Is octavarium the best Dream Theater album to date? Well, no...but it's a very close thing. Octavarium is pure DT, it's progressive, heavy, soft, experimental, it shows off their roots and influences a lot while doing a lot of original things. In other words, the ecclecticness of Dream Theater has returned. This is evident as the bombastic, rocking "The Root of All Evil" segues into the pure syrup of "The Answer Lies Within" Or as the strained, frantic tension of "Never Enough" segues into the melancholy piano intro of "Sacrificed Sons" Or even as "Octavarium" builds from a Floyd-esque softie into something you might expect to hear from a band like Mayhem.

Once again, the lyrical duties are being dominated by John Petrucci who expands on his themes of love, family, common frustrations and agnst of a very non-teen variety. Mike Portnoy lashes out at DT's fair weather freinds on "Never Enough" a song that will break the heart of any real fan, although the musical side of it took some time to fully grow on me. The band's U2 influence is back for the first time in a long time on "I Walk Beside you" which suffers only from being too short for it's own good. And of course Muse, which Portnoy gave his album of the decade nod to, permeates "These Walls" and "Never Enough"

For a much mellower album than "Train of Thought" the album will still surprise with a few hard rocking moments. "The Root of All Evil" has a sort of classic-megadeth gone prog feel to it and the end part of "Octavarium" is sheer insanity due to James' screeching like a madman. It's all fully welcome of course, as "Octavarium" is simply the best song DT has ever recorded. The fact that James John and Mike all wrote lyrics for it shows a collaborative effort not seen since "Take The Time". Another noteworthy mention is John Myung, who not only plays better than he ever has, but is even more apparent on the mix than ever, getting blatant solos at the start of "Panic Attack" and in the middle of "octavarium" and just basically kicking ass throughout the whole album.

If I had to criticize "Octavarium" for one thing, it's that it feels like it could have been a 2 disc set, much in the vein of the also-very-ecclectic "Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence" Songs like "I Walk Beside You" seem stunted at their short legnths. Or maybe I'm just spoiled after the last two albums.