|
''Octavarium'' is the eighth studio album by American progressive metal/rock band Dream Theater. Released on June 7, 2005, it was the band's final release with Atlantic Records. Recorded between September 2004 and February 2005, the album holds the distinction of being the last album ever recorded at The Hit Factory in New York City. With ''Octavarium'', the band decided to create "a classic Dream Theater album",〔 drawing upon their various stylistic influences while trying to make the music less complex. The album takes as its creative concept the musical octave. ''Octavarium'' peaked in the top five in the Finnish,〔 Italian,〔 and Swedish charts,〔 and in the top ten in the Dutch,〔 Japanese,〔 and Norwegian charts.〔 Critical reception of the album was generally positive; the diversity of the music was praised, although critics found some of the songwriting to be inconsistent. Dream Theater promoted the album on a year-long world tour, with the majority of concerts lasting almost three hours and featuring a different setlist each night. The tour finished at Radio City Music Hall accompanied by an orchestra; this performance was recorded and released as a live album and concert video entitled ''Score''. They co-headlined the 2005 North American ''Gigantour'' with Megadeth. ==Background== After completing a North American tour supporting one of their main influences, Yes, in summer 2004, Dream Theater took a two-month break. The band reconvened at The Hit Factory in New York City in November 2004 to begin work on their eighth studio album. The Hit Factory, a studio in which artists such as Michael Jackson, Madonna, Stevie Wonder, U2 and John Lennon had recorded, was earmarked for closure. Dream Theater was the last band to record there before it was permanently closed.〔 After writing the concept album ''Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory'', the double album ''Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence'' and the metal-focused ''Train of Thought'', the band decided to create "a classic Dream Theater album". Keyboardist Jordan Rudess described it as "really going back to creating a real band effort, as well as drawing upon all our various stylistic influences."〔 On ''Octavarium'', the band wanted to make the music less complex, featuring songs which Rudess regards as "quicker to appreciate",〔 although noted that the twenty-four-minute "Octavarium" was not as accessible.〔 Guitarist John Petrucci noted that they wanted to focus on writing strong songs.〔 To achieve this, the band stripped the sound down to piano, guitar and vocals when writing, focusing on the melodies and song structures. Drummer Mike Portnoy dismissed claims that ''Octavarium'' was an attempt to write a more commercial album, stating that the band simply "() that side to (). We love bands like U2 or Coldplay, as well as liking shorter songs as well." Portnoy noted that, after writing ''Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence'' and ''Train of Thought'', they had not written an album of shorter songs for some time. He said that the band had found writing longer songs easier than writing shorter ones, and that the band was not trying to write a radio hit as "the label wouldn't have done crap with it anyway."〔 The band had previously written an orchestral-style piece in the form of "Overture" on ''Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence'', but recorded it using keyboards. The tracks "The Answer Lies Within", "Sacrificed Sons" and "Octavarium" marked the first time Dream Theater worked with an orchestra, conducted by Jamshied Sharifi (who studied at Berklee College of Music at the same time as Portnoy, Petrucci and bassist John Myung). The orchestra was selected based on their sight reading ability, allowing all their parts to be recorded in a maximum of two takes, even though they had never seen or played the music before. Sharifi would later go on to conduct the Octavarium Orchestra on Dream Theater's ''Score'' album. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Octavarium (album)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|