Year: 2002
Country: USA
Running time: 42 mins. 2 secs.
Spotify link (entire album)
YouTube link
One of the most prominent progressive rock bands of recent years, Dream Theater released the double CD Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence a full decade ago. Its initial response was not particularly enthusiastic. This was understandable at the time: it was the follow-up to what many consider the group's definitive masterpiece, Scenes from a Memory (1999). Later on, the album looks to have gained the fans' acceptance, if not for any other reason that most of the more recent releases have been uneven and disappointing.
The track we are including in the top 20 is the title track of the album that is long enough to fill the entire second disc. Yes, it really does run an unbelievable 42 minutes. And, even more unbelievable as it may seem, it is NOT the longest track in our top 20!
Like many really long pieces before it, Six Degrees is made of several shorter parts that are joined together by a continuing storyline. To drive that particular point home, the track begins with an Overture that is in truth a seven-minute summary of what is to follow. All the subsequent parts are quickly played in instrumental versions, even the Grand Finale which is especially important. Following this, the actual storyline begins, describing six various mental illnesses and introducing six fictional characters that suffer from them.
Overture also summarizes the reasons that caused many fans to dislike the album, at least to begin with. Dream Theater has been known to represent the progressive metal subgenre of prog, and their latest release at the time - widely considered a classic - was particularly metal oriented. This, the follow-up, was anything but. Not only were there no metal riffs present, but to add insult to injury, there were string arrangements! Everyone's favourite prog metal band suddenly sounded like a cross between Yngwie Malmsteen and Toto, with an effing philharmonic orchestra in the background! What's not to like?
This is probably the reason for the initial negative response, but after you concentrate on the music and do so without prejudice, you can start to appreciate the masterwork that this lengthy song really is. The passages describing the various mental illnesses have distinct styles and, arguably, even musical genres, which gives the work as a whole many different facets. There are really no weak sequences, and everything is played out as impeccably as only Dream Theater can. Every single note is exactly in the right place.
What really elevates the track into masterwork status is Dream Theater's ability to create and sustain a continuing dramatic flow, with its ups and downs, and to build it up into a finale that is almost too grand to believe. When the story has been told, the music builds up to a huge pathos that might become ludicrous in the hands of lesser artists but works just beautifully here. By the time you realise that the last, endlessly sustained note will play for approximately 100 seconds before final fadeout, you will have a hard time keeping your eyes dry. And the final payoff is...
...that it re-emerges as a fade in on the group's next, vastly inferior album Train of Thought (2003). Pure genius!
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