Black Clouds & Silver Linings - Dream Theater: Random Album Review

Okay, 4 days till The Astonishing comes out, I'M HYPED! I'M SERIOUSLY HYPED! Yesterday I listened through Systematic Chaos twice and while playing games I'm constantly hearing this band!

So I'm reviewing this album off them that I really liked, Black Clouds & Silver Linings!

-A Nightmare To Remember
KILLER INTRO! HALLELUJA!!!
The first few notes played already helped this song to become incredible! And the rest has a flare of creepiness, that I love!
This song became especially great due to the pretty complex drumming throughout the whole song!
Also James LaBrie has one of his best performances outside of SDOIT in my opinion!

-A Rite Of Passage
The bass intro already made this song easily a hit!
The first few lines are perfect, mostly because of the deep voice saying them!
The drumming is pretty great as always!

-Wither
Even though I love the slow LaBrie performance, mixed with the fantastic chorus, I always felt this was my least favorite song on the album!
But HELL, is it still awesome!

-The Shattered Fortress
This song slowly builds up with an incredible riff and intense drumming!
Then it just explodes with John Petrucci guitar play!
And then about 2 and a half minutes in the song the vocals kick in! I always found his voice in this song to be kickass! And now he included overly deep voices, that made this song more memorable!
Also reference to their own songs, as in every of their albums (if I'm right Train Of Thought)

-The Best of Times
My favorite part about this song was always the piano intro! It was slow, yet so emotional!
Still this song explodes 3 minutes into it with its main riff and then the lyrics go all out! It's basically one of those "Be Sad, Sound Good" Songs and for some reason this made this song a bit more awesome!
And then...the outro guitar solo!!! WOW! One of Petruccis best solos ever!

-The Count Of Tuscany
WOW, just WOW!!!
This song first starts off with a great riff only until it just goes heavy in the first half! I'm amazed off how LaBrie managed to portray the lyrics off the songs in such a way!
Then the song takes one to space with perfect guitar play until it lands back in the second half! It's softer and perfectly closed off the album!
All instrumentalists did a great job on this song to make it that great!

So there you have it, one of my all-time favorite Dream Theater albums ever created! Every song is great!
A Nightmare To Remember: 9,5/10
A Rite Of Passage: 9/10
Wither: 8,5/10
The Shattered Fortress: 9/10
The Best Of Times: 10/10
The Count Of Tuscany: 10/10

This album has it all a concept album needs, which is why it gets a:
9,5/10, adjective "amazing"
It has amazing songs and every of them the instrumentalists do their bests! This is one of the best drumming albums ever! And the last two tracks are just pure perfection!

Comments

Honestly, in my opinion this album was, no offense, average, compared to the others. Yes, The Count of Tuscany is a Dream Theater classic but other than that...
(I also think that The Count of Tuscany gets 25% of its credit being the last song recorded with Mike Portnoy) - MrQuaz680 (2/28/2016)

This is one of my favorite DT albums because I can't name a remotely weak song on it. I do have to say though, A Rite of Passage is a real gem. It is not to be ignored. - Songsta41 (3/2/2016)