About Systematic Chaos by Dream Theater Album
Systematic Chaos is the ninth studio album by American progressive metal band Dream Theater. Released on June 4, 2007 in the United Kingdom and June 5, 2007 in the United States, Systematic Chaos was the band's first release through Roadrunner Records. The album was recorded from September 2006 to February 2007 at Avatar Studios in New York City, after the band's first break from summer touring in ten years. The lyrics of the album were written by John Petrucci, James LaBrie, and Mike Portnoy about fictional, political, and personal topics, respectively. The album peaked in the top twenty in eight countries' sales charts; in addition, the album peaked at the nineteenth position on the Billboard 200, making it the highest peaking Dream Theater album in the United States as of 2008.Critical reception of the album was generally positive; Jon Eardley from MetalReview.com called the band, "arguably the most consistent band throughout the entire progressive rock/metal industry". Dream Theater promoted the album on their Chaos in Motion world tour, which lasted a year and spanned thirty-five countries. The album was released in regular and special edition formats; the special edition included a 5.1 surround sound mix of the album, in addition to a ninety-minute "making of" documentary about the album. Background After recording their twentieth anniversary concert, Score, on April 1, 2006, Dream Theater rested for its first summer in ten years.The band would reconvene at Avatar Studios, in New York City, in September 2006. Mike Portnoy stated that the relationship between band members was "the best it's ever been".The band hired Paul Northfield, who had previously worked with bands that had inspired Dream Theater, including Rush and Queensrÿche, to engineer the album.As with previous albums, Dream Theater simultaneously wrote and recorded Systematic Chaos. Mike Portnoy and John Petrucci co-produced the album; Portnoy said that the band hires an engineer and a mixer to act as an "objective outside ear", but the members ultimately "call their own shots".Previous Dream Theater albums shared planned themes throughout, such as Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory as a concept album or Train of Thought as a heavy, "balls to the wall" album. Though Portnoy had some preconceived ideas for Systematic Chaos, he decided not to tell the rest of the band; leaving them to start with a "completely open palate". However, Portnoy did want to retain a "cutting, aggressive, modern" mood throughout, "It had to have balls," he added, "it had to be cool". The album was titled Systematic Chaos after Portnoy and Petrucci picked phrases from song lyrics that they felt would be a fitting title, in similar fashion to previous albums Awake or Images and Words. The pair selected the word "chaos", which appears in "The Dark Eternal Night". Petrucci and Portnoy were also attracted to the phrase "Random thoughts of neat disorder" which appears in "Constant Motion". Inspired by the "duality" of the phrase, a collection of songs from various Dream Theater albums which revolve around his journey through Alcoholics Anonymous. The song discusses steps eight and nine of the process, which deal with making a list of people whom one has wronged and, if possible, making direct amends with them.Portnoy, who as of 2007 has been sober for 7½ years, invited friends and fellow musicians Mikael Åkerfeldt, Jon Anderson, David Ellefson, Daniel Gildenlöw, Steve Hogarth, Chris Jericho, Neal Morse, Joe Satriani, Corey Taylor, Steve Vai, and Steven Wilson to record spoken apologies, regrets, and sorrows of their own, put the money up for the record and put the CD in the shops," said Portnoy.On February 8, 2007, Dream Theater reached an agreement with Roadrunner Records to release their new album. Systematic Chaos had nearly been written and recorded at the time of the signing. Ironically, Warner purchased Roadrunner Records a week after the band signed with them.According to LaBrie, Roadrunner followed through on all of its promises to the band concerning the promotion of the album. Portnoy spent a month directing and editing a documentary titled Chaos in Progress: The Making of Systematic Chaos, which was released on the two disc special edition of the album.The bonus disc of the special edition also included 5.1 surround sound mix of the entire album. Dream Theater supported the album by touring on the Chaos In Progress tour from June 3, 2007 to June 4, 2008. The world tour comprised 115 shows throughout thirty-five countries. Multiple concerts were filmed for the band's fifth DVD, titled Chaos in Motion 2007–2008. The compilation of concerts was released on September 30, 2008. Reception Critical reception for Systematic Chaos was generally positive. Writing for MetalReview.com, Jon Eardley called the album, "another solid outing".He complimented Petrucci for "Constant Motion", writing that it contains "some of the best riffs Petrucci has brought to the table". In addition, he called the latter part of "The Dark Eternal Night" "the most brutal part in any song to date". Reviewing for Metal Invader, Nikos Patelis called the album, "energetic, sharp – edged, full of beautiful melodies and heavy riffs, long epic compositions". He called Dream Theater's instrumentalists "four masters of music that use their instruments as if they were their limbs", in addition to stating, "James LaBrie sounds more mature than ever". ARIA Charts 23 UK Albums Chart 25 Netherlands charts 2 Finnish charts 3 Norwegian charts 3 Swedish charts 5 French charts 14 Swiss charts 14 Austrian charts 20 Belgium charts 44 Personnel Dream Theater James LaBrie – vocals John Myung – bass John Petrucci – guitar and vocals Mike Portnoy – drums, percussion and vocals Jordan Rudess – keyboards and Continuum Production John Petrucci and Mike Portnoy – producers Paul Northfield – engineer, mixing, vocal track co-producer Chad Lupo – assistant engineer Hugh Syme – art direction, design, and illustrations Daragh McDonagh – Dream Theater photography
