Maps of Music

Systematic Chaos (2007)

Where the lyrics of Systematic Chaos take you, and where it was really made.

The band's first summer off in ten years came right before this album, which was recorded in the months after that break. The location records name a different studio than the article text does.

Key places

Recording site listed as Power Station at BerkleeNYC (2007)

Recording site Power Station Studio — The album was recorded from September 2006 to February 2007 in New York City. Location records list Power Station at BerkleeNYC as the recording site, but the article text names Avatar Studios. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Systematic Chaos: ninth studio album by American progressive metal band Dream Theater
• Released 4 June 2007 in the United Kingdom and 5 June 2007 in the United States
• First release for the band on Roadrunner Records
• Issued in regular and special editions
• Special edition adds a 5.1 surround sound mix and a 90-minute making-of documentary
• Promoted on the Chaos in Motion world tour, which lasted a year and spanned 35 countries

Background

• Band recorded its twentieth anniversary concert, Score, on 1 April 2006, then rested for its first summer in ten years
• Band returned to Avatar Studios in New York City in September 2006; it had recorded Falling into Infinity there in 1997
• Mike Portnoy described relations between band members as 'the best it's ever been'
• Paul Northfield was hired as engineer; he had worked with bands that inspired Dream Theater, including Rush and Queensryche
• Portnoy and John Petrucci co-produced the album
• Dream Theater wrote and recorded the album at the same time, as with previous albums
• Portnoy kept a 'cutting, aggressive, modern' mood planned for the album while leaving the others to start with an open palate
• Title came from lyric phrases picked by Portnoy and Petrucci: 'chaos' from 'The Dark Eternal Night' and 'systematic' as its opposite

Recording

• Recorded from September 2006 to February 2007 at Avatar Studios in New York City
• The first song recorded was the 25-minute epic 'In the Presence of Enemies', later split into two parts
• Portnoy said the band felt the epic was too long to open the album but did not want to close it with a long song
• Petrucci wrote the lyrics for five of the eight songs, each telling a fictional story
• Location records list Power Station at BerkleeNYC as the recording site, while the article text names Avatar Studios

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Dream Theater is an American progressive metal band formed in 1985 in Boston, Massachusetts.
• Petrucci, Myung and Portnoy formed the band under the name Majesty while attending Berklee College of Music.
• The band was renamed Dream Theater in 1988 after a legal challenge from a Las Vegas group also named Majesty.

Members

• Current members are John Petrucci (guitar), John Myung (bass), James LaBrie (vocals), Jordan Rudess (keyboards), and Mike Portnoy (drums), who rejoined in October 2023.
• Petrucci and Myung have remained in the band since its founding.

Career

• The band has released 16 studio albums; Images and Words (1992) is its highest-selling release.
• Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory (1999) received high critical acclaim.
• By 2018 the band had sold over 12 million records worldwide.
• The band has been referred to as one of the "Big Three" of progressive metal, along with Queensrÿche and Fates Warning.
• A View from the Top of the World's lead single "The Alien" won a Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance in 2022.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Critical reception was generally positive
• Jon Eardley of MetalReview.com called it 'another solid outing' and praised 'Constant Motion' for some of the best riffs Petrucci has brought to the table
• Eardley called the latter part of 'The Dark Eternal Night' the most brutal part in any song to date
• Nikos Patelis of Metal Invader called it energetic, sharp-edged, full of beautiful melodies and heavy riffs
• Patelis called the instrumentalists four masters of music and said James LaBrie sounds more mature than ever
• Patelis called it an excellent album that needs many listens to digest
• Greg Prato of AllMusic said 'Forsaken' proves wrong those who say Dream Theater is all about instrumental gymnastics and not songwriting
• Chad Bowar of About.com gave the album four out of five stars and called it one of the best Dream Theater releases in quite a while

Records

• Peaked in the top twenty of album sales charts in eight countries
• Peaked at number 19 on the Billboard 200, the highest-peaking Dream Theater album in the US at release
• Peaked in the top 25 in the United Kingdom and Australia, where the band had never charted before
• Sold 35,689 copies in the US in its first week
• In 2014, readers of Rhythm magazine voted it the second greatest drumming album in the history of progressive rock

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Ironically, Warner bought Roadrunner Records a week after the band signed with Roadrunner
• 'Constant Motion' was the first single from the album, released 27 April 2007 and offered as a free download for a limited time
• Portnoy suggested fans could sing certain chant parts on 'Prophets of War'; about 400 fans gathered outside the studio, but only 60 could fit inside

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · es.wikipedia.org · pt.wikipedia.org

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