Train of Thought Review

Band	Dream Theater
Album	Train of Thought
Type	Album (Studio full-length)
Released	November 11, 2003
Genres	Progressive Metal
Labels	Elektra Records
Length	1:09:22
Ranked	#1 for 2003 , #30 all-time

Reviewer :  Kildneybean         Rating :  60 / 100

Dream Theater's music has always been distasteful for me. I should admit that their instrumental parts are definitely above average; showing off their techniques on a very frequent basis. But here comes the awful part: James Labrie's cheesy, cringy, awkward, unnecessarily soft, icky vocals that don't go with the "heaviness" at all(the quotation marks because I don't think they do heavy music at all. They try their best do be as heavy as they can and fail so it's sort of funny). The vocals are what spoil everything.

Now, James' vocals were still suffering from the aftermath of what is known as the infamous taco poisoning; which, I think, actually served a great purpose for this album. Not only did James' vocals lose their wide range, but it also slightly changed the tone of his voice to a more raucous one. The change is sometimes unnoticably thin, though, so it still gets on my nerves immensely. [Vocals:0/100]

Dream Theater is a band praised for their allegedly amazing, skilled instrumental parts. I think I agree with that notion. However, a lot of times the band gets overboard with their skills to the point where it feels they're boasting how fast they can play whatever they're playing. Technique wise it may be good. However, most of the time it feels impertinent and redundant. They add nothing and fails to grasp the listener(me!)'s attention. In other words, it doesn't fit with the song. [Instruments: 70/100]

Now on to the overall track review. Mostly the tracks follow some sort of a similar track, and end up in a similar manner so I guessed it would be fine to write a review of your average DT song off Train of Thought.
The songs mostly open up with a nice heavy opening(with the exception of tracks 3 and 5). The riff feels actually quite well made. But then... What did I expect? James comes in with his vocals. I mean, it ain't Awake-level high, but the juxtaposition of the heavy downtuned guitar sounds with James' light, clean vocals is very, very strange and sometimes disgustingly awful to hear.

Here are the individual track points I gave:
As I Am : 75
This Dying Soul : 75
Endless Sacrifice : 40 (a super facetious attempt on writing a heavy ballad.)
Honour Thy Father : 50
Stream of Consciousness : 80(yay for instrumental tracks!)
In The Name of God : 60

The average adds up to 56.25, but since I'm feeling a bit generous today I'll round it up to 60 for a good measure.