Review by Mike published
"So far I've listened to the album three times, and while it is admittedly nice, I think it's one of the weaker DT albums. It's still quite good, but the words "haphazard" and "forced" pop up a bit too often in my mind when I'm listening to the album, particularly in the opening track. Mike Mangini is a great musician, but on this album the drums strike me as largely unimaginative compared to Portnoy's style. Of course one could also say that Mangini simply chooses to stay in the background and let the other band members shine (which definitely plays out well in that regard, particularly with Myung and LaBrie), and indeed I think that there's great potential for a truly great next album that hopefully won' t be recorded under such unfortunate circumstances. The bottom line: a solid album, but ultimately falling short in terms of songwriting and inspired playing (don't get me wrong, there are plenty of inspired moments, it's just lacking compared to other DT releases) and thus a transitional step for the band, pretty much like Feel Euphoria was for Spock's Beard - at least that's my wish(ful thinking)."
