Train of Thought (album)

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Train of Thought is the seventh full-length studio album by progressive metal band Dream Theater. Aiming for a straightforward metal record influenced by the response of their heavier songs while on tour (also likely to be influenced by their live covers of Master of Puppets and The Number of the Beast), it is widely considered their heaviest album to date, with some even calling it the "heavy album". The heavy composition has left many of their fans divided. Some veteran fans of the band prefer the more progressive sound, like Images and Words contained. However, newer fans tend to like Dream Theater's heavier side a bit more. Regardless, the album was fairly well-received.

Contents

1 Track listing
2 Personnel
3 Trivia
4 Chart performance
5 External links
6 References

Track listing

"As I Am" – 7:47 (music by Dream Theater, lyrics by Petrucci)
"This Dying Soul" – 11:28 (Dream Theater, Portnoy)
*"IV. Reflections of Reality (Revisited)"
*"V. Release"
"Endless Sacrifice" – 11:23 (Dream Theater, Petrucci)
"Honor Thy Father" – 10:14 (Dream Theater, Portnoy)
"Vacant" – 2:58 (Rudess/Myung, LaBrie)
"Stream of Consciousness – 11:16 (Dream Theater, instrumental)
"In The Name of God" – 14:16 (Dream Theater, Petrucci)

Personnel

James LaBrie – vocals
John Myung – bass
John Petrucci – guitars
Mike Portnoy – drums
Jordan Rudess – keyboards
Eugene Friesen – cello on "Vacant"

Trivia

The Chant/Hymn at the end of "In the Name of God" is the American civil war hymn "Battle Hymn of the Republic".
"Honor Thy Father" was written about Mike Portnoy's step-father. When asked about what inspired him to write that song, he stated in an IRC chat: "I'm not very good at writing love songs, so I decided to write a HATE song!!!"You can read the chat log excerpt at [DTFAQ.com].
Between 05:51 and 06:07 of the song "In the Name of God", there was a hidden composition buried beneath the far louder sounds of the song itself which lay undiscovered for over a year and a half. The band did not tell anyone that a hidden "nugget" (as it became known amongst Dream Theater fans) was present in the song, and only when Mike Portnoy mentioned it in his Mike Portnoy: Live at Budokan Drum-Cam DVD over a year later did someone find it. The Mike Portnoy message board was rife with fans scouring the song looking for what it might be, until a fan going by the pseudonymous name "DarrylRevok" mentioned that from 05:51 to 06:07 there appeared to be morse code audible, which Nick Bogovich (user handle "Bogie") isolated and discovered that when translated to English, the phrase "eat my ass and balls" (a Mike Portnoy catchphrase) was the result.Read the complete story behind the nugget at [DTFAQ.com]
There are some obvious connections to the previous and following albums of the band:
* The album has seven songs, while its predecessor (Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence) has six and its successor (Octavarium) has eight.
* The first song "As I Am" starts with the ending orchestral chord of SDoIT and the ending piano note of "In the Name of God" is the first note of Octavarium's "The Root of All Evil".
* "This Dying Soul" continues Mike Portnoy's Alcoholics Anonymous-suite, started with SDoIT's "The Glass Prison" and later continued with Octavarium's "The Root of All Evil". The songs share some of the lyrics and melodies.
In "This Dying Soul" starting at 7:15, the riff and vocal delivery bears striking resemblances to the verse of Metallica's Blackened. Whether this is intentional or not is yet to be confirmed.
The lyrics of "In the Name of God" are a possible reference to David Koresh and the Branch Davidians.
Contains the most expletives in a Dream Theater album to date (4 words).
Stream of Consciousness is the longest Dream Theater instrumental to date (not counting live mash-ups such as Instrumedley).
"Honor Thy Father" includes sample sounds from the film Magnolia.

Chart performance

Billboard 200: Train of Thought - #53
Billboard Top Internet Albums: Train of Thought - #53

External links

References

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