Welcome to Gaia! ::

First of all I have to say that i am new here and i am very happy to join this guild!!! and I have a question i have been hoping to make to fans that really love DT and that have followed them since the beginning(like me lol).

What do you think of Octavarium?

In my opinion its the WORST album they have ever made, i have love all their aLbums but when i bought this one i was really disappointed. the only songs i like more or less are These Walls(the one i think save the album) and Never Enough. the others lack the spirit and the usual signature that have the songs of DT. But i woul really love to know what do you think.

p.d. if this is a repeat post, i apologize I am new

Well... The first time I listened to Octavarium, I didn't like it. The song octavarium saves the album for me, but I've learned to love all the other songs too.

I say there is no such thing as "worst album". They're all great as whole. 3nodding

Right now, it's my favourite album.

It's officially my least favorite album, but that's not to say it's terrible. I'll admit I was a little disappointed with some things, but Octavarium has still got some good tunes on it, even if they are a little different from the Dream Theater norm.

I didn't think it was a great album at first, I only tended to listen to the first 4 songs. But I went to see them in London, and they played quite a lot of stuff from it. I didn't really like Octavarium or panic attack from the album, but when they play them live they sound amazing, especially panic attack. I've listened to that loads since I heard it live.

It's a great album and a step up from Train of Thought.

It took a while to get used to as it is a lot different to Train of Thought. The heaviness was replaced with a more commercial sounding rock feel and it has a lighter feel. There are a lot of different styles represented on the album. Heavier tracks like The Root of All Evil harken back to Train of Thought and Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence,The Answer Lies Within brings to mind some earlier dream theater ballady type tracks, Sacrificed Sons reminds me of Scenes From a Memory. But none of these tracks sound exactly like earlier albums. They are all a part of this album and easy to place. Which is part of what makes Dream Theater brilliant.

They also try some new things here (Progressing, like Progressive should). I Walk Beside you is an experiment with pop, and while not really one of my favourite dream theater tracks it is still good. And Octavarium harkens back to 70s psychadelic prog rock.

I have a few gripes with the album though. The first one is lack of solos. I mean Petrucci only lets loose like twice and Rudess a couple more times. Now I love Dream Theater for more than just their technical ability but there are many moments where I would have just loved to see Petrucci let loose and shred the ******** outta his guitar.

Octavarium is also a tad too drawn out. The intro should have been shortened right down and the first half of the song could have been much shorter. The second half is pure excellence though. The song just doesn't have enough to sustain 20 minutes of music, it's no Change of Seasons.

The other gripe is the song Panic Attack. I didn't enjoy it at all, bored me to tears and I skip it everytime.

Apart from those gripes the album is excellent and one of the best of the year. Sacrificed Sons is pure brilliance. Really good build up and melodies throughout, LaBrie turns in a fine performance and it is one of the rare moments where LaBrie writes something. (Kinda weird considering it's a song about Sep 11, and LaBrie is Canadian, expected one of the other guys to handle lyric duties for that song). Totally great song and definitely in my top ten DT songs of all time.

The Root of All Evil is also killer, and a great way to carry on the series of songs started with The Glass Prison.

So all in all a great album, just not as good as previous DT releases. 3nodding

I agree that it feels different to ToT or SDoIT. I was more talking about the heaviness and the way the song is constructed. It's more like those albums than any other track on Octavarium.

I don't like it as much as their other ones, but I still enjoy listening to it.