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Dream Theater: A Dramatic Turn of Events

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Roadrunner Records
Released: 2011.09.12
Time:
 77:01
Category: Progressive Rock
Producer(s): John Petrucci
Rating:
Media type: CD
Web address: www.dreamtheater.net
Appears with: Name
Purchase date: 2016
Price in €: 1,00





 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] On the Backs of Angels (J.Petrucci/J.Rudess/J.Myung) - 8:42
[2] Build Me Up, Break Me Down (J.Petrucci/J.Rudess/J.Myung/J.LaBrie) - 6:59
[3] Lost Not Forgotten (J.Petrucci/J.Rudess/J.Myung/J.LaBrie) - 10:11
[4] This Is the Life (J.Petrucci/J.Rudess) - 6:57
[5] Bridges in the Sky (J.Petrucci/J.Rudess/J.Myung) - 11:01
[6] Outcry (J.Petrucci/J.Rudess/J.Myung) - 11:24
[7] Far from Heaven (J.Petrucci/J.Rudess/J.LaBrie) - 3:56
[8] Breaking All Illusions (J.Petrucci/J.Rudess/J.Myung) - 12:25
[9] Beneath the Surface (J.Petrucci) - 5:26

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


James Labrie - Lead Vocals
John Petrucci - Guitar, Backing Vocals, Producer
Jordan Rudess - Keyboards, Continuum, Ipad App Morphwiz
John Myung - Bass
Mike Mangini - Drums, Percussion

Paul Northfield - Engineering, Spoken Words on [8]
Richard Chycki - Vocal Engineer
Joe Maniscalco - Assistant Engineering
Andy Wallace - Mixing
Ted Jensen - Mastering
Hugh Syme - Cover Art, Design, Illustrations
Michael Lavine - Photography
Monte Conner - A&R
Steve Martin - Booking
Derek Kemp - Booking
Frank Solomon - Management
Paul Suarez - Pro-Tools

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


Recorded in January-May 2011 at Cove City Sound Studios in Long Island.

2011 CD Roadrunner Records - RR7765-2
2011 LP Roadrunner Records - RRCAR 7765-1



A Dramatic Turn of Events, the 11th studio long player from progressive hard rock act Dream Theater, is understandably among the most anticipated in their decades-long career. Founding drummer Mike Portnoy – long considered, with guitarist John Petrucci, to be DT – left the band and was replaced with veteran Mike Mangini. This is the set that answers the question about his impact on their sound. Interestingly enough, it's not that much. Mangini is as much a complex, intricate drummer as Portnoy was, though he is more an ensemble player; he plays more on the beat than behind it. A Dramatic Turn of Events is a much more keyboard-driven offering, though there is plenty of good old-fashioned prog metal here, too. Given its nearly 80-minute length, there is something here for virtually every fan – or detractor – to grab hold of. Singer James LaBrie doesn't indulge his high metal screech here that often, and prefers to sing plainly – a good thing. Three tracks – “Outcry,” “Breaking All Illusions,” and “Lost Not Forgotten” – feature wildly long instrumental segments with more odd time signature changes than you can likely count. The latter of these sounds almost like Meshuggah with keyboards and stacked with multi-part harmonic vocals. Opening track and single "On the Backs of Angels" contains all the DT trademarks: disciplined drumming, intricate seven-string guitar riffs that grow increasingly more explosive, a Gothic chorale, and John Myung's insistent basslines, which are nearly buried in the mix. Jordan Rudess' keyboards counter Petrucci's guitar and Mangini's drums for dominance and come out on top. That said, the melodic structure of the tune harkens back to DT albums previous to the last decade's. As melodic as it is, it's almost knotty compared to the sheer melodicism of “Build Me Up, Break Me Down” that follows it. One does have to wonder about the inclusion of the ballads "Far from Heaven" and the string-laden "Beneath the Surface," which have clunky, trite lyrics, sappy instrumentation, and feel like filler; it would have been better to have trimmed them to keep the album a reasonable length. In sum, a Dramatic Turn of Events, while not a perfect offering, has enough of what makes Dream Theater attractive to make it a necessary purchase for fans.

Rating: 3/5

Thom Jurek - All Music Guide



A Dramatic Turn of Events is an album born from transition, crafted with studied persistence and possessed by newfound freedom and free-flowing invigoration. The album strikes the perfect balance between Dream Theater's intimate history with all that is heavy, progressive and melodic with each element fully realized. Longtime fans of the band intrigued by the speediness of the notes on display from Dream Theater have much to study on the album, while fans of melodic hooks will find equal pleasure within the songs.

Amazon.com



Considering Dream Theater’s songs feature unapologetic histrionics and more sections than a centipede, the title of the progressive-metal virtuosos’ 11th studio album could have worked for any preceding release. Attached to this particular album, it’s hard not to connect the title to a dramatic turn of events behind the scenes: the departure of drummer and co-founder Mike Portnoy.

Portnoy arguably commands more worship from music-store loiterers than any other rock percussionist who isn’t Neil Peart, and he has an outsized personality to match his skill. At Dream Theater concerts, he was more of a ringleader than singer James LaBrie. Add his involvement in the writing process – which went far beyond death-defying drum fills – and Portnoy’s departure could have dealt a fatal blow. Instead, it appears to have made Dream Theater more disciplined than the quintet has been in a very long time.

In hindsight, this shouldn’t have been a surprise. Dream Theater’s virtues don’t include restraint, and Portnoy was the least subtle player in the bunch. The band’s melodramatic streak reached its nadir with 2009’s Black Clouds and Silver Linings, on which Portnoy was even more walloping than usual. By contrast, new drummer Mike Mangini is a superhuman talent whose dexterity doesn’t often seem to be a means of showing off, and there isn’t a single moment on A Dramatic Turn of Events when he draws undue attention to himself.

Undue attention is a relative concept; most of Dream Theater’s intricate compositions are still built to accommodate virtuosity. The unison playing in the 10-minute Lost Not Forgotten is ridiculous, both in terms of its technical demands and its relevance to the central melody. The 12½-minute Breaking All Illusions features an overstuffed sequence led by keyboardist Jordan Rudess – the band’s most incorrigible noodler – including a few seconds of Bee Gees disco because … well, just because.

And yet, Breaking All Illusions also features a soaring chorus from LaBrie that redeems his bandmates’ goofiness, and demonstrates how Dream Theater can weigh emotional resonance against algebraic time signatures – a balance that hasn’t been struck so effectively since 1999’s Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory. Far from Heaven and Beneath the Surface don’t even try to give seizures to music-school grads; they’re among the simplest and most poignant ballads in the band’s catalogue.

Many fans will approach A Dramatic Turn of Events with healthy skepticism in light of Portnoy’s absence. But aside from Build Me Up, Break Me Down – whose dated nu-metal texture sounds downright revolutionary from such a single-minded group – there’s nothing here that could be taken as sacrilege by the devout. This is a Dream Theater album, with all that implies, and it’s one of the best.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Montreal Gazette staff
© 2016 Postmedia Network



The awkward moment when i decide to review an album by my favourite band. I love Dream Theater. Not to the point where i think they can do no wrong but still the band i listen to more than any other. They've had their ups and downs and this album is the one immediately after the exit of Mike Portnoy. A notoriously divisive band losing their driving force was always going to spark huge debate among fans. So what does this album offer us?

Firstly, like most Dream Theater albums this is long (77 minutes). However, unlike the previous album this has 10 tracks compared to just 6, with the longest song being 12 minutes and 3 others over 10 minutes. For those not in the know, this is actually pretty modest and scaled back for this band! There's also 2 much shorter ballads, a trick the band occasionally used in the past. There were a lot of comparisons with the classic 'Images and Words' album, including accusations that this album even followed the exact same song structures. I think it's fair to say this isn't truly progressive, Dream Theater very much just sound like themselves these days rather than truly push the boundaries of progressive metal. Playing the typical elements of prog doesn't automatically make it progressive, but getting rid of Portnoy's annoying vocals does make it good! 'Bridges in the Sky' is probably the most progressive and heavy track here with its peculiar intro and varied sections. Definitely a good opener for the tour that followed.

'Black Clouds and Silver Linings' was an excellent album only marred by too many vocal contributions from a drummer who should stick to drumming. This album has pretty minimal backing vocals which are ably reproduced live by John Petrucci now. Speaking of JP, he also produced this and did a very good job of it. The bass is clearer than it has been in years, the drums don't smother everything else and the vocals are mostly left to an on-form James Labrie with only one annoying effect on 'Build Me Up, Break Me Down'. When i heard this song live it was noticeably better without the vocal effect, something they should avoid on future studio recordings.

Petrucci's solos are fantastic throughout this album. The riffs are mostly excellent but sometimes sound like he's used them before. The solo in 'Breaking All Illusions' is easily his best ever, divided into parts showing off his full range of technique from flashy to emotional and melodic. The sort of playing where i'd proclaim 'best solo ever' when describing it to someone else after a few beers! Generally speaking, JP really brings some strong material to this album as the chief songwriter.

John Myung's bass is thankfully much louder in the mix than on previous albums. Nothing flashy here, just his usual solid lines holding it all together. Mike Mangini's drumming is fine, the parts were already written by Petrucci and Rudess so he doesn't really provide anything other than a strong performance here. Buy the self titled album to hear his first proper contributions to the band, he's a great player.

Jordan Rudess sounds reborn here. No stupid noises or irritating ragtime parts here. More atmospheric parts and adding layers of depth to the music. He does play some lead parts too of course, notably a fantastic piano run in 'Outcry' which i just can't get enough of. i think Rudess needed the creative freedom of Portnoy's departure to really shine and offer something different.

Speaking of Portnoy, did the band really miss his contributions of songwriting/production, epic drumming and crappy vocals? Not really. Although Mangini doesn't really stand out on this album, i don't think Portnoy's over-drumming would benefit these songs. James Labrie truly dominates now that the shackles of those awful Portnoy vocals are gone. James belts these songs out with power and range not heard in perhaps 15 years and he can do it live too. i saw them on this tour and he was the star of the show, not bad for the supposed weak link in this band.

This brings me to the songs themselves. The opening pair are excellent mid-length songs(by DT standards) with strong choruses. 'Lost Not Forgotten' is ok but overlong and nothing special. The next track is the first of 3 ballads. I don't have a problem with these songs but 2 would be enough and finishing the album with one is an odd climax. The other 3 tracks have already been mentioned above as they are the best on the album and deserved more focus. One final point, the lyrics are the usual nonsense this band is famous for but i think it is part of their charm.

Overall, a strong album made after a very significant change in the group. Not perfect and the running order is a bit strange, but undoubtedly one of the stronger albums of their long career.

beardovdoom, November 24th, 2013
© 2002-2016 Encyclopaedia Metallum



A Dramatic Turn of Events is the eleventh studio album by American progressive metal band Dream Theater, released worldwide on September 12, 2011 and in the United States on September 13 through Roadrunner Records. It is the band's first recording to feature drummer Mike Mangini following the departure of founding member Mike Portnoy in September 2010. The album was written, recorded, mixed, and mastered between January and June 2011 at Cove City Sound Studios in Long Island, New York. It was produced by John Petrucci and mixed by Andy Wallace. Two singles, "On the Backs of Angels" and "Build Me Up, Break Me Down", were released in promotion of the album.

For A Dramatic Turn of Events, Dream Theater underwent a self-proclaimed musical change, reevaluating and restructuring themselves. The album has drawn stylistic comparisons to two of the band's past albums, Images and Words (1992) and Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory (1999). Many songs on the album were written with a specific purpose in mind as Petrucci, one of the album's primary composers, felt a sense of responsibility to fans following Portnoy's departure. The album's title was derived from its recurring lyrical themes of dramatic changes in history that have affected people's lives, including contemporary uprisings such as the Libyan Civil War.

A commercial success, A Dramatic Turn of Events moved 36,000 units in the United States in its debut week, charting at number eight on the US Billboard 200. The album received mixed reviews from critics, but nonetheless earned Dream Theater their first-ever Grammy nomination (for "On the Backs of Angels"). From July 2011 until September 2012, the band supported the album on the A Dramatic Turn of Events Tour.

On September 8, 2010, Mike Portnoy announced that he would be leaving Dream Theater, citing better relationships in other projects, burnout, and his desire for a break as reasons. Elaborating on the situation for MusicRadar, John Petrucci revealed that originally, Portnoy did not want to leave the band; he only wanted to take a five-year break. Only after the rest of the band rejected his proposal did Portnoy decide to quit.

Petrucci has called Portnoy's departure one of the hardest things Dream Theater have had to face, and speaking of when he first heard the news, Jordan Rudess recounted, "You know, just to give you an idea of how deep this was to lose him, how difficult it was... after we got off the phone with him... I literally sat on the steps of my studio and cried. This is a guy who's a friend of mine, who we all love and admire. We didn't want to see it come crashing down."

A little more than a month after Portnoy's departure, Dream Theater began auditioning for a new drummer in New York City. The drummers invited to audition were Mike Mangini, Derek Roddy, Thomas Lang, Virgil Donati, Marco Minnemann, Aquiles Priester, and Peter Wildoer. In April 2011, the band announced that Mangini was the drummer selected via a three part YouTube documentary series called The Spirit Carries On.

Shortly after Mangini joined Dream Theater, Portnoy e-mailed the band asking to rejoin, but his attempt was rebuffed. Reflecting on his arrival to the band, Mangini told Noisecreep, "As I see it, as I look back, I really think what happened was that this band kind of started over. They were in a new place as they looked for a drummer, and I when got the news, after the shock wore off, I knew what I wanted to do – which was just basically come in and try to support where they wanted to go. They had a vision, they had great ideas, and I just wanted to help them achieve those things."

On January 3, 2011, Dream Theater entered Cove City Sound Studios to begin working on a new album. Although John Petrucci brought in demos, riffs, and songs from home, the album was mostly written in the studio. Writing was completed on March 2 and done without Mike Mangini. The band made demos for all the songs with drums already programmed, then sent them to Mangini who learned the parts and "added his own stuff. "Reflecting on the writing process for Rock Your Life, Jordan Rudess explained that the band's approach was more open to his keyboards than in the past, and that after Mike Portnoy's departure, he and Petrucci "became, like, free." James LaBrie and John Myung each contributed more to the writing than they had in recent years.

On April 14, LaBrie began tracking vocals and the album's mixing and mastering by Andy Wallace were finished by June 28. LaBrie recorded all the album's vocals in Canada with Richard Chycki. Originally, LaBrie planned to only record the album's first two songs away from New York City, but after flying there to finish the remainder of the vocals, decided to go back to Canada because "it just didn't feel right."

A Dramatic Turn of Events' title was inspired by contemporary uprisings, including the Libyan Civil War. Jordan Rudess has said that, for A Dramatic Turn of Events, the band underwent a musical change, re-evaluating and restructuring "who we are and what we do." Speaking in an interview for Der Spiegel and Roadrunner Germany, John Petrucci mentioned that the album "tells a story... not literally but emotionally" and likened the experience to a "roller coaster ride." In that same interview, James LaBrie emphasized that the album was melodically driven.

In his review of A Dramatic Turn of Events, Rich Wilson – author of the official Dream Theater biography Lifting Shadows – described the album's material as veering toward progressive rock and being "spiritually reminiscent" of past albums like Images and Words (1992) and Scenes from a Memory (1999). In a post on his forum, Mike Portnoy took these comparisons a step further, suggesting that the new songs were "desperate attempts to re-write the past".

In composing A Dramatic Turn of Events, Petrucci admitted to feeling a sense of responsibility to fans following Portnoy's departure. He also explained that the majority of the songs on the album were written to prove to people that everything was grounded and intact with the band. Opener "On the Backs of Angels" was designed to reflect Dream Theater's signature sound, the heavy "Build Me Up, Break Me Down" was written far into the making of the album to serve as a contrast to its progressive elements, "Outcry" was intended to be the anthem of the album, and "Breaking All Illusions" was used as an epic piece that would not bind the band to conventional songwriting arrangements. The final song written for the album was the ballad "Beneath the Surface", which is also the album's closing track. Petrucci wrote the song himself, demoed and recorded it, and then presented it to the band, who were open to including it on the album.

Amidst speculation that A Dramatic Turn of Events' title was a vague reference to Portnoy's departure, Petrucci stressed that it is in no way a reference to anyone; rather, the title references the album's recurring themes of dramatic changes in history that have affected peoples' lives. All of the album's lyrics were written by Petrucci except for "Far from Heaven", written by LaBrie, and "Breaking All Illusions", co-written with John Myung.

A Dramatic Turn of Events' title, track listing, and United States release date were revealed on June 8, 2011. Its cover art, designed by longtime collaborator Hugh Syme, was revealed several days later. On June 29, "On the Backs of Angels" was released as the album's first single. Leading up to the release of the album, Dream Theater teased various one-minute long snippets of new songs, including "Breaking All Illusions", "Beneath the Surface", and "This Is the Life". On September 14, a music video for "On the Backs of Angels" was released. On January 26, 2012, the band premiered a lyric video for their upcoming single, "Build Me Up, Break Me Down", on Loudwire.

A Dramatic Turn of Events was released worldwide on September 12, 2011 and in the United States on September 13, debuting at number one in some countries and attaining the eighth position on the US Billboard 200, Dream Theater's second top ten debut position on that chart after their previous album, 2009's Black Clouds & Silver Linings, which debuted at No. 6. Alongside the standard edition of the album, a special edition and deluxe collector's edition were also made available for purchase. The special edition featured different packaging and a bonus DVD containing The Spirit Carries On documentary, while the deluxe collector's edition featured, among other bonus items, instrumental versions of all songs.

A Dramatic Turn of Events has received mixed reviews. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album holds an average score of 55, based on six reviews. Rich Wilson called it "fresh and frankly stunning"; however, he warned that the album was not immediately gratifying and that it required several listens to fully appreciate. Critics were generally complimentary of Mike Mangini's performance, with Drumhead elaborating, "[he] demonstrates the physical prowess and agility of a racehorse, stretching to play at the top of his talents and reining himself in to allow his bandmates to do the same."

In a negative review for Popmatters, Chris Conaton expressed disappointment in the album's predictability, noting, "At this point it’s pretty clear that the band is comfortably ensconced in their lifestyle and content to just keep doing things the way they have been for years." In a lukewarm review for AllMusic, Thom Jurek observed, "there is something here for virtually every fan – or detractor – to grab hold of." Sputnikmusic criticized Mangini's drum parts, describing them as "bland", as well as the decision to include three ballads, but ultimately gave the album an overall positive review.

A Dramatic Turn of Events has received several accolades. In their year-end wrap up for 2011, Burrn! awarded the album with their Best Album, Best Front Cover, Best Guitarist, and Best Keyboardist honors. At the 2012 Grammy Awards, "On the Backs of Angels" was nominated for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance, representing the Dream Theater's first-ever Grammy nomination.

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