Dream Theater, Black Clouds & Silver Linings

Per the pattern of the past four releases, Dream Theater has released a new studio album in an odd year.

And that's a good thing for fans of prog metal. Although I'm still giving it critical iistenings, I can already say it's better than 90% of the other stuff I'm hearing.

The cover is typical DT--interesting, but somehow falling short of the complexity of the music within. I'm naturally curious about the elephant and the mouse, the bird and the all-seeing eye on the easel, and the moons ... but it doesn't keep my attention for too long.

It's thus a good thing that a few of the songs do.