You either love them or you hate them.
A clichéd sentiment, granted, but one that also happens to aptly describe many bands found within the genre of progressive rock. There are few prog bands, however, who encapsulate this notion to quite the extent that Dream Theater do. If you're reading this review then, chances are, you already hold a personal opinion with regard to the band, whether you consider their music to be brilliant or merely instrumental masturbation. What Dream Theater need to help bridge the gap between these two vastly different perspectives, then, is an album that places an emphasis on the craft of songwriting rather than musicianship.
Falling into Infinity has the potential to do just that.
Since its release, the album has widely been considered a disappointment by fans and critics alike, and not without good reason. Dream Theater's output before Falling into Infinity (Images & Words, Awake, A Change of Seasons) as well as their follow-up release (the monumental Scenes from a Memory) vastly eclipse the album in question in terms of quality. The band were undoubtedly having a tough time during the recording of Falling into Infinity: new keyboardist Derek Sherinian, hastily hired after Kevin Moore's unexpected departure from the band, coupled with an interfering record label who insisted that the band write a more “straightforward” album, helped to make Falling into Infinity an album unlike anything else in the band's discography.
With all this in mind, it's easy to understand why the album was both a critical and commercial failure. Despite these problems, however, Falling into Infinity still boasts a plethora of enjoyable moments. As a whole, the album is markedly less heavy than anything that the band had released beforehand, or have released since. Derek Sherinian's presence within the band plays no small part in this – his haunting keyboard lines, driven by a vast range of different keyboard effects, help to align opening track New Millennium and, indeed, the album as a whole, more with progressive rock than progressive metal.
If one is willing to look past the fact that Falling into Infinity is very different from the band's other releases – “catchy” tracks such as You Not Me abound – then there is a lot of good to be found here. The album contains no less than three ballads and whilst, on the surface, this may seem like overkill, the fact remains that they are all relatively well executed, with the Spanish guitar-led Hollow Years being one of the finest acoustic songs that the band have pulled off. Elsewhere the listener is treated to a number of heavier tracks and, even though one or two of them aren't particularly successful – Just Let Me Breathe seems a little lifeless, and Burning My Soul is almost laughable – the album contains some excellent metal songs nevertheless. The upbeat ending to Peruvian Skies, for example, stands as one of the album's finest moments.
The songs that really stand out from the pack, however, are the ones in which the band stick to what they do best. The album's finest track, the12-minute epic Lines in the Sand, features a brilliantly technical guitar solo courtesy of Petrucci, a well thought-out selection of riffs, and even guest vocals from King's X vocalist Doug Pinnick. Elsewhere, instrumental number Hell's Kitchen proves that the band don't have to be playing at warp speeds or in obscure time signatures to impress – the sheer level of emotion held within the song keeps it compelling throughout its 4-minute duration.
Unfortunately, despite the number of stellar tracks on offer here, the album does have its shortcomings. The record label's insistence that the band writes a “simpler” album is made startlingly obvious on tracks such as You Not Me, which features an almost overpoweringly poppy chorus in what is an otherwise enjoyable song. Furthermore, many of the elements that attracted listeners to the band in the first place are missing: opening number New Millennium, for example, is devoid of any kind of instrumental solo. For the most part the album stays disappointingly simple, at least by Dream Theater's standards. It is this straightforward approach, however, that perhaps makes Falling into Infinity a little easier for those not yet acquainted with the band to enjoy. Even the band's detractors, who claim that the band sacrifice songwriting for the sake of musicianship, may find something to enjoy here, even if the rest of the band's discography doesn't appeal.
One final point worth mentioning are James LaBrie's vocals. LaBrie is undoubtedly the most criticised member of the band, and Falling into Infinity has only served to further this criticism. Prior to the recording of the album, LaBrie damaged his vocal chords after a severe case of food poisoning; his live performances suffered as a result, and his vocal range on the band's following releases was limited. It is worth noting, however, that whilst LaBrie's performance here is nowhere near on a par with that found on Awake or Images & Words, his vocals are solid nevertheless, even if they took a lot of studio time to capture.
Overall, Falling into Infinity stands as a solid, but occasionally disappointing album. The stripped-back, straightforward approach found here is a welcome breath of fresh air amongst the band's otherwise hectic discography. Indeed, many of the band's detractors would likely find something to enjoy here if they took the time to look. However, the fact that many Dream Theater fans look upon this album with disdain is not unjustified: whilst there is much to enjoy here, the fact remains that the band strayed just a little too far from what they were best at in the process of creating this album, even if it wasn't entirely their fault.
Recommended tracks:
Peruvian Skies
Hollow Years
Hell's Kitchen
Lines in the Sand
