Released: 2005

Lineup: Portnoy, Petrucci, Myung, Rudess, LaBrie

Length: 75:46

Tracklist: Click the Songs for 30 second samples!

1. The Root Of All Evil 8:25 (45 second sample)
2. The Answer Lies Within 5:33
3. These Walls 7:26
4. I Walk Beside You 4:29
5. Panic Attack 8:16 (45 second sample)
6. Never Enough 6:46
7. Sacrificed Sons 10:42 (60 second sample)
8. Octavarium 23:59 (135 second sample)

• My Review
• Hyper's Review

• This is Dream Theater's 8^th album.P
• Is the last album released under the Atlantic Records label.
• Octavarium is be the band's 2^nd longest song.
• The Root of All Evil is the 3^rd part of the 12 step program epic that started with The Glass Prison and continued with This Dying Soul.
• Never Enough is "about the 1% of DT fans that are never happy with the band"
• The artwork direction of this album is absolutely brilliant. The entire theme revolves around the numbers 8 and 5. 8 for the full-legnth Dream Theater albums and 5 for the members of DT. Here are all of the 5/8 references.
  • The cover art, when folded out completely, shows 8 newton balls and 5 birds.
  • The back trey-art when turned sideways resembles a section of a piano called an Octave (Oct=8) which features 8 white keys (where the songs are shown) and 5 black keys (where the band members are shown.) The piano theme shows up in other places as well.
  • Underneath the CD it shows an 8-ball with the Majesty Logo. We know it's an 8-ball because it's black.
  • In the "dominos" picture one domino adds up to 5, the other to 8.
  • In the "maze" picture it shows a maze with 5 levels to it, housing a spider in the center. Spiders have 8 legs, and the maze is also in the shape of an Octagon, which has 8 sides. Note that the maze is impossible, the Spider can either be taken as being "traped inside this octavarium" or behind "these walls"
  • The underwater picture features 5 fish, and an Octopus (which has 8 legs) The stop-sign that has the Majesty symbol on it is an octagon (8 sided).
  • The 5th song of 8, Panic Attack starts in the time signature 5/8
  • The Octavarium Diagram is in scale 5:8. It features both an Octagon and a Pentagram (5 pointed star). It is also Figure 8
• The song Octavarium originally had a flute solo at the end part, it was replaced with the first bit of The Root Of All Evil to compliment the "full-circle" theme of the song as well as the last line "This story ends where it began".
• There is an orchestra on tracks 7 and 8 and a string quarted on track 2.
• Other than his usual keyboards, Jordan also plays a lap-steel guitar and a Continuum Fingerboard.
• "Octavarium" supposedly ends the "meta album" concept, and the beginning of the next album will not feature the end of this one. This was recently confirmed as the band played their new lead off track "Prophets Of War" for about 50 people, none of whom noted a continuation of the end of "Octavarium" whether it be the "The Root Of All Evil" reprise or the original flute ending.