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This album has been some kind of symbol for the change of style for
Dream Theater. It’s not comparable with "Images & Words", and neither
should it be. When I saw the cover of "Falling…." The first time, I
sensed a wind of change. It wasn’t a beautiful art work like those other
albums had, no, there was this more artistic photo. Two guys lookin at
each other with binoculars. As I said, I sensed change.. I sensed
Rush and Pink Floyd. The first mentioned has actually something to do
with this album. One who knows his Rush can easily recognize the style
and the jam feel that Dream Theater has brought in to their music. The
first time I went through the album, I really only got attached to
tracks 2, 4, 7 and 10. Two of them were the ballads of the album, and I
think those are the tracks that most of the listeners find easy
listening. Nowadays, there’s really only one track that I don’t like,
but I’ll leave that out from this review.
Dream Theater has always been blamed for being too much technics, too
much time-changing and lack of emotion. It’s obvious that they’ve now
pulled the seat back a little and gone into the jam mode. The riffs are
more 90’s metal that the usual progressive ones. The singing is
sometimes even atonal. But for those who don’t want changes from Dream
Theater, there are some tracks that remind a little of the past. "Trial
of Tears" is one of them. Ok, it’s not another "Metropolis" but it’s an
epic tune in the same spirit. Maybe not as complicated. The instrumental
Hell’s Kitchen has the sound of the old style. A very good song.
I have managed to get my hands on the japan release, which has an extra
cd with it. Insead of one extra track, there’s two, but really only one
new song. "Speak to Me", all I can say about it is that it’s a good song
worth the trouble getting it. As a final, I would like to say that even
if the sound and music on this album is different, Dream Theater plays,
as always, with the same quality. Especially John Petrucci.
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