Systematic Chaos is a progressive rock/metal delight. The album has beautiful sound, full yet with ample breathing room. It features the Dream Theater sonic signatures that have grown from album to album, from Mike Portnoy’s unmistakable drum sound, to the surging, wet fuzz of keyboards, to the John Petrucci guitar tone and picking style.

Singer James La Brie is in fine form. Like the majority of the songs on Systematic Chaos, La Brie’s vocal lines become more engaging and appealing with each passing listen. The album may be yet another installment in Dream Theater’s progressive odyssey of long-winded songs with many sections (that many view as self-indulgent), but yet the songs are also catchy and memorable. And that is progressive metal done right.

The only drag on the album is track 5, "Repentance," a dark, relaxed and languid song that might have been good if not for all the uninteresting spoken word that clutters it up. Not much happens during the track’s nigh-11 minutes, and it’s memorable only in terms of being the song that you’ll want to skip each time you listen to the album.

Since Train of Thought, there has been criticism that Dream Theater was selling itself out with alternative rock songs to make them more accessible. We asked Mike Portnoy about that point in our interview with him in this issue, so please check that out. Systematic Chaos does have a couple more simple songs (other than "Repentance"), but the strength of their choruses and sound make them enjoyable. Sure, there are parts that sound a little too close to some of Dream Theater’s idols (like the Metallica vocal patterns on "Costant Motion") — which makes one wonder again why a band that is copied so much would need to copy anyone — but in the end, the members of Dream Theater are so amazingly gifted, and the team that worked on making their album sound so good is top-notch, that the chance of their making a bad album is slim to nil.

With that said, Systematic Chaos is much, much better than the previous album, Octavarium, which, honestly, I couldn’t even get through: when it got to the spoken word part about 9/11, it was time to abort. Systematic Chaos is without a doubt a much more inspired and enjoyable Dream Theater album. Not their best ever, but no disappointment, except for that one song. (8.5/10)

review by: Brandon Strader

I agree with 99% of the positive aspects that Roberto mentioned in his review, but I don’t agree where the production is concerned. I think they really pushed this too hard. At loud volumes, it seems way too cluttered. It may be because the frequencies weren’t managed right, or just a bad case of hard limiting / compression that went wrong. It’s still an incredible CD; much better than Octavarium (though that one had some great tunes on it as well)! Systematic Chaos is a great album with plenty of replay value, but they squeezed it just a bit too tight. (8.5/10)