When drummer and vocalist Mike Portnoy announced his decision to quit Dream Theater last September, the band's future seemed to hang in the balance. Portnoy's brash leadership, meticulous musicianship and leviathan drum sets had been an essential element of the progressive metal juggernaut's sound and image for 25 years.
The subsequent announcement of Dream Theater's album, "A Dramatic Turn of Events," raised an intriguing question: Would guitarist John Petrucci, bassist John Myung, keyboardist Jordan Rudess and lead singer James LaBrie fail miserably at perpetuating the band's formidable legacy, or would the inclusion of new drummer Mike Mangini reinvigorate their formula of 10−minute epics and over−the−top instrumental passages?
The answer: Despite the melodramatic album title, the Dream Theater on display in "A Dramatic Turn of Events" is pretty much the same band fans have known all along. The songs still wind through a few verses of heavily distorted guitars, skittering keyboards and LaBrie's soaring vocals before breaking into virtuosic solos courtesy of Petrucci and Rudess for a minute or six.
Lead single "On the Backs of Angels" opens the record in typical Dream Theater fashion. An ominous soundscape presages Petrucci's sinuous acoustic guitar lines. Rudess cuts through with a lead synthesizer melody before the band explodes into a mid−tempo riff driven by grandiose choral arrangements and Myung and Mangini's thunderous rhythms. LaBrie's stop−start vocals depict a grim vision of "The new American dream" in the track's crushing verses; his delivery loosens up on the floating, psychedelic chorus. The second half of the song highlights a characteristically fluid guitar solo.
Though he lacks the beat−juggling intuition and intensity of his predecessor, Mangini turns out to be a worthy replacement from the get−go. On "Build Me Up, Break Me Down," he lays down a thick groove under Petrucci's fire−breathing guitar riff, while on the slower "This is the Life," he accentuates the atmospheric introduction with soft snare and cymbal hits.
Interestingly, Portnoy's departure has more of an impact on the non−percussion aspects of the music. Gone is his overbearing presence in the mix, his wearisome tales of alcoholism and his juvenile, Decepticon−meets−slam−poetry spoken−word segments. Instead, mixer Andy Wallace significantly boosts the presence of the keyboards and bass. "Turn of Events" marks the first time in Dream Theater history that Myung's tastefully complex bass lines can be heard clearly throughout one of their albums.
On the other hand, LaBrie's vocals often come off as rigid and uninspired. Though previous album "Black Clouds & Silver Linings" (2009) featured one of the best performances of his career, only the mellower passages on "Turn of Events" find him channeling the masterful control of records past. LaBrie's backing screams during "Build Me Up, Break Me Down" are simply horrendous — it's as if he were strangling a cat in the vocal booth to the rhythm of Rudess' doomy keyboard swells.
It doesn't help LaBrie's case that Petrucci's lyrics are among the worst ever featured on a Dream Theater album. His cringeworthy self−comparison to Christ on "Build Me Up, Break Me Down" ("Tonight I am the new messiah / You deify / When I'm no longer desired / I'll be crucified") follows a chorus that reads like an adulterous affair between The Foundations' "Build Me Up Buttercup" and Velvet Revolver's "Fall to Pieces" (2004). "Outcry" gets vaguely political, but Petrucci never throws any punches against the unspecified "kingdom of fear."
But this is Dream Theater, and any vocal or lyrical missteps are usually overshadowed by the tremendous instrumentals. The tale of a desert warrior in "Lost Not Forgotten" actually works through the cinematic sweep of Rudess's piano introduction and a huge guitar melody that sounds like it could soundtrack "Lawrence of Arabia" (1962). Rudess and Petrucci blaze through a series of mind−blowing unison runs before the first verse, setting the stage for LaBrie's most charismatic appearance on the album.
Petrucci's restrained and melodic sweep−picking section on "Build Me Up, Break Me Down" is another highlight, while his delicate bends on "This is the Life" convey the jazzier side of his abilities. Halfway through "Breaking All Illusions," the band plays a few bars of what sounds like funk in fast−forward.
Though Dream Theater never pulls any risks as daring as the album cover's depiction of sky high tightrope unicycle riding, "A Dramatic Turn of Events" is another solid release for the band. The cheesy, straight−to−VHS−'90s−Disney−movie balladry of "Far from Heaven" and "Beneath the Surface" drag out the end of the album, but the preceding 70 minutes prove that the lineup change hasn't extinguished the group's creativity. Portnoy or no Portnoy, Dream Theater is still crafting visceral yet intelligent progressive metal.
