theater's tenth studio album and second Roadrunner release. Black Clouds & Silver Linings marks another milestone on Dream Theater's iconoclastic musical journey, which began two and a half decades ago and now encompasses a hugely impressive body of music that's established the durable progressive metal outfit as a one-of-a-kind creative force with a fiercely devoted international fan base. The new album - produced by band members Mike Portnoy and John Petrucci, who also serve as the group's main lyricists - offers a vibrant manifestation of the world-class musicianship, vivid lyrical scenarios and ambitious, multi-leveled compositions that have established Dream Theater as a uniquely compelling creative force.
Product Details
Audio CD Release Date:
June 23, 2009
Studio:
Roadrunner Records
Number Of Discs:
3
Format:
Special Edition, Extra tracks
Average Customer Rating:
based on 157 reviews
Track Listing
Disc: 1
1.
A Nightmare To Remember
2.
A Rite Of Passage
3.
Wither
4.
The Shattered Fortress
5.
The Best Of Times
6.
The Count Of Tuscany
Disc: 2
1.
6 Cover Songs
Disc: 3
1.
A Nightmare To Remember (Instrumental)
2.
A Rite Of Passage (Instrumental)
3.
Wither (Instrumental)
4.
The Shattered Fortress (Instrumental)
5.
The Best Of Times (Instrumental)
6.
The Count Of Tuscany (Instrumental)
Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review: Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
A return to form (most of the ways anyway....) Feb 11, 2010 I was not a huge fan of Systematic Chaos as my review of that album indicates. I thought the music wasn't on par with earlier efforts and the lyrics were downright stupid in places. I did like the Muse tribute song and some of the licks here and there, but overall wasn't impressed.
This album however ends up taking their music to a new place that contains elements from Systematic and Train of thought but also some of their stronger song writing from Scenes and Images/Words and the end product ends up really working well for the most part. I thought Wither was probably the only somewhat weak track with the rest of the songs being very enjoyable. As someone who has followed Dream theater for almost 20 years I appreciated The Shattered Fortress quite a bit. The Best of Times is a very powerful, poignant tribute to Portnoy's father that almost makes me tear up when I listen to it and he wasn't even my dad. :)
A Nightmare to Remember and The Count of Tuscany are very nice bookend pieces that work very well and have a similar feel to each other and some of the stuff from Systematic (but done right). All in all I'd place this album in their top 5 studio efforts. I'm rating it a 5, but I don't think it's quite on par with Scenes or Images/Words.
(Also, I got the special edition and the cover songs are pretty enjoyable though probably not worth the extra money if you have the originals).
Improvements-Impairments Jan 25, 2010 I believe one reviewer mentioned that it was Portnoy doing some of the aggressive vocals. While he seems to have improved his kick pedal skills, his thrash vocals are just silly. He sounds like a frog. They should have allowed LaBrie to do the entire vocal execution and dropped portions down a few octaves instead. Keyboards are conspicuously absent from many of the solos as well. Meanwhile, it doesn't appears that the complexity of the music has increased, but instead, it has become slightly more accessible to new listeners IMO as their timing signatures are simpler. Still great stuff from DT, but I'd like to see something more groundbreaking. They even do a refrain from one of their other tunes on another album in one of the songs on this album. The story line continues...
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
All Silver Linings! Jan 22, 2010 I must admit, I didn't expect this...
Scenes from a Memory is one of the best discs I have ever heard from any group. Since that disc, Dream Theater has created several very entertaining musical trips with their various albums. Before Scenes, DT was strictly a curiosity for me. As a result of that album and since, I have very much become a big fan. There have been no disappointments in any album since then. So, I expected another good disc from the band. This, however, goes way beyond! In just over one month's time listening to this disc, it has now come to rival Scenes in my book....
After the heavier, more conscise direction the band took on Systematic Chaos, I half expected the band would push alittle further down that path, more in the direction of many of the current, "mainstream" bands. However, they changed directions again. (You'd think I'd have known better, since they have often moved like this from album to album in the past.)
I have read other descriptions of Black Clouds & Silver Linings as "their darkest since Train of Thought". However, I don't hear that at all. What I hear is powerful music and lyrics delivered as well as any they have created in many years. While the themes may be "dark", the messages and the music are anything but.
The first piece, "A Nightmare to Remember" is an amazing sonic painting of a boy describing his experience surviving a horrific car crash. The music is complex, but not unlike the complex strokes and colors of a master's painting. The underlying message is one of awareness and survival.
Wither is a "short" piece about the creative writing process and how the best work flows from times when we give up tyring to control the process and let it overtake us. This is a beautiful piece delivered as if it were intended for a lover. It is as good of a "love song" as you will hear from most composers.
A Shattered Fortress closes out the "AA suite" they have been developing over the last five albums. It is a very fitting ending, bringing back and interweaving themes from the previous portions of the suite. My money is on the band releasing the entire suite as its own disc. Even though I own each, I suspect that playing them in sequence will be an amazing experience as well.
This brings me to my favorite music on this disc, the last two songs. The Best of Times was written as a tribute to Portnoy's father on his deathbed (his father lost his fight with cancer early in 2009). I have heard many tributes over the years by many different artists. This is one of the best. It is played and sung with such feeling by all the band members that you begin to feel like you know the two of them. If you pay any attention at all to the lyrics, you will find a tear in your eye by the end of the song. More importantly, you will know how much he loves and idlizes his father. Very few tributes truly bring that message home as well as this one does.
Finally, The Count of Tuscany is quickly becoming one of my favorite DT songs of all time. It is an incredible musical tale which takes several beautiful, unexpected turns, both musically and lyrically.
If there is any drawback on this album (and I struggle to come up with any), it may be that, lyrically speaking, there seems to be a slight lack of direction with one song, A Rite of Passage. It is a song written about Free Masonary. However, I am still not quite sure the overall point of the song. However, this is a very minor "blemish" on an otherwise near perfect disc.
Now, if you are trying to decide whether or not to get the special edition, three disc set, I highly recommend it. The second disc is a set of covers. The first couple, Stargazer and a Queen medley, are somewhat pedestrian in nature. Decent pieces, but not impressive. I think this has more to do with the original songs themselves. I would have thought there were better Deep Purple and Queen songs they could have selected. The rest of the music on this disc is very entertaining the way the band delivers it.
The high point on this disc, I believe, is the Zebra cover "Take Your Fingers from My Hair". Great song back then, some interesting and very good "personalizations" of it by DT now. I also enjoy the Iron Maiden and Dixie Dregs covers as well.
The third disc is the instrumental versions of disc one. As indicated, it is strictly disc one without the vocal tracks. At first glance, that sounds dubious. It is not the version I will play very often. However, what it does allow the listener to do (without having to own additional electronic equipment) is hear the music behind the song in a different light. You at once both appreciate how good each musician really is, as well as the value James' singing brings to the total package.
Overall, Black Clouds & Silver Linings is an incredible step for Dream Theater. It plays like a culmination of the music they have been developing over the last decade. The covers disc is an enjoyable ride through familiar music (not unlike Change of Seasons). The instrumental disc is an enlightening side trip into DT that we don't often get a chance at.
You can not go wrong with this package.
1 of 3 found the following review helpful:
The covers disc salvages an otherwise unremarkable album Jan 05, 2010 Here we go again with another new Dream Theater album that roughly half of the band's fans love and that the other half hates. Unfortunately, I'm in the latter camp when it comes to 2009's Black Clouds & Silver Linings. I seem to enjoy every other Dream Theater album (loved Metropolis Part 2: Scenes from a Memory, Train of Thought and Systematic Chaos, didn't love Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence or Octavarium), and no matter how many times I spin it I just can't get into this album.
Everything just seems tired and/or recycled on this one. The melodies seem borrowed from previous albums and the songwriting is bloated and self-indulgent (and not in a good way). Of course the musicianship is awesome; it is a Dream Theater album after all. Mike Portnoy's drumming is insane and John Petrucci is still a force of nature. It just seems like they all did whatever they wanted and halfheartedly stapled the results together and called them songs. I miss the tight, focused (and yes, heavy) song-oriented direction of Train of Thought, and have to wonder that the best songs on Black Clouds are "A Rite of Passage" and the serene "Wither" - the album's shortest songs.
And then there are the vocals. I'm a big fan of James LaBrie's vocals (I know I'm in the minority there), but when you give him such laughable lyrics to work with of course he's going to end up looking like the weakest link. They really need to turn a greater share of the lyric writing over to James and let him shine. Anyone who has heard his solo work knows he's quite capable, and honestly, can he really do any worse than "The Count of Tuscany?" It doesn't help matters that Portnoy continues to take a larger role on vocals. I'm not saying this as some kind of "hater" or anything, but the man just can't sing.
I'm not abandoning the Dream Theater ship. If anything, I'll probably be back here in 2011 raving over their next album. Still, I have to say I was disappointed with Black Clouds & Silver Linings, and really can't see myself coming back to it all that often.
Edition Notes: There is a special edition version of Black Clouds & Silver Linings that makes the album a lot more worthwhile, at least for me. This 3-disc version comes with a pair of bonus discs in addition to the main album.
The second disc contains six cover songs. From the covers included on A Change of Seasons to some of the recent Official Bootleg releases (Official Bootleg: Master of Puppets, Official Bootleg: The Number of the Beast, Official Bootleg: Dark Side Of The Moon, Official Bootleg: Made In Japan and Uncovered), Dream Theater has always had a real talent for delivering unique, high quality versions of classic songs, and the six songs here are no exception. They range from classic metal (Rainbow's "Stargazer", Iron Maiden's "To Tame a Land") to classic prog (King Crimson's "Larks Tongues in Aspic, Part 2" and a killer Queen medley) and a pair of oddball choices (Dixie Dregs' "Odyssey" and Zebra's "Take Your Fingers From My Hair"). All of the songs are well-executed, and are, for me at least, the only reason this release merits a 4-star rating rather than the 3 stars the main album probably deserves.
The third disc contains instrumental versions of all of the songs on the main album. This is probably a fantastic addition if you're a musician or can't stand James LaBrie's vocals, but I don't fall in either camp so it really didn't do anything for me.
My only issue with the Special Edition is the packaging. Instead of a gatefold digipack or even a decent jewel case, the discs come in cardboard sleeves that are (loosely) packed in a flimsy paper digipack with the booklet bound in. I know the music is what matters, but this just looks cheap. Rating: 4/5
2 of 3 found the following review helpful:
SIMPLY STUNNING ALBUM Jan 04, 2010 Absolutely AWESOME album.
When John Petrucci says he's proud of something, he's not joking. This is a stellar album all round.
Alright initially I heard some of the tracks from this album live first. I also met the band that night and oh what a great night it was. Thanks guys and thank you John Petrucci for the most awesome solos and just downright great guitar work. Yes, I'm a guitarist so of course I hear the guitar before anything else but John Myung you thunder along with fantastic bass and it's magic, Jordan your keyboards and effects are stunning and this is fantastic work, James, your vocals are to me what Metallica never had, simply great rock vocals that I can actually hear and understand and very cool and of course Mike, many thanks for that great drumming there. Your a fantastic drummer and down right awesome player in your own right.
OK, now with the rant out of the way, oh wait there's one more thing. Thank you very much guys for putting those cover songs on the 2nd disc I was going to buy them on mp3 but I couldn't as I'm outside the US. Well now I have the whole lot thanks to this great package which I listened to on Vinyl first by the way as I'm a real child of the 80's and let me just tell you, please don't stop, I prefer Vinyl to CD(there we go, I've said it).
Now back to "Black Clouds and Silver Linnings"!!! Oh what an album. For those who declared it 'didn't click', I don't believe you listened to the entire album. This is amazing work. There's something for everyone. What amazed me straight up was how tight and composed the compositions where.(Yeah I know it is Dream Theater right people but hey this album is a cut above) At the concert I was envisioning this movie for my ears as some great improvisation on all the BCASL peices that you played, but NO. This is composed note for note and I swear black and blue that you actually played it with all your gusto and enthusiasm live. INCREDIBLE. It was just as much a sonic blast and an electic fusion of pure rock and roll poetry as the concert. Amazing and then some more.
John, the guitar work is simply incredible, I particularly love 'The Count Of Tuscany'. This is a mind blowing almost 20 minute peice of music and when I heard it live I thought it was actually 4 individual peices but it's a complete work. Mind blowing. The entire band is really putting there heart and sole into this peice(and the rest as well there all great) but I loved the contrast and seeming classic style mixed with rock, mixed with one of the most beautiful solos I've heard in a long time. Simply AWESOME!! Oh yeah I already said that but I can't say it enough, not even for a review.
Many fans didn't like the Systematic Chaos album as they felt it was below standards(not me guys, it was a great album and the problem with many people is they expect more of the same and that's just not what Dream Theater is about).
Black clouds and silver linings had every track feeling exactly like it should be. The music reflects the subject matter perfectly and what continues to amaze me most about Dream Theater is that there so tight and together. Not once live or on the album do they falter from the compositions. Simply stunning all round.
Without a doubt this is a 5 star rating and only because I can't select 1 million stars+.
Ignore the rediculously absurd rants of all those people who's opinions don't mean a pocket fluff collector, dig right in and enjoy the pure magic.
DREAM THEATER forever!!!! (Well Beethoven get's that claim so why not the excellent musicians who are Dream Theater).
PS. Thanks again for putting all the extra bonus tracks that feature on your site in mp3 purchases in this set, that was much appreciated. The bonus set I purchased also had a fantastic DVD along with the 4 sided Vinyl album.
Are there any complaints about this album? Hmmmm, well I would like an 8 sided album to honour Frank Zappa(you know what I'm talking about Mike). In other words, I wanted more. I don't think any musician can get a greater applause than that.
based on 157 reviews
A return to form (most of the ways anyway....) Feb 11, 2010
