"Rite of Passage" by Dream Theater

Yesterday Roadrunner Records released a free download of "Rite of Passage" off of Dream Theater's album "Black Clouds and Silver Linings" coming June 23rd. Click here to download the song.
The opening riff, which could be a heavily effected bass (most often when the bass plays solo these days it is drenched in effects) is boring and cliched, and the rest of the intro is nothing remotely special. Then the key goes up a half step when the verse hits, which is a peculiar technique Dream Theater uses. But the end of the phrases are back in the original! Perhaps it is to make it easier to play or sing, or just to be inconsistent and annoying. The beginning rythm guitar tone is thin and awful. Dream Theater has always done an ostinato bass line while the other instruments mess around over it, but lately it's been a simple guitar rhythm repeated indefinitely. (See "Constant Motion"as compared to "Learning to Live.") The chorus melody is nothing creative, although the voluminous harmonies add a full sound to it that is quite appealing. Dream Theater claims that their compositional skills are improving, but subtle variations and transitions have disappeared, and solos are now self-indulgent and horrible. This is a band that is not improving. I also have heard "A Nightmare to Remember" and they both remind me of the simple blandess of 2003's "Train of Thought." The chorus key is up a fifth from the verse, probably to accomodate James LaBrie's perishing voice. So of course, the transition from chorus back to verse is just static and callous, like a caveman. It takes a while to switch tonality in the mind, so of course they repeat the riff a few times before the singing starts and they repeat it some more. After the second chorus comes a band hit with a continuing guitar rhythm a la thrash or power metal. The rhythm is boring, but the way they play around with the rhythm harkens back to a couple songs on Awake, I wish I could remember. I now yearn for the progressive sound of Awake, which upon initial listening I deemed quite mainstream compared to Images & Words. Dream Theater used to have cool instrumentals with harmonized parts and progressive unision riffs, like in "Metropolis Pt 1" and "Take the Time." Now they do what every other band does, which is play chords while the guitaist solos. John Petrucci's solo shredded like "Stream of Consciousness," but with a wah-wah tone that made it sound nauseating. Later on in the solo, after he gets the self-indulgent note-playing out the way, he does ome cool stuff reminiscent of "Under a Glass Moon" but without the sweeteness. The subsequent keyboard solo was simply awful. He started with his traditional lead sound reminding me of "The Ministry of Lost Souls" then used a different tone and did a weird tone that reminded me of "Constant Motion." Then he played random, horrible sounding noise that sounded like a Continuum with a robotic, mechanical sort of timbre. Then we repeat the chorus and play some more riff that a middle schooler could improvise. Then Bam, there goes a sixth of their upcoming album. I'm not sure I want to buy it anymore. "Stream of Consciousness" does not compare to a different instrumental like "Dance of Eternity." Now that I think of, this whole soung is a lot like "Constant Motion." See the video for Rite of Passage here. It's actually pretty sweet. The Constant Motion single video cut out most of the sweet stuff- Dream Theater took the initiative this time and didn't put any in. Mike Portnoy says in this interview that they prevented themselves from doing sweet stuff so the song could be focused, like a single. For me, the chorus and stuff are usually just filler that they need for many people to like the song- the real good stuff is the instrumental passages (which pretty much makes Dance of Eternity the ultimate song).
An email I received yesterday offering the free download (which is now expired by the way; it's streaming on their artist page) had this to say about the piece: "It's a great song - very different from other DT music." Different as in it SUCKS!!!!