Linings of Silver, Clouds of Black

So a week or two ago, Mike Portnoy released the title, album artwork, tracklisting, and release date of Dream Theater's tenth studio album.  My immediate reaction was of minor excitement, but held no characteristics of euphoria, orgasm, or fanboyism, which I'm quite proud of.  A few more months of not being a fanboy and I hope to add Dream Theater to a weekly rotation of my favorite artists without relapsing into my close-minded past.

I'm really looking forward to hearing their next studio effort, as it may be a do-or-die album for me with the band.  Save their debut and their attempt at being a pop band, their discography gets weaker with each album, chronologically.  Mike's fascination with Systematic Chaos compared with how I saw it, his sudden burst of interest in metal, the quality of the Chaos In Motion DVD, being signed on a label with commercial metal bands, and the general direction of the band lately make me wonder if Dream Theater is slowly dying off.

I'm still hoping for a Death Magnetic, and I mean that as an analogy for their old style, not a dominance of metal elements.