Systematic Chaos: First Impressions

First of all, lyrically, this isn't going to win any awards. John Petrucci decided to go into a more fantasy based direction and I'm really not feeling it, especially in In The Presence of Enemies, the epic track. I'm warming up to it a bit, but it's honestly not his best work. He's done fantasy/sci-fi lyrics before but back in the Images and Words days, those were also covered in metaphor and poetic writing. This latest effort is a lot more…straight ahead without much of the poetry. Another lyrical complaint is the overuse of distorted vocals in The Dark Eternal Night and Constant Motion. It's just not my thing.

Musically, In The Presence of Enemies is an awesome track, after listening to it a few times. There's only one section of the CD I don't really get right now which is the middle instrumental section of The Dark Eternal Night which feels very…out of place.

Overall, I'm enjoying it. Repentance is an awesome song, as it Ministry of Lost Souls. There's some seriously killer riffs in In The Presence of Enemies Part 2. Right now it's about on par or slightly below Octavarium on my favorite Jordan Rudess era album list, with Octavarium being behind Scenes From A Memory.