Originally written by Jon Eardley
What in the hell has Charlie Dominici been up to? That’s the million dollar question, isn’t it? Okay, well not really…not even close actually. Nevertheless, here we are, 18 years after Charlie lent his throat to the debut Dream Theater album, When Dream and Day Unite, and it seems the man hasn’t lost his lust for progressive rock/metal music. There’s only one friggin’ problem…the musical approach of this album has absolutely zero identity. Notta, zero, zilch!!! It’s funny when I think back, because I reviewed an album by an up and coming and quite promising band called Frozen last year where I stated something to the effect that even though Frozen displays many similarites to Dream Theater, no other band sounds exactly like them. Well, that’s not the case any longer, as Charlie has cloned a group of players that sounds so much like Dream Theater musically, and vocally for that matter, that I don’t know whether to applaud him or use this promo as a drink coaster. After many repeated listens, I think I’ll go with the latter.
03 A Trilogy – Part 2 is a concept album that starts off with an eight minute intro entitled “The Monster” that immediately shows that this group of musicians is well-schooled in the art of progressive rock/metal. Everything from noodly guitar and keyboard solos (“Nowhere to Hide”, “The Calling”) to a rhythm section that drives the songs through a slew of time changes and does well to bring the music to higher peaks of energetic life (“Greed, the Evil Seed”, “The Cop”) weaved in and out of lulling valleys of soft and plush sappiness (“Captured”, “School of Pain”, “The Real Life”). The idea behind the lyrical concept is a dark and sinister one, and to give you a brief breakdown – you can read Charlie’s overview of the story on the band’s web site – it has to do with a radical religious group that wants to see the world come to an end. Their belief is that the world’s destruction is their only way through the pearly gates of heaven, and it starts with their training of one man to take the reigns and eventually set off a chain of events that will bring chaos and fear to the masses across the globe. However, there is a “cop” (go figure) who, after fighting his own inner demons, sets out to basically save the world. The album’s closing track, “A New Hope”, offers a glimmer of optimism that this man will succeed and all will be returned to normal, yet the answer is still unknown. Certainly a gripping and enthralling tale of iniquity that far outweighs the music in terms of originality. Don’t get me wrong. It’s not that the music is terrible, because it’s not. It’s just not original at all, and the fact that Charlie would seemingly try and outdo his former band is almost laughable, at least for me. I can just see Portnoy and Petrucci scratching their heads wondering what in the fuck is going on with this guy. Why Charlie, why?!?!
At the end of the day there will more than likely be three different camps this album will fall into. The first is the one that doesn’t like Dream Theater at all and will want to avoid this album like you would anything put out by Petrucci and company. I’d guess one of the other two camps will be one that is so accepting of that first Dream Theater record that the folks in it will gladly scoop this up and make room for it right next to their precious copy of When Dream and Day Unite. I’m with the third group that will be borderline disgusted that the man would even go this route – trying to put together an album that sounds exactly like his former band. Hell, Charlie even sounds like LaBrie half the time, or maybe it’s the other way around? Who knows and who cares. If I want to listen to the real deal I will listen to the real deal. At least I’ll have a new coaster to break out and set my bottle of Heineken on the next time I toss in Images and Words.
