Dream Theater have been the favorite band of many metal elitists for a decade now and every bad word against them instantly moves you to the ‘fools that know nothing’ category. I, as a prominent fool, will have to admit that until the introduction of the heavier sound with ‘Train of Thought’, the band bored the hell out of me. Luckily tough, ‘Black Clouds & Silver Linings’ has a lot more to do with that concept, than with classic prog in the vein of Yes and King Crimson. ‘A Nightmare to Remember’ opens with an all out double bass drum attack and heavy riffing that goes through all possible metamorphosis of metal music throughout its 16 minutes of length before ending with a motif that resembles black metal. The first single, ‘Rite of Passage’ (far-right listeners should approach with extreme prejudice, as it is based on Freemasonry) is built around its catchy intro melody (played on an iPhone by Jordan Rudess, wtf) that goes through various approaches throughout the song. ‘Wither’ is the shortest track here and it is a beautiful ballad dedicated to writers block. ‘The Shattered Fortress’ is the last part of Mike Portnoy’s Twelve-step Suite about alcoholism (that started back in 2002 on ‘Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence’) The last song ‘The Count of Tuscany’, might have felt more epic with its 20 minutes of length if the medium length of the other tracks in the album wasn’t above 10 as well. In the 6 sings and 75 minutes of music that the album provides, Dream Theater once again show superb technical and composer skills. Some of the ideas, to be honest could be heard in other bands’ music, but here they are put in another context and are, of course, more complicated. ‘Black Clouds & Silver Linings’ will most likely leave most fans pleased, although it is not likely it will make them take down ‘Images and Words’ from the piadestal. Dream Theater may also gain some new fans with that thing as well.