I just got through spinning the new DT album and I must say that I need to go back and give this band's past catalog another consideration. A few years ago, I gave AWAKE a chance and was immediately put off by LaBrie's cheesey operetic vocals. The music was right up my ally, but those vocals...LaBrie can sing, but he was so over the top as to be cartoonish. So I never really was tempted to try them again until recently. I had purchased DT's Live At Budokan DVD last year and was very pleased with his vocal performance; he just sang without all the vocal acrobatics and hystrionics found on his earlier work with DT. Seems he's settled into his roll a bit as he gets older. Vocals were never the 'draw' in prog rock anyway (or a prerequisite either).

I find that for the most part, I'm pleased with this new release as well. I always loved that crunching sound in prog metal's glory days. I like that this is a thinking person's music, and not just another cock rock act. It's very melodic and balances very well between soft and hard passages without sounding forced or conveluted. I will definately go back to the store and look up some of the more recent titles.