Systematic Chaos

Untitled

Systematic Chaos is the ninth studio album by American Progressive metal band Dream Theater. Released on June 4, 2007 in the United Kingdom and June 5, 2007 in the United States, Systematic Chaos was the band's first release through Roadrunner Records. The album was recorded from September 2006 to February 2007 at Avatar Studios in New York City, after the band's first break from summer touring in ten years.

The lyrics of the album were written by John Petrucci, James LaBrie, and Mike Portnoy, who wrote about fictional, political, and personal topics, respectively. Critical reception of the album was generally positive; Jon Eardley called the band, "arguably the most consistent band throughout the entire progressive rock/metal industry". The album peaked in the top twenty in eight countries, in addition the album peaked at the 19th position on the Billboard 200, making it the highest peaking Dream Theater album in the United States to date.

Background

After recording their 20th anniversary concert, Score, on April 1 2006, Dream Theater rested for its first summer in ten years. The band would reconvene at Avatar Studios, in New York City, in September 2006. Mike Portnoy stated that the relationship between band members was "the best its ever been". The band hired Paul Northfield, who had previously worked with bands that had inspired Dream Theater, including Rush and Queensrÿche, to engineer the album. As with previous albums, Dream Theater simultaneously wrote and recorded Systematic Chaos. Mike Portnoy and John Petrucci co-produced the album; Portnoy said that the band hires an engineer and a mixer to act as an "objective outside ear", but the members ultimately "call their own shots". Previous Dream Theater albums shared planned themes throughout, such as Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory as a concept album or Train of Thought as a heavy, "balls to the wall" album. Though Portnoy had some pre-concieved ideas for Systematic Chaos, he decided not to tell the rest of the band; leaving them to start with a "completely open palate". However, Portnoy did want to retain a "cutting, agressive, modern" mood throughout, "It had to have balls," he added, "it had to be cool".

Title

The album was entitled Systematic Chaos after Portnoy and Petrucci picked phrases from song lyrics that they felt would be a fitting title, in similar fashion to previous albums Awake or Images and Words. The pair selected the word "chaos", which appears in "The Dark Eternal Night". Petrucci and Portnoy were also attracted to the phrase "Random thoughts of neat disorder" which appears in "Constant Motion". Inspired by the "duality" of the phrases, opposites of the word "chaos" were discussed, resulting in the word "systematic". Portnoy said that in addition to the album, "Systematic chaos" is also a "fitting description of the band in general".

Roadrunner Records

On February 8 2007, Dream Theater reached an agreement with Roadrunner Records to release their new album, ending their seven album relationship with Warner Music Group. Systematic Chaos had almost been completely recorded at the time of the signing. According to LaBrie, Roadrunner has followed through on all of its promises to the band concerning the promotion of the album. Portnoy spend a month directing and editing a documentarty entitled Chaos in Motion: The Making of Systematic Chaos, which was released on the two disc Special edition of the album.

Songs

John Petrucci wrote four of the seven songs on the album, telling a fictional story through each one. The first song recorded, 25-minute "In the Presence of Enemies" was described by Petrucci as the "epitomy of a Dream Theater creation". He went on to describe the track as, "very progressive, very long"; also noting that it set a good tone for writing and recording the rest of the album. The song was split into two parts for the album, due to it being a good open and close to the album. According to Portnoy, the band felt it was too long to open the album, but did not want to close the album with a long song, as they had with 24-minute title track of their last album. Portnoy expressed intrest in playing the entire song, uninterupted for live shows. Petrucci said "Forsaken" is a story told through a "short song structure". The song tells of a person who is visited at night by a vampiress. While the man thinks he is being shown "beautiful things", in reality he is having his blood sucked by the vampiress. An anime music video of "Forsaken", produced by Gonzo and directed by Yasufumi Soejima, was released on January 26, 2007. The band allowed Soejima artistic freedom with the design of the video, which was set in a science-fiction future instead of the present day. Petrucci wrote "The Dark Eternal Night" about a long ago pharaoh, who has returned as a monster to haunt a town. The song contains an improvised continuum solo, performed by Rudess while the drum tracks were being recorded; the band members liked the solo enough to keep in the final song. At just under 15 minutes in length, "The Ministry of Lost Souls" is the album's second longest track. Throughout the song's lyrics Petrucci tells of a person who dies in the process of saving another person from drowning. However, the person who is saved is filled with "regret and sorrow" until he is able to re-unite with his rescuer.

"Prophets of War" was written by James Labrie, who based the lyrics loosely on Joseph C. Wilson's book The Politics of Truth. The lyrics talk about possible alterior motives behind the Iraq War, while remaining "middle of the road". The title is a play on words, where the "prophets" of the war, could also be gaining a "profit" from the War. During the recording of the song, Portnoy suggested certain lyrical chants could be voiced by fans. In response to a messege posted on the band's website 400 fans gathered outside the recording studio to record the chanting, however only 60 could fit into the studio. Portnoy wrote "Constant Motion" as a metaphor for his obsessive-compulsive disorder. It contains a "heavy, upbeat, driving" tempo, which Portnoy feels symbolizes the constant movement of his numerous responsibilies, to the band as well as other side-projects. For "Constant Motion", the band produced its first music video in over a decade. Portnoy wrote "Repentance" as the fourth part of his Alcoholics Anonymous Suite, a collection of songs from various Dream Theater albums which revolve around his journey through Alcoholics Anonymous. The song discusses steps eight and nine of the process, which deal with making a list of people who one has wronged and, if possible, making direct amends with them. Portnoy, who as of 2007 has been sober for 7½ years, invited friends and fellow musicians Mikael Åkerfeldt, Jon Anderson, David Ellefson, Daniel Gildenlöw, Steve Hogarth, Chris Jericho, Neal Morse, Joe Satriani, Corey Taylor, Steve Vai, and Steven Wilson to record spoken apoligies, regrets, and sorrows of their own, which were featured throughout the song. Portnoy dedicated "Repentance", "to Bill W. and all of his friends". Portnoy plans to finish the Suite on the next Dream Theater album.

Reception

Writing for MetalReview.com, Jon Eardley called the album, "another solid outing". He complimented Petrucci for "Constant Motion", writing that it contains "some of the best riffs Petrucci has brought to the table". In addition, he called the latter part of "The Dark Eternal Night" "the most brutal part in any [Dream Theater] song to date". Reviewing for Metal Invader, Nikos Patelis called the album, "energetic, sharp – edged, full of beautiful melodies and heavy riffs, long epic compositions". He called Dream Theater's instrumentalists "four masters of music that use their instruments as if they were their limbs", in addition to stating, "James LaBrie sounds more mature than ever". In conclusion, Patelis called Systematic Chaos, "an excellent album that needs many times to be listened in order to be digested". Greg Prato, of Allmusic, wrote ""Forsaken" proves wrong those who say that Dream Theater is all about instrumental gymnastics and not songwriting". He also compared riffs in "The Dark Eternal Night" to the band Pantera. Overall, he states "the quintet sticks to the prog metal game plan that they've followed since their inception". Reviewer Chad Bowar of About.com, wrote that "In The Presence Of Enemies - Part I" is "an effective way to set the tone for the rest of the songs". Overall, Bowar gave the album four out of five stars, calling it, "one of the best Dream Theater releases in quite a while". PopMatters critisized the album, "Full of long-winded songs and flabby arrangements, the disc suffocates of toohtlessness and sheer boredom," wrote Andrew Blackie. Blackie added ""The Dark Eternal Night" is likely the worst cut these prog-metal aficionados have ever recorded". The album peaked in the top twenty-five in the United Kingdom and Austrialia, where the band had never previously charted. Systematic Chaos also peaked in the top twenty of of eight countries.

Track listing

All music was written by Dream Theater.

1. "In The Presence of Enemies - Part I" (John Petrucci) – 9:00
   • I Prelude
   • II Resurrection
2. "Forsaken" (Petrucci) – 5:35
3. "Constant Motion" (Mike Portnoy) – 6:55
4. "The Dark Eternal Night" (Petrucci) – 8:53
5. "Repentance" (Portnoy) – 10:43
   • VIII Regret
   • IX Restitution
6. "Prophets of War" (James LaBrie) – 6:00
7. "The Ministry of Lost Souls" (Petrucci) – 14:57
8. "In The Presence of Enemies - Part II" (Petrucci) – 16:38
   • III Heretic
   • IV The Slaughter of The Damned
   • V The Reckoning
   • VI Salvation

Chart positions

Chart (2007)	Peak Position
Billboard 200	19
ARIA Charts	23
UK Albums Chart	25
Netherlands charts	2
Finnish charts	3
Norwegian charts	3
Sweedish charts	5
French charts	14
Swiss charts	14
Austrian charts	20
Belgium charts	44

Personnel

• James LaBrie – Vocals
• John Myung – Bass
• John Petrucci – Guitar and vocals
• Mike Portnoy – Drums, percussion and vocals
• Jordan Rudess – Keyboards and Continuum

• Produced by John Petrucci and Mike Portnoy
• Engineered and mixed by Paul Northfield
• Vocal tracks co-produced with Paul Northfield
• Assistant engineer Chad Lupo
• Art direction, design, and illustrations by Hugh Syme
• Dream Theater photography by Daragh McDonagh

References

• James LaBrie, John Myung, John Petrucci, Mike Portnoy, Jordan Ruddess. Chaos in Motion: The Making of Systematic Chaos (Documentary). The All Blacks. Retrieved 2008-06-30. {{cite AV media}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |month2=, |year2=, and |date2= (help)
• Mike Portnoy. The Mirror Interviews Mike Portnoy. TheMirror.de. Retrieved 2008-07-02. {{cite AV media}}: Unknown parameter |date2= ignored (help)

Notes