Rocks Rock

I was very impressed with Amazon. I ordered three CDs on Saturday,
one of which was released on Monday, using the three to five day free
delivery option. The Post Office attempted to deliver at 12:15 on
Tuesday and Amazon sent me the 'your order has been dispatched'
e-mail Tuesday evening.

The CDs then, The new Dream Theater album, Octavarium, the new System
of the Down album, Mezmerize and the remastered edition of The
Downward Spiral by Nine Inch Nails.

I don't have the original version of The Downward Spiral so I can
make no comments as to how the remastered tracks sound. Also, as I
am not really familiar with the album itself, I have yet to listen to
the remixes and alternative versions on the second CD. On first
listen, I like the album a lot. The mood is superb and the tracks
very well written. I suspect in the long run I may grow to like it
more than The Fragile.

The new System album is very good. It seems to have found a little
of the energy and humour of their first album that I think was lost a
little in Toxicity. There are also a lot of new sounds for System in
the album and plenty of new ideas. I don't think any of the tracks
are as individually outstanding as some on System or Toxicity but the
album as a whole is great fun to listen to. It won't replace my love
for the first album but sits very nicely alongside Toxicity. (I do
have Steal This Album, but for some reason have only listened to it a
couple of times and so won't compare it).

Octavarium seems very solid Dream Theater. It doesn't push too many
boundaries for them, the sound is very familiar, particularly Rudess
and LaBrie. Petrucci seems to have gone for a slightly more classic
heavy rock solo style at times, which works quite nicely. All of the
instrumental virtuosity that you would expect is there and the song
writing is in a similar vein to the first CD of Six Degrees Of Inner
Turbulence, although no tracks are quite as good as Glass Prison for
me. The one downer is track two. Horrifically cheesy string
arrangements that make you want to laugh and cry in equal measure and
more proof that LaBrie, while an excellent vocalist, isn't really cut
out for ballads.