Falling into Infinity

Just as I started listening to Falling Into Infinity for the first time, I realized the impact of label interventions on the production of this album. This is not the piece of work you would expect after Awake, and you get this idea right away as you go through the second track “You Not Me”, which immediately resembles a Bon Jovi love ballad, except it’s drier and lacking integrity. Overall, it’s a strange sensation to watch DT perform in a way that is so far from titan tracks like “Pull Me Under” and “Panic Attack”, and that would actually be quite fine if it was just voluntary experimentation and freedom to explore, but the case here was the considerable pressure coming from top brass label personnel behind the scenes for commercial reasons. Apart from that, though, even if this is what FII will always be known for, this situation ends up tossing into oblivion a lot of quality tracks that I personally love and think deserve a lot of respect.

Under the exaggerated impression that this album is a great failure for interventional reasons, you might misjudge a lot of it and miss the opportunity to recognize the band’s effort playing on a very different turf. “Take Away My Pain” is, in fact, part of the most commercial aspect here. This one is actually the lowest point of all the eight tracks, speaking as a progressive rock fan, and the funny drums at the beginning give off some sort of bizarre Disney version of Tarzan vibes that don’t work for me. But if you put it into perspective, this might sound interesting for people who are looking for a refreshing experience without giving up on DT vocals. The pop-ish take on tracks like this wasn’t exactly meant to address the consolidated metalhead base but to serve the function of bringing people from outside the metal world to acknowledge the possibilities and variety that DT is operating in. And my point here is that it does it very well. It could’ve been a lot worse, but it’s not. The same goes for “Just Let Me Breathe”, where it’s still possible to recognize pop references as it clearly utilizes elements from “Bohemian Rhapsody”, but still, it’s not as poor as people like to say it is. As a matter of fact, this is an album full of references and inspirations taken from other times and bands, and this is a process that happens quite nicely here.

Letting go of this profit-oriented section of FII, which is made up of two or three songs most purists would call crappy, there are a lot of good compositions that should IMO be seriously considered among DT's best work. This whole situation about the perception most fans have is, in fact, curious for me because the moment I finished listening to the album, I was in fact convinced I had a good experience. I acknowledged the lows just as anybody else would, meaning this is not a perfect release, but by no means should it be considered the worst. The peaks of this experience most certainly surpassed the valleys to the point where I will recommend this to my friends with no second thoughts, mostly because my friends are smart enough people who are able to recognize what is good and what is bad without letting unjustified herd prejudice compromise their judgment.

If Falling Into Infinity could talk, it would scream “It’s all about you, not me, it’s all about the things you expected me to be”. Lyrics-wise, it is amazing and carefully composed, and I take “Hollow Years” as the best example of it. This one is probably the greatest written composition on crashing relationships ever written, and you will get the feelings in every single line, all the way from the first one to the last. If you think “A Change of Seasons” is the most tragic moment produced by DT, you may want to reconsider after paying attention to this one. This is John Petrucci at his best. And I'll do you a favor: forget the studio track and get to listen to the live version at Budokan for an unequivocally close-to-perfection solo by the man. It was precisely after listening to the Tokyo performance of this track that I realized people were out of their minds about marginalizing FII.

And I will insist that this album is a victim. A victim of bad business practices by the label? Indeed. The freedom was taken away during the creative process, and the band members found themselves in a situation that was tragically different from the previous status when it was possible to compose without executives telling them what to do. But not only. Falling Into Infinity is also a victim of prejudice by fans who didn’t understand that the creative potential of DT was capable of elevating the band to a place that goes beyond the metal section of the world of rock. This is the main reason the breathtaking compositions in this album didn’t fly higher: the message wasn’t being delivered because the messengers didn’t get it, and this seriously restricted the organic outreach of the album. And if we’re talking about the great songs on FII, let’s talk about the greatest one of them.

Nothing could prepare you enough for what "Lines in the Sand" really is. This is, in fact, the most underrated DT song on the most underappreciated DT album. I wouldn’t expect anything less than a strong Rush influence whenever I hear about Dream Theater, and this is exactly what we’ve got in this case right from the first stages of this track, meaning dry drums and a fast-paced electric shock guitar solo. But what I really like here are the well-written cryptic lyrics, which I like to think Dio would approve of. That is how good it is. There is also some sort of Pink Floyd-ish spiritualism and lack of structure resembling Animals that adds to the atmosphere, which is also worth mentioning. This song is definitely one of the greatest progressive rock tracks I have ever listened to, and it deserves a lot more recognition. Along with "Hollow Years", it is the best the album has to offer.

Apart from what most fans might certainly tell you about FII, I guarantee this is an album you will not regret listening to, in case you still don’t know what it is about. A similar thing happened to me with “A Momentary Lapse of Reason,” which I took too much time to listen to and ended up finally actually loving. I do not plan to enlist the den of thieves of joy who vilify this moment of Dream Theater history, and I will tell people no less than this: give it a chance, and Falling Into Infinity might very well become one of your favorite albums, not to say it has the potential to be life-changing depending on the moment of your life these tracks will hit your ears.

There are literally five billion ways in which albums can be interpreted and described. Sometimes you can claim an album to be one the best of all time, sometimes you can claim an album to be equivalent to a bucket full of horses**t. More often than not it’s somewhere in between. Not as often though, you may stumble upon that album that you may not necessarily like, but were you hear a lot of good stuff and get a feeling that the album could have been much better if things had been done differently. As far as I’m concerned, there are two metal albums that symbolizes this type of album more than any other; Nostradamus by Judas Priest (For which a similar review has been written) and the album this review is written for, Falling Into Infinity by Dream Theater.

When I started to listen to Dream Theater, Falling Into Infinity was one of the albums I was most hesitant to. I had heard things like “They sold out with that album” and “It’s their most commercial album”. After I had listened to it for the first time, I pretty much agreed with all of it. I thought it was an album that a handful of great, traditional sounding Dream Theater songs, combined with a handful of stripped down, miserable attempts to make their style of progressive metal accessible and approachable for a bigger audience. This opinion made me pretty much ignore Falling Into Infinity for a long time. The songs that I liked I listened to on shuffle, the songs that I didn’t like I didn’t listen to at all. Even though I stick by this opinion to this day, my relationship to this album has thawed with time. Not so much for what the album is, but for what it could have been.

When you hear the stories surrounding Falling Into Infinity, it’s easy to understand that the album was created under circumstances beyond the band’s control. After the commercial failure of this album’s predecessor, 1994s Awake, the band were under huge pressure from their record label Elektra Records. The label wanted the band to make an album that could sell copies and deliver hits. This pressure was handled by the band in different ways. It’s more than well documented that then-drummer Mike Portnoy not only was against this situation, but also took fight against it. The other band leader, guitarist John Petrucci, was more negotiable and willing to give way to the label’s demands. This resulted in an album that in some cases tries to be “commercial”, and in other cases wants to stay in the classic Dream Theater realm. For my money, it’s in the latter songs that the albums strengths lies and where the album shines.

Songs like “Trial Of Tears”, “Lines In The Sand” and “Peruvian Skies” are not only vintage Dream Theater songs, but also works as a saving grace for Falling Into Infinity. Even though this album has its moments of commercialism, these songs work as a reminder of what the band was at it’s core and they weren’t willing to give away all of their musical credit to the record label. They’re long, they’re technical, they’re experimental but still memorable as f**k. Everything that makes Dream Theater one of my favorite bands can be found in those songs.
As far as the commercial songs goes, they vary from being great to awful. “Hollow Years” is probably my favorite of the bunch, with its memorable chorus and great vocal performance by James LaBrie. On the other side of the spectrum you have “You Not Me”, which is nothing but a pathetic piece of work. Even in the context of this album’s creation, it baffles me that the band decided to include that song on the album. “Take Away My Pain” and “Anna Lee” might not be as offensively awful as “You Not Me”, but it would still be a stretch to call them anything but lackluster.

Like I said. When I started to listen to Dream Theater, Falling Into Infinity was one of those albums that I more or less shelved in favor for what I considered to be better albums by the band. It wasn’t until recent months, when I decided to revisit the album and do some research on it, that I realized that this album not only had potential, but also can be classified the definition of a musical waste. If you listen to the demos of this album, which has been officially released by both the band and by Mike Portnoy on his own label YtseJam Records, you can hear this album in its naked, unfinished form and… it’s phenomenal. Absolutely phenomenal. The band really was firing on all cylinders during these sessions, and the creativity was of the charts! It’s actually kind of scary how much music the band was able to create during this period.

In demo form, Falling Into Infinity was a double album with over 2 hours’ worth of music and if Mike Portnoy had gotten his way through, it probably would have stayed that way. From a fans’ perspective, however, it would have been a stretch to say that such quantities of music would have been a good idea. It’s simply too much music to comprehend, even by Dream Theater standards. Of course they had to trim down the album to a single album. Some songs were altered, some songs were removed completely. The problem was that they removed the wrong songs and altered songs that shouldn’t have been altered. It’s actually mind-blowing that songs that “Raise The Knife” and “Speak To Me” was dismissed for the final product. They would have been some of the best songs on the album. As mind-blowing is it that “Take Away My Pain”, which was a beautiful, haunting, sorrowful number in its original form, was re-arranged to suit a caribbean beach environment. These decisions not only haunt these songs and they hurt the album as a whole.

In line with the original demos of the album and the bands’ original musical desire, this is what Falling Into Infinty should had been like in my opinion:

1. Raise The Knife
2. Take Away My Pain (Original version)
3. Peruvian Skies
4. Hell’s Kitchen
5. Lines In The Sand (Original version)
6. Hollow Years
7. New Millenium
8. Speak To Me
9. Trial Of Tears

If the album had been like this, it wouldn’t only have had a similar run time as the album that actually exists, but also had been one of Dream Theaters’ best albums. Of all time. That’s how good some of these songs are, and that’s how huge the potential of this album was in its original form. It would have been an album that I would had visited on a regular basis, to the same extent that I visit my favorite albums by the band, e.g. Images And Words and Metropolis. Pt. 2. As it is now, the album is a definition of a waste, an album that could/should have been amazing, but ends up as a mixed bag.

‘Falling Into Infinity’ is arguably Dream Theater’s most controversial album. Allegedly, Elektra Records demanded a more radio-friendly album. In all honesty, it is difficult to picture any mid-nineties radio station having most of the material on ‘Falling Into Infinity’ on heavy rotation, with all the odd meters on display. There are a few more accessible tracks, but what Elektra’s alleged demands did result in is an album that is closer to contemporary progressive rock than it is to the progressive metal of its three predecessors. And for what it’s worth, I personally think Dream Theater does progressive rock better.

If Dream Theater was looking at successful nineties bands for inspiration, it seems like they mainly took it from the most prog-sounding bands, such as Soundgarden. There are nods to Alice In Chains (the vocal harmonies in the chorus of ‘New Millennium’) and Rage Against The Machine (the main riff to ‘You Not Me’), but the overall sound is fairly unique. Given the blatant Rush references on recent albums, one might assume Dream Theater would have looked to mid-nineties Rush for inspiration, but the compositions on ‘Falling Into Infinity’ are notably more complex. There is also plenty of room for instrumental virtuosity, though somewhat more reined in than before.

The album’s reputation seems to suggest that there are no progressive moments on ‘Falling Into Infinity’, but the opposite is actually true. In fact, ‘Lines In the Sand’ is possibly the best prog song released in the nineties. It slowly builds from an atmospheric keyboard-only intro by relative newcomer Derek Sherinian to a powerful rock song that goes through multiple changes. The gospel-tinged backing vocals courtesy of King’s X frontman Doug Pinnick are a great bonus. ‘New Millennium’ is another prog rock masterpiece and a fantastic opener, while ‘Burning My Soul’ and ‘Just Let Me Breathe’ are spirited rockers with cool rhythms.

Power ballads generally aren’t Dream Theater’s forte, often devolving into overly schmaltzy AOR choruses, but there are actually a few good ones here. Lengthy closer ‘Trial Of Tears’ is a moody slow builder with some excellent proggy sections and ‘Peruvian Skies’ is a brooding track that makes brilliant use of climaxes – or rather anti-climaxes if we’re splitting hairs – and easily the most nineties rock-sounding track on here. Even ‘Hollow Years’ and the Elton John-esque ‘Anna Lee’ are quite good, though both could have a minute chafed off without hurting the tracks. The instrumental interlude ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ is excellent as well.

Admittedly, ‘Falling Into Infinity’ did not need to be seventy-eight minutes long. There is an even better fifty-five minute album in here somewhere. But it is far from the pop album its reputation sometimes seems to suggest it is. The songwriting resonates with me more than most of the wildly inconsitent ‘Images And Words’ and the first half of ‘Awake’ did. Compared to the latter, I actually like that guitarist John Petrucci doesn’t chug on his lowest strings quite as much. If you go into ‘Falling Into Infinity’ with the right expectations, you will find a highly creative album that I rate as one of Dream Theater’s top three albums.

Recommended tracks: ‘Lines In The Sand’, ‘New Millennium’, ‘Trial Of Tears’

Originally written for my Kevy Metal weblog

Among crowds of Dream Theater fans, Falling Into Infinity frequently draws the most hate of all the band's albums, and is nearly unanimously the choice for Dream Theater's worst release to date. It garners a tremendous amount of hate for being a "sellout" and for being a classic example of how a major record label "takes over a band and ruins it." What bothers me, though, is that although such claims are legitimately founded in reality, the finished product would indicate to the contrary. The album may be more mellow than any of Dream Theater's other releases, but in no way does that make it mainstream.

Falling Into Infinity opens strong with "New Millennium", which immediately gets to work showcasing the abilities of the band's then-relatively-new keyboardist Derek Sherinian. The mellow, laid back tone on many of this album's songs allows for the keyboards to really come to the forefront, and the album benefits greatly from it, because Derek Sherinian's performance is excellent. His style is very different from that of his predecessor or successor, but that doesn't make it any less outstanding.

"New Millennium", although a decent opening track, doesn't really stand out to me as one of the album's best. However, it accomplishes exactly what an opening track needs to do: get the listener's attention and set the pace for what's to come. In that regard, the song is fantastic, as it lays the groundwork for the album with relatively gentle tones, chugging rhythms, and well-defined bass and keyboard lines. The unfortunate downfall of this album is the song that comes immediately thereafter. Butchered by EastWest in production, "You Not Me" is absolute garbage and really makes the album as a whole stumble over itself before picking up again.

Though it would seem from what has been stated already that the album by track two is a disaster in the making, this couldn't be further from the truth. The remaining songs on the album are unexpectedly great. "Peruvian Skies" is reminiscent of a Metallica ballad, starting with several minutes of a slower section telling some sort of tale and then picking up with a much heavier second half. The latter half of this song is probably the heaviest section of the album, and although many fans decry that it's not nearly heavy enough, I claim that point is moot, because it absolutely rocks and I can't help but bang my head whenever I hear it.

There are a couple of other head-bangingly awesome moments on the album, most notably "Burning My Soul," which is defined by a style of riffing that Dream Theater has never done before and never did again. Its uniqueness is perhaps what makes it stick out in my mind, but it's also catchy as can be and is a rock solid song as far as I'm concerned. It also marks the beginning of a long, overarching middle section of the album, featuring three connected tracks. "Burning My Soul", "Hell's Kitchen", and "Lines in the Sand" all flow beautifully into one another.

"Hell's Kitchen", in my opinion, is second only to "The Dance of Eternity" in Dream Theater's catalog of instrumental songs, and is a much less challenging listen. Honestly, it's downright serene, and so is the introduction to "Lines in the Sand". Having owned the album for many years, it's still tough for me to tell when one has ended and the other has begun, because they flow together that well. "Lines in the Sand" is a new approach to a Dream Theater epic. It's really experimental at times, with some strange riffs and breakdowns, but that's what makes it so memorable. And criticize it as you may, Doug Pinnick's guest vocals on "Lines in the Sand" really do add to the song as a whole.

"Just Let Me Breathe" is another major highlight of the album, greatly expanding upon the low, chugging riffs first explored in the opening track. The vocals are fantastic, as LaBrie does an excellent job of thoroughly berating the popular music industry, which is beautifully poignant given the stifling circumstances under which this album was created and for which it is so frequently criticized. The solos in this song are out of this world. The dual-tracked keyboard solo in particular typically makes me feel like Derek Sherinian is attempting to rip my skull in half, my ears being tugged in two different directions in rapid succession.

The closing track, "Trial of Tears", is one of my favorite Dream Theater songs and is almost certainly the strongest song on the album. The entrance is serene, and the first movement filled to the brim with excellent riff work. Also notable is LaBrie's vocal performance, which I think is one of his best, and the outstanding solo work by John Petrucci, which comes to the forefront in the instrumental second movement. The closing sections of the song are powerful, filled with emotion, and beautiful, which gives the album a tremendous ending.

Overall, I can't justify the ire this album usually draws. It's easy on the ears, but it's still solid like a rock. Though it's not my favorite Dream Theater album, it's one of my top picks, and I look forward to listening to it for many years to come.

Highlights: "Hell's Kitchen", "Just Let Me Breathe", "Trial of Tears"

This album could have been a masterpiece of progressive music as I listened to the original version of the epic "You or me" that was reduced to a short single by the label with the help of Desmond Child. The album was intended as a double album including a brilliant second part of "Metropolis" with a length of more than twenty minutes and thsi excellent demo can still be found and ordered at Ytse Jam Records or simply found on the internet. But this new album now mostly tries to continue the silent and calm style of "Awake" with a more commercial approach. Faceless ballads like "Peruvian skies", "Hollow years" or "Anna Lee" just bore to death. The mainstream production by the horribly overrated Kevin Shirley is another weak point of this record without guts and experiments. Even the epic "Trial of tears" is just an endless suffering and makes me fall asleep. This could have been such a great record but the pressure and conditions at that time made this album one of the worst ones in the band's discography instead. The extremely bad cover artwork adds another minus to this album.

But there are still a couple of great tracks on this record after all. The straight opener "New millenium" or the darker and more atmospheric "Burning my soul" as well as the very atmospheric and magic instrumental track "Hell's kitchen" that convinces with beautiful guitar leads are some of the hidden masterpieces on this commercial record. My very favourite track is the very progressive "Lines in the sand" that has some surprising and amazing Krautrock and electronical influences and strong back vocals by King's X singer Doug Pinnick. This song is extremely diversified, surprising and grows more and more every time I listen to it.

It's because of those songs that I still like this record and would recommend it to a fan of progressive music and would not vote this album as the band's worst effort and can give at least an average note.

Pity Falling Into Infinity. Pity Falling Into Infinity for being forced to follow Awake, both Dream Theater’s best album and the best album of the 90s. Dream Theater had of course released the A Change of Seasons EP in the meantime, and Derek Sherinian had plenty of time to acclimatize himself to the high pressure, high-quality Dream Theater style, but as good as he is (and as entertaining a personality) the band lacks the genius of Kevin Moore and the absence hurts this album considerably. From a playing stand-point Sherinian fits in well, but he doesn’t have the subtlety that Moore brought to the band, nor does he write lyrics which force a rather inexperienced Mike Portnoy to contribute a lot in that department, some of which don’t turn out too well.

Furthermore it is well documented that Dream Theater was forced into a more commercial direction by the label, and producer Kevin Shirley was made full producer and thus had the authority to play a role in the writing process and severely edit some of the compositions. Sometimes this works out well (the decision to remove “Hell’s Kitchen” from the instrumental section of “Burning My Soul” was a good idea), but more often you feel that Dream Theater has been hamstrung by politics.

It’s also worth noting that Dream Theater had a lot more material written than is on the album, most of which ended up on the DTIFC Fan Club CD entitled Cleaning Out the Closet. It’s baffling that tracks as good as “Raise the Knife”, “Speak to Me”, and “Cover My Eyes” were left off of the final album, and the only explanation that makes sense is the ol’ blame the label routine, cos really, there’s a lot of stuff here that really isn’t that great.

The most egregious example of this is “You Not Me”, co-written by hired gun Desmond Child who penned a number of hits for bands like Bon Jovi and Aerosmith. The problem is however that Dream Theater has little in common with the Jove or Boston’s finest, so the result is a total mess. Computerized drum-beats, horribly lame lyrics (“watching you run is making me laaaaazay…”), and a frankly awful chorus that sounds like it’s been ripped from an N*Sync record and roughly stitched onto a low-end DT song. These guys are known for soaring vocals, but the chorus has that sparkly guitar sound and sadistically catchy mentality that one generally associates with boy bands.

Another song that flat-out does not work is “Take Away My Pain”, a limp ballad that covers the same territory as “Another Day” from Images & Words but with little of the same success. Portnoy appears to be playing bongos or something, and the whole package just seems to scream ‘adult contemporary’, something we metalheads tend to avoid like the plague. It’s definitely written for the 45-60 and looking for happy music demographic, toothless acoustic pap in the same vein as later Paul Simon or Sting.

On the whole the album also lacks the depth of Awake, with little of the penetrating psychological muck and more juvenile anger (“Burning My Soul”) and sedate balladry (“Trail of Tears”, “Hollow Years”, “Hell’s Kitchen”), and also an alarmingly topical slant that is really quite far removed from classic DT concerns (check the blatant name-drops on “Just Let Me Breathe” and “Take Away my Pain”). However, when this album is good, it’s really good.

Despite its generic lyrics and harmlessly aggressive LaBrie snarling, “Burning My Soul” packs some serious crunch, and “Hell’s Kitchen” is a satisfying piece of mellow prog if you’re in the mood for it. The best part is that this song segues into “Lines in the Sand”, a bristling, loopy progmonster that packs a funky bounce and some of Petrucci’s best stuff both in the lyric and the guitar department. It’s got power and groove, infectiously catchy melodies (uncommon in epics), even featuring a great guest spot from King’s X howler Doug Pinnick and a mesmerizing solo that takes the time to move the listener and advance the song unlike some of the sometimes pointless shredding of Train of Thought and other more recent releases. “Lines in the Sand” is both profound and grand, easily amongst the best compositions in the DT canon.

“Peruvian Skies” is both their best ballad and their most convincingly metallic pounder all in one song, Floydian psychedelia and Metallica riffery. Although Dream Theater is somewhat infamous for ‘adolescent girls in trauma’ songs (see: Scenes from a Memory, “Anna Lee”, “Goodnight Kiss”, etc.), “Peruvian Skies” makes you rather ambivalent about the lyrical content because it rules so damn hard.

Portnoy’s other two lyrical contributions are solid as well, although again not specifically due to the lyrics themselves. “New Millennium” manages to invoke a futuristic vibe through Myung’s use of the Chapman Stick, the strangely alien tones enhancing the eventual metal crunch that builds in intensity throughout the song. The lyrics are slightly repetitive, but much like the guitar the repetition and submerged backing vocals tend to add to the effect. As for “Just Let Me Breathe”, while it does give a slight impression of an aging prog band screaming ‘we’re kinda fun, sometimes!’ into the night, it’s also a bouncy fun song, a real kick live and an occasionally poignant commentary on the sorry state of the music biz.

Falling Into Infinity is an enigmatic album, an album of peaks and valleys. On “Peruvian Skies” and “Lines in the Sand” the band is at its best, and even the overwrought “Trial of Tears” favourably invokes classics like “Learning to Live” with its mercury drop bass lines and poetic lyrics. Dream Theater certainly retains the gift of creating inspired progressive metal, but sadly from here on with less depth and power than on the Awake record, and from here on out much more sporadically than one would like...

Stand-Outs: "Lines in the Sand", "Peruvian Skies", "New Millennium"

Many metal bands are well-known and respected for their diversity among/within albums, even though some of the oddball, atypical albums that these bands release aren't well-received by the metal-buying public and the media. Dream Theater lies somewhere in the forefront of bands who strive for continued experimentation and evolution.

Falling Into Infinity is Dream Theater's 1997 follow-up to the much-loved 1995 EP A Change of Seasons. To the dismay of many, the epic title track of ACoS didn't foreshadow what was to come from the band; however, it established its own unique footing in the prog/rock metal genre and in DT's discography.

Personally, I can understand why many metalheads and Dream Theater fans don't like this album and why many people consider it DT's worst offering, but it's much better than When Dream and Day Unite, Scenes From a Memory, and Train of Thought IMO.(Chronologically, these three albums suffered from weak riffing and vocals; overuse of soloing and cheesiness; and mallcore elements.)

DT took a different direction with Falling Into Infinity--one that lays off the face-peeling guitar assault and shoots towards prog-rock territory to create an ethereal, accessible album that gives nods to Eric Johnson and Pink Floyd.

A rotten brownie point is that FiI isn't quite as progressive as I & W, but it's not as commercial as Train of Thought, even though Train of Thought oddly has some of Dream Theater's most impressive soloing and riff-work. Where this album succeeds is its earnest portrayal of feeling and organic tones.

Beginning the album in typical triumphant flair is New Millennium, an 8+ minute funky ditty that shows Labrie getting down and dirty with his vocal gymnastics and illuminates Petrucci's uncanny ability for spiraling, unrelenting guitar wizardry. Honestly, I believe that this song is one of the catchiest to ever come from the band. The crescendos and key changes are very -I-worthy.

Letting us down with a foray into pop sensitivity is a fairly decent, mid-paced metal n'roll song called You Not Me that is somewhat annoying in its mainstream credibility, but has quite a snazzy breakdown and whimsical guitar solo. The breakdown is exhilarating because of how immediate and staccato it is. It basically makes up for the lackluster songwriting shown here.

Peruvian Skies follows and it's interesting because a strange girl named Vanessa is mentioned in the lyrics. It's quite interesting because she is obviously a different character than Victoria, the whiny bitch on Scenes from a Memory. (If someone could explain the inspiration for these two people, please email me or post something on the forum. I would love to know. Otherwise, Vanessa and Victoria need to go run off to the woods together and have hot lesbian sex or something of that nature....anything that would alter the storylines in the aforementioned song/album so that they would become obscene, thus relieving us from such petty pretentiousness.)

Well, Peruvian Skies consists of dreamy, languid choruses and verses initially, but the chorus is sung with much more fervor near the end and it's an excellent effect if I may say so myself. Guitars aren't too bad either, keeping a steady rhythm that has a very attractive climax.

Keeping with the pattern of heartfelt, driving songs is the first of three excellent ballads to be found here, Hollow Years. Beginning with a flamenco-flavored acoustic guitar piece, it quickly becomes this extremely moving, catchy number that seems to inspire as efficiently as many Christian bands, yet without the lyrical simplicity.

Heralding ambivalence from metalheads is a fairly angry down-and-dirty rocker which sounds like one of the slower numbers off of Metallica's Master of Puppets or ...And Justice For All. Soloing isn't noteworthy here again, but that doesn't mean anything because how often do we get to see DT angry? Hmm? Not very often.The bass and drums chug and boom--chiggachiggaboomboom--and help to paint an overall portrait of Dream Theater at their most misanthropic and nihilistic. The only problem with this song is that, at times, the verses sound a bit meandering and incoherent. No biggie, though. It's really quite inconsequential of a problem.

Hell's Kitchen is the lone instrumental that ensues and it is perhaps Dream Theater's most emotional, bare-bones instrumental to date. It's very similar to the instrumental For Absent Friends on Opeth's Deliverance in the way that it takes a set amount of riffing and melody and repeats it for emphasis, while still maintaining a sense of progression.

Lines in the Sand is once again a long, funky number that features guest vocals from Doug Pinnick of King's X. Lasting over 12 minutes, this is a masterpiece, featuring 'planetarium' intro guitars(I know that description sounds way off base, but I'm using the psychological technique of attaching sounds and/or images to physical, tangible objects), great(yet simple) soloing, and excellent soulful vocal performances by Labrie and Pinnick.

Take Away My Pain is the second of the three ballads on this album, and I'm sure that person X who is listening to this album and hates it is saying to himself "YES! PLEASE TAKE AWAY MY PAIN!" by now. I respect person X's opinion, but TAMP(on)(no, jk. haha) is one of DT's best ballads. The band creates an interesting effect by saying one line in the last line of a choice verse and repeating it in the first line of the chorus. The guitars are minimal here, for this is more of a keyboard-driven melody that sounds similar to 80s alternative pop and such at times. The way this song is structured is more like that of PoS, since the soloing is purely obligatory. That makes it very refreshing.

The protest anthem of the album, Just Let Me Breathe, suddenly jumps in next and throws you for a loop with its ADD hyperactivity. Lyrically, it deals with the media's sensationalization of celebrities such as Shannon Hoon and Kurt Cobain and the vast cookie-cutter that is our mainstream music industry. This track is incredibly danceable. If your spouse or sig. other is in the room with you while listening to this, you may feel the urge to do a jig or something. The main guitar line in the chorus is very syncopated and catchy, but the background guitar line is a little annoying and may take away your attention from the main melody for a moment. Also, the interlude has some really nasty vocal work from Labrie.( I mean gutsy, not sexual or gross)

Finally, we get to the last ballad of the album, Anna Lee. The point has been made that this hearkens back to Pink Floyd, but I couldn't necessarily concur, since the only Pink Floyd release I own is Echoes. I can, however, confirm that it's the best ballad of the album and the one that leaves the most lasting impression. I say this because of the poignant piano intro, clever vocal arrangements, and sublime soloing, which DOES in fact sound like Pink Floyd a la Comfortably Numb, perhaps. Simply spellbinding song.

Trial of Tears is the final song of the album and the guitar tone sounds amazingly similar to that of Eric Johnson in the beginning. The pre-chorus in Pt. I- It's Raining is really annoying because Labrie says 'raining' too much, but the actual chorus is decent and the verses flow pretty well, despite being a little slow.

Pt. 2 is an instrumental called Deep in Heaven, culled from the line "Raining deep in heaven" in the chorus of Pt. 1. This instrumental is not really all that noteworthy and is just a convenient way to segway from Pt. 1 to Pt. 3- The Wasteland. The Wasteland is the closing part to ToT and begins with a mesmerizing acoustic guitar lead before the pre-climactic vocals and the reprise of the line "It's raining, raining, raining deep in heaven". Repetition can be very positive as a means of emphasis, but it somehow manages to sound sophomoric here. Some lyric restructuring would've added more punch.

Summarizing FiI, you could say that it is more of an accessible album, but at its conclusion the listener still feels as if he has followed the band through fields of wildflowers and patches of thorns, and that is part of what makes this album notable. It's not epic, but it's still quite progressive, and progressive qualities can often be construed as epic.

I agree with sparse sentiments claiming this album to be underrated and, hopefully, more people will learn to like this album and/or stop avoiding it like it's the evil troll under the bridge.

This album is considered to be a waste of money by most fans, but it is probably tied with Images and Words as my favorite Dream Theater album. Some of it does sound slightly commercial, but when you are a progressive metal band, there really isn't such a thing as being commercial. Most people's problem here is that the album is nearly half ballads. IMO these are some of the bands most spiritual and enjoyable songs.

New Millenium starts the album off on the right foot. A very up-tempo track with an extremely catchy feel to it throughout. This is one of the few heavier tracks on the album, but captures the power that James LaBrie is capable of singing with.

You Not Me is sort of one of the bands heavier ballad type songs. Probably my favorite off of the album. Containing very harmonic vocals and backing vocals, along with excellent lyrics makes it an all around great song.

Peruvian Skies is a bit of a disappointment. I've never really been able to get into this song. It does have some nice bass work, but it just seems to lack emotion. IMO the worst song on the album.

I am confused as to why Dream Theater made a video for this song. It is a very heart-felt song, but sounds kind of sappy at times. Pretty nice lyrics, but doesn't sound like something the band should make a habit out of doing. Its a pretty decent song, but hearing modified versions of it won't make me or too many other Dream Theater fans happy.

Burning My Soul is where Dream Theater gets back to their basic ass-kicking formula of old. Without a doubt, the absolute heaviest song on this album. Very doomy, has a sound unsimilar to any other of the bands songs, but it I would be very please to hear songs this damn good in the future from these guys.

Hell's Kitchen is the basic Dream Theater instrumental. Has a bit of an Erotomania feel. Not a bad song, but they have better instrumentals than this. I am glad that they decided not to drag this on though for any longer than they have to. Dream Theater, as UltraBoris puts it, has been known to wanker for the sake of wankering at times, and luckily they don't do it here.

Lines in the Sand is probably the bands longest song ever that doesn't show any really exceptional musicianship. Most of the lyrics here are sang by King's X's Doug Pinnick. This sounds more like a King's X song than one for Dream Theater, so I'm not really too big of a fan of it. Its just too long, and rather uneventful.

Take Away My Pain IMO is by far the band's greatest ballad. Its amazingly emotional, and beautifully written. I believe its supposed to be about the death of John Petrucci's father, and it inspired him to write some magnificent lyrics. My only complaint here is that the guitar solo isn't long enough, it's absolutely amazing, it just ends way too soon.

Just Let Me Breathe is a bit of a corporate song. It contains all of the anti-MTV elements of alot of bands and the fact that they even acknowledge the existence of MTV and the deaths of Shannon Hoon and Kurt Cobain make this song worse than it already is. Not bad musically, but not much lyrically at all.

Anna Lee sounds rather popish, but I still rather like it. IMO it sounds like something that Pink Floyd would have done. The way that LaBrie sings on this track reminds me much of Floyd. Once again another song that is very uncharacteristic of Dream Theater. This song however is rather nice lyrically, but lacks really any musicianship.

Trial of Tears honestly does not seem like a 13 minute song. This track probably displays James LaBrie's voice at its best. Its a pretty nice way to end the album.

My mainly complaint about this album, like many others is the restricted drumming of Mike Portnoy, he is not really allowed to do what he is capable of here. All of the other Dream Theater elements are still here though, and I still believe that this is an album worth having.

Falling Into Infinity is said by most, to be the worst Dream Theater Album... Though I admit that it is below average for Dream Theater, it still is a very good album...

It does seem quite obvious that the record company strived for popularity in some of the songs, but most are still masterpieces. In the end, FII is probobally the least accessable of all of DT's albums...

The album stats with New Millenium, which I find to be very catchy, and I really do like the intro... It then moves on to "You Not Me," which to me seems like an obvious attempt at accessability. It's an alright song, but below average for DT. Next in line is Peruvian Skies, which is a masterpiece. I found Holllow Years to be slightly boring. Burning my Soul is a great song. Next in line is Hell's Kitchen, and I can honestly say that this song makes the album worthwhile by itself.

Hell's Kitchen is a fantastic instrumental piece that shows incredible emotion in Petrucci's playing.

Hells Kitchen fades into "Lines in the Sand" which is a catchy, and good song.

From here on, the rest of the album gets slightly boring...

Overall, FII is still a brilliant album, it supports some of the best DT songs (Peruvian Skies, Hells Kitchen etc.) but it has it's bad spots. I can see why people may not like it, but I really dont think it deserves to be called a bad album in ANY way...