User:Enigma00/octavarium

Octavarium
Studio album by Dream Theater
Released	June 7 2005
Recorded	November 2004 - February 25, 2005, The Hit Factory
Genre	Progressive Metal
Length	75:48
Label	Atlantic Records
Producer	John Petrucci and Mike Portnoy
Dream Theater chronology
Train Of Thought (2003) Octavarium (2005) Octavarium (2005)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	(3.5/5) link

Octavarium is the eighth full-length Dream Theater studio album, released on June 7, 2005 (see 2005 in music).

It holds the distinction of being the last album ever recorded at The Hit Factory in New York City. After the Dream Theater sessions ended on Friday night, the lights were turned off and the doors were locked to the studio forever - ending an era in the music industry [1].

Track listing

1. The Root of All Evil – 8:07 (music by Dream Theater, lyrics by Portnoy)
   • VI. Ready
   • VII. Remove
2. The Answer Lies Within – 5:26 (Dream Theater, Petrucci)
3. These Walls – 6:59 (Dream Theater, Petrucci)
4. I Walk Beside You – 4:29 (Dream Theater, Petrucci)
5. Panic Attack – 7:16 (Dream Theater, Petrucci)
6. Never Enough – 6:33 (Dream Theater, Portnoy)
7. Sacrificed Sons – 10:42 (Dream Theater, LaBrie)
8. Octavarium – 24:00 (Dream Theater, LaBrie/Petrucci/Portnoy)
   • I. Someone Like Him (Lyrics by Petrucci)
   • II. Medicate (Awakening) (LaBrie)
   • III. Full Circle (Portnoy)
   • IV. Intervals (Portnoy)
   • V. Razor's Edge (Petrucci)

Personnel

Band

• James LaBrie – Vocals
• John Myung – Bass
• John Petrucci – Guitar, backing vocals
• Mike Portnoy – Drums, percussion and backing vocals
• Jordan Rudess – Keyboard, Continuum and lap steel guitar

Other

• Jeanne LeBlanc - Celli
• Richard Locker - Celli, cello
• Pamela Sklar - Flute
• Stewart Rose - French horn
• Joe Anderer - French horn
• Vince Lionti - Viola
• Karen Dreyfus - Viola
• Carol Webb - Violin
• Yuri Vodovoz - Violin
• Anne Lehmann - Violin
• Elena Barere - Violin
• Katherine Fong - Violin

Chart Performance

Austria: 35, Canada: 15, Czech Republic: 33, Denmark: 38, Finland: 2, France: 18, Germany: 15, Greece: 3 Holland: 9, Hungary: 4, Italy: 2, Norway: 9, Spain: 31, Sweden: 4, Switzerland: 43, Slovenia: 2, UK: 72, USA: 36

Album concept

While not being a traditional concept album (in the vein of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon or Dream Theater's own Scenes from a Memory), Octavarium is linked conceptually through the music, lyrics and artwork. While each song (except Octavarium) is not directly related to any other in terms of story or theme, they are all linked together through the title track.

The theme of the album is the circular nature of life, using the concept of a musical octave as a parallel to this. Because both the beginning and end note in an octave is the same (not in exact pitch, but in note name), as you move through an octave you can be said to move in a full circle once you complete a journey through all eight notes.

Musical themes and connections

Every song on the album is in a different and ascending minor key, starting with F and moving through the full octave to return to F. This is also reflected by the treble clef staves beside each song in the liner notes. (See the artwork section for more on this).

As each of the eight songs corresponds to the white keys on a piano, there are also musical interludes between some of the songs which correspond to the black keys. These interludes are also played in the same key.

F - The Root of All Evil F# - Interlude G - The Answer Lies Within G# - Interlude A - These Walls A# - Interlude B - I Walk Beside You C - Panic Attack C# - Interlude D - Never Enough D# - Interlude E - Sacrificed Sons F - Octavarium

There is no interlude between I Walk Beside You and Panic Attack, nor between Sacrificed Sons and Octavarium, because the notes corresponding to those songs do not have a sharp/flat note between them.

The title track contains a musical theme (called the "Octavarium Theme" by fans) which is repeated in other songs throughout the album. The piano outro to The Root of All Evil, as well as the string section in The Answer Lies Within both echo this theme.

In Intervals, part four of the title track, as the lyrics describe each of the eight songs on the album, a sample of each song plays faintly in the background, culminating finally with a reprise of the "Octavarium Theme" in the song's climax.

Themes in the artwork

Many fans have made observations about the recurrances of the numbers five and eight in the album art. The name Octavarium itself has five syllables, while the word itself connotates eight. The use of these numbers stems from the number of white and black keys in an octave on a piano. It may also refer to the number of members in the band from its inception in 1985 to 2005 and Octavarium being the band's 8th studio album.

Pre-release

Speculation on the title

Before the album's release, many Dream Theater fans speculated on what they believed to be the meaning of the album's title, due to its unusual name.

Some thought that the title referred to the Octavarium, which was a book of Catholic liturgy referring to a period known as the Octave. Others theorized that the title came from Latin words meaning "Various Eight", since the album contained eight tracks and the band has said that the eight songs on the record are all of different styles. However, this is incorrect Latin; the Latin word for eight is "octo," not "octa," and "varium" is singular when it would need to be plural. This theory may have come from the fact that Octavarium is the band's eighth album, since "octavus" is Latin for "eighth".

Yet another interpretation was that the "-arium" suffix is used to denote a place where something is held, in this case musical octaves. This turns out to be the closest to the truth, when the album artwork and the lyrics from the title track ("Trapped inside this Octavarium") are considered.

It is also interesting to note that Octavarium follows a pattern started in Dream Theater's sixth studio album, Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence, which had six tracks and the word six in the title. The next release, Train of Thought, contained seven tracks, and Octavarium follows both of these apparent "trends" with eight songs and a title related to the number eight. Whether this is intentional or not will remain unknown until a member of the band addresses it publicly.

Hoax samples

As is the case with many highly anticipated albums, there have been several hoaxes perpetrated in the lead up to the album's release.

The first hoax occurred when 90 seconds of music advertised as a sample of the song "Panic Attack" was released through various music related message boards, but many Dream Theater fans questioned its authenticity as it wasn't released through any official Dream Theater channels. Because the band have made a point not to release any advance material of their albums in the past (even going so far as to not release promotional copies to radio stations), it was suspected by most that the sample was in fact not from the forthcoming album. These suspicions proved correct when the music was correctly identified as "Ripples in Time" by the band Chrome Shift.

A sample, described as a "premix" of the track "Octavarium", also circulated in file sharing networks since late March. The sample is purely instrumental and 12:25 long. It was later found to be the track "Saint Vitus' Dance" by the Spanish band Acid Rain. Incidentally, that piece was an entry into Dream Theater's "Stream Of Consciousness songwriting contest" in which fans could enter their cover versions of the instrumental from 2003's Train of Thought -- before having heard a single note of the album.

Another set of samples, apparently leaked by a source close to the band sometime before May 11th, consists of several audio fragments, one for each song (except "I Walk Beside You"). Drummer Mike Portnoy acknowledged the authenticity of these samples on his internet forum, but they were not sanctioned by the band as official.

Leaking

For approximately three months prior to Octavarium's release, James LaBrie's solo album Elements of Persuasion was distributed as Octavarium in many file-sharing circles. Due to the fact that LaBrie's distinctive voice can be heard on both albums, many people were unable to tell that it was in fact a different band, and it continued to be distributed as a genuine Dream Theater release until a week or so before the official release date of the album.

At that time a version of the actual album found its way onto the Internet, but it was slightly different to the final product released to stores; the ending to the track "Octavarium" was slightly modified. On an XM radio show interview with Eddie Trunk, Portnoy revealed that only approximately ten people were given a copy of that version of the album: the five band members, Portnoy's father Howard, and a handful of people at Atlantic Records.

Category:Dream Theater albums Category:2005 albums