What The Hell Happened To... 11.12.07: Dream Theater - Falling Into Infinity Review
Posted by Dan Marsicano on 11.12.2007
In his new weekly column, Dan Marsicano takes a look at albums that could be considered underrated in a band's catalogue. This week, Dan takes a look at the black sheep of Dream Theater's catalogue, Falling Into Infinity. Does this album deserve more praise than it is given? Find out inside!
Introduction
How you all doing today? It's Dan Marsicano here, with the first edition of What The Hell Happened To. You may be wondering, what is this column about? Well, to put it in simple terms, this weekly column will detail an album that is considered to be underrated. What constitutes an album to be underrated? I'm glad you asked. Basically, albums that was either panned or overlooked by the critics, the fans, or both are eligible to be in this column. So I look into the album in great detail, talking about the history behind it before dwelling into the album itself. In the end, I decide if it worth the title of underrated. Are you ready?! Let's get on with it!
The album for this week is by progressive metal legends Dream Theater. They have dominated the progressive metal genre with such classics as Images and Words, Awake, and Scenes From A Memory. However, not every album of theirs has been a big success…
The Band
James LaBrie-Vocals
John Petrucci-Guitar, Backing Vocals
Mike Portnoy-Drums, Backing Vocals
John Myung-Bass
Derek Sherinian- Keyboards, Backing Vocals
The Track Listing
1. New Millennium-8:20
2. You Not Me-4:58
3. Peruvian Skies-6:43
4. Hollow Years-5:53
5. Burning My Soul-5:29
6. Hell's Kitchen-4:16
7. Lines In The Sand-12:05
8. Take Away My Pain-6:03
9. Just Let Me Breath-5:28
10. Anna Lee-5:52
11. Trial Of Tears-13:05
The History
Dream Theater was riding a wave of success back in the mid-1990's. Their previous two releases, Images and Words and Awake, were hugely popular with the metal crowd and the band won over fans all around the world. Their future looked to go nowhere but up. Like most great bands, however, there was a setback. Actually, a few, but for now, I'll focus on the main one. That was the loss of keyboardist/songwriter Kevin Moore.
Moore, being tired of the band's direction and wanting to spread his wings musically, quit the band right before Awake was completed. Fans were shocked at the loss of Moore. So Dream Theater did the only thing a band can do. They found somebody else. That somebody else was Derek Sherinian.
Sherinian was a relative unknown back in 1995. He had played on an Alice Cooper studio album and a live Kiss album. With Dream Theater, Sherinian found a way to let out his creative side. The only problem was that Derek had to win over the diehard Dream Theater fans. Eventually, he was able to, but the band had other problems in the horizon.
If getting used to a new keyboardist wasn't bad enough for the band, they also had to deal with new management in their record label EastWest. The new management had basically no idea what kind of music Dream Theater played and scoffed at the idea of the band releasing more of the same. So, like any smart record label would do, EastWest told the band that they need to have a more mainstream sound.
With that, Falling Into Infinity was created. The backlash this album received was enormous. Fans were shocked, surprised, and even saddened at the direction the band went in. The album barely made it on the charts and was a commercial failure. The big question is…was the album really that bad? Let's see if Falling Into Infinity deserves the title of most underrated album!
The Analysis
The first thing that people will notice about Falling Into Infinity is the production, which is silky smooth. It's easy to hear every instrument and the bass drums have a nice kick to them. The guitar is a little low in the mix at times, but for the most part, it's right in the thick of things.
"New Millennium" is a good start to the album. The song is catchy, shows some of the elements of old Dream Theater, and really helps to dispel a little bit of the nervousness of a whole new Dream Theater sound that most people had heard about. There were no crazy solos or time changes that came out of left field, but it is a solid song.
"You Not Me" is a strange song. In all honestly, it's the strangest song Dream Theater has ever done. It is, without a shadow of a doubt, the most mainstream song they have ever written. I mean, the chorus is straight out of cheesy 80's ballads musically mixed with some boy band lyrics. Desmond Child (the guy who wrote lyrics for Meatloaf, Cher, Bon Jovi, Michael Bolton…yeah, a lot of crap there) came in and basically changed the song that John Petrucci wrote. I have to say though…the song is catchy. The song sticks with you, like one of those bad songs you can't get out of your head all day and you find yourself humming to at random times.
The one thing that Falling Into Infinity was good for was the ballads. Dream Theater knows how to write a ballad, there is no doubt about that. "Hollow Years" starts off with a beautiful flamenco guitar solo before being driven by acoustic guitar and slowly plucked bass guitar notes to make another catchy song for Dream Theater. "Take Away My Pain" starts out with an odd keyboard section. I thought I was listening to Flock of Seagulls for the first minute or so. Thankfully, the song builds up a bit, but stays in that slow and ballad-y tempo.
"Anna Lee" is the best ballad the band has ever written. A piano piece opens up the song and the piano is the main driving force behind the song. Derek Sherinian really shows his worth on this song. His playing is phenomenal and the depressing lyrics (supposedly written about an abused girl) drive home the dark mood displayed throughout "Anna Lee's" six minutes. Some people hear Pink Floyd in the song, and I have to agree with them. It's more in the atmosphere then the song structure or playing itself.
All this talk of ballads must have you thinking "No wonder nobody liked this album." Don't worry, as the band actually had some songs that kicked major ass. "Peruvian Skies takes it time to build to an effective ending that has one of the best solos on the album. The last three minutes of this song will surprise anybody who assumed that Dream Theater did not know how to rock out anymore. "Burning My Soul" is just so evil, with the bass line straight out of a Black Sabbath album. The song is like the doom metal song Dream Theater always wanted to write. It's a song that will probably make you go "holy crap."
I can't forget about the epic tracks. Dream Theater may have gone soft, but they know when to pull out the good old epic tracks. "Lines In The Sand" features King X's vocalist Doug Pinnick, and he does a great job in the chorus. I can't remember how many times my friend and I would try to mimic the chorus to this song, trading off vocals, but never hitting the right pitch. The song does go on for a little too long, but the band keeps its interesting with some stellar guitar work from Petrucci.
The last song, "Trial Of Tears," is a 13 minute trip. The band goes into all directions, with a crazy instrumental halfway through, and the song drips atmosphere. The song is not as good as any of their other classic closers ("Octavarium," "Space Dye Vest," "Learning To Live," "Finally Free"), but the song is popular enough to become a live favorite. "Trial Of Tears" is a perfect representation of a band trying to maintain their original sound while being forced into a mainstream pop sound.
All this praise must mean I loved the album. However, it is not all awesome ballads and epic tracks. There are some stinkers on this album. "Hell's Kitchen" is the only instrumental on the album and it's really boring, never showing any of the technical or progressive skill that Dream Theater is known for. "Just Let Me Breathe" is a song that is all against commercial music and MTV, which is ironic considering the situation the band was in. So the song just seems like a parody of itself, as the band pulls lyrics out of their ass such as "The big machines take care of you, until you kill yourself, and then the sales go through the roof."
James LaBrie, for those unaware, was actually going through some tough times during the making of Falling Into Infinity. He got food poisoning before the recording of the record and messed up his throat from excessive vomiting. So he didn't have the range that he had had in previous records, so that did affect his performance. That's not to say LaBrie's performance was bad. On the contrary, he was able to push himself even harder to put in a great performance.
John Petrucci, like in Octavarium, puts in a restraint performance on the guitar. His soloing is not as technical or awe inspiring as before, but he definitely made sure that he put a lot of emotion into it. It works well in the context of the album, as does his guitar riffs and melodies.
Derek Sherinian is either labeled as a genius or a terrible keyboardist by fans during his almost four year tenure in Dream Theater. Personally, I'm in the middle about Sherinian. He brought a lot to the table, especially atmospherically and mood wise. His playing wasn't spectacular, as Kevin Moore or Jordan Rudess's was. Was he bad? Not in any form, but he just didn't bring the technical aspect the band needed.
John Myung and Mike Portnoy definitely seemed to be controlled by the label, as their performances were not even close to the level that they are known to achieve. They both only had a few chances to show off their immense talent, mainly in "Trail Of Tears."
The Verdict
So, after all of this, is the album underrated? In the end, it's obvious that the correct answer is…hell yes! The band was going through a rough time, but they were still able to pull through and release an album that is worthy of being labeled a Dream Theater creation. If you have ever wondered why people criticize this record, give it a listen. You might be surprised.
The Feedback Section
Since this is my first column, I have no feedback. However, I welcome all of you to send me your comments about the column, what you like, didn't like, etc. Also, if you have any general questions, I can help you out as well. I almost guarantee that anything you send me will be in this section, as long as it is not too offensive (got to appeal to the family-orientated crowd). Just click the send feedback button on the bottom of the column and I'll answer any questions next week.
The Conclusion
Thanks everybody for reading the first edition of What The Hell Happened To… Join me next week as I dissect a rap artist's album that never caught on in the mainstream, with the exception of one song. Who is it? Find out next week!
