Train of Thought (Dream Theater album)

Train of Thought
Cover art by Jerry Uelsmann
Studio album by Dream Theater
Released	November 11, 2003
Recorded	March 10–September, 2003 Cove City Sound Studios, Pie Studios, and Beat Street Studios (all New York City)
Genre	Progressive metal
Length	69:24
Label	Elektra
Producer	Mike Portnoy and John Petrucci
Dream Theater chronology
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence (2002) Train of Thought (2003) Live at Budokan (2004)
Singles from Train of Thought
"As I Am" Released: October 29, 2003

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]
IGN	(8/10)[2]
Metal Review	(7.9/10)[3]

Train of Thought is the seventh full-length studio album by progressive metal band Dream Theater.

History

Inspired by the audience response to Dream Theater's heavier songs while on tour,^[4] The album was written in three weeks.^[5] It was engineered by Doug Oberkircher and mixed by Kevin Shirley.^[6]

Songs

• The first song "As I Am" starts with the ending synth/orchestral chord of Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence.
• Some lyrics of "As I Am" were inspired by Dream Theater's 2003 summer tour with Queensryche, described by Mike Portnoy as an "irksome series of shows." According to Portnoy, Queensryche guitarist Mike Stone tried giving John Petrucci tips on playing guitar, leading Petrucci to write the lyrics: "Don't tell me what's in, tell me how to write".
• "This Dying Soul" continues Mike Portnoy's Twelve-step Suite, started with "The Glass Prison" on Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence and later continued with "The Root of All Evil" on Octavarium, "Repentance" on Systematic Chaos, and ending with "The Shattered Fortress" on Black Clouds & Silver Linings. These songs share some of the lyrics and melodies. For example, this song features a riff from "The Glass Prison" is heard at the start of this song's step "Release".
• "Honor Thy Father" was written about Mike Portnoy's stepfather. When asked about what inspired him to write that song, he stated in an IRC chat: "I'm not very good at writing love songs, so I decided to write a HATE song!!!"^[7]
• Some of the mumbles during "Honor Thy Father" are taken from Paul Thomas Anderson's film Magnolia, in the scene when Jason Robards' character is talking to Philip Seymour Hoffman's character about his regrets in life. There are also parts taken from the film At Close Range in which a scene of Sean Penn and Christopher Walken's characters can be heard arguing.
• The lyrics to "Vacant" were inspired by James LaBrie's daughter, who fell into a short coma after suffering a sudden, unexplained seizure three days before her seventh birthday.^[8]
• "Stream of Consciousness" is the longest Dream Theater instrumental to date (not counting live mash-ups such as "Instrumedley").
• In the Train of Thought instrumental bootleg release, you can hear at the end of "Stream of Consciousness" that there is a baseball game on the TV in the background behind Mike Portnoy and John Petrucci delibrating whether that take was better than the previous one.
• Between 5:51 and 6:07 of the song "In the Name of God", there was a hidden composition buried beneath the far louder sounds of the song itself which lay undiscovered for over a year and a half. The band did not tell anyone that a hidden "nugget" (as it became known amongst Dream Theater fans) was present in the song, and only when Mike Portnoy mentioned it in his Mike Portnoy: Live at Budokan Drum-Cam DVD over a year later did someone find it. The Mike Portnoy message board was rife with fans scouring the song looking for what it might be, until a fan going by the pseudonymous name "DarrylRevok" mentioned that from 5:51 to 6:07 there appeared to be morse code audible, which Nick Bogovich (user handle "Bogie") isolated and discovered that when translated to English, the phrase "eat my ass and balls" (a Mike Portnoy catchphrase) was the result.^[9]
• From 12:56 onwards of "In the Name of God", the American civil war hymn "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" can be heard in the right channel.
• Jordan Rudess played the final note in the album (heard at 14:06 of "In the Name of God") with his nose as shown in the "Making Train of Thought" documentary. Mike Portnoy approved the take while he was filming. This is also the first note of Octavarium's first song, "The Root of All Evil" and the last note of the last song, "Octavarium" (heard at 23:29).

Confusion with Superior's Younique

Around 2003, when Train of Thought was released, in many file sharing networks Superior's album Younique was released as Train of Thought. Train of Thought has only seven tracks. Younique was cut between tracks 7 and 8, resulting in a release with 7 tracks as well.^[10]

Track listing

No.	Title	Lyrics	Music	Length
1.	"As I Am"	John Petrucci	Petrucci, John Myung, Jordan Rudess, Mike Portnoy	7:47
2.	"This Dying Soul" "IV. Reflections of Reality (Revisited)" "V. Release"	Portnoy	Petrucci, Myung, Rudess, Portnoy	11:28
3.	"Endless Sacrifice"	Petrucci	Petrucci, Myung, Rudess, Portnoy	11:23
4.	"Honor Thy Father"	Portnoy	Petrucci, Myung, Rudess, Portnoy	10:14
5.	"Vacant"	James LaBrie	Myung, Rudess	2:57 [11]
6.	"Stream of Consciousness"	(instrumental)	Petrucci, Myung, Rudess, Portnoy	11:16
7.	"In the Name of God"	Petrucci	Petrucci, Myung, Rudess, Portnoy	14:14

Chart performance

• Billboard 200: Train of Thought - #53
• Billboard Top Internet Albums: Train of Thought - #53
• UK Album Charts: Train of Thought - #146
• Norwegian Album Charts: Train of Thought - #9

Personnel

• James LaBrie – lead vocals
• John Petrucci – guitar, backing vocals
• Jordan Rudess – keyboards
• John Myung – bass
• Mike Portnoy – drums, backing vocals

Additional personnel

• Eugene Friesen – cello on "Vacant"

References

1. ^ Jurek, Thom (2011 [last update]). "Train of Thought - Dream Theater | AllMusic". allmusic.com. http://www.allmusic.com/album/r661488. Retrieved 3 August 2011. 
2. ^ Patrizio, Andy (2011 [last update]). "Train of Thought - Music Review at IGN". music.ign.com. http://music.ign.com/articles/498/498313p1.html. Retrieved 3 August 2011. 
3. ^ Dreilinger, Ian (2011 [last update]). "Review of Dream Theater - Train of Thought | Metal Review". metalreview.com. http://metalreview.com/reviews/640/dream-theater-train-of-thought. Retrieved 3 August 2011. 
4. ^ As discussed by John Petrucci in the 20th Anniversary Documentary "The Score So Far", found on the Score DVD
5. ^ "The writing of Train of Thought". Video.google.com. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8332205832617972911. Retrieved 2011-09-28. 
6. ^ For immediate release: Dream Theater - Train Of Thought^{[dead link]}
7. ^ [1]^{[dead link]}
8. ^ "LaBrie's Songs' MeaningS ***James' Responds******". Jameslabrie.com. http://www.jameslabrie.com/forum/index.php?topic=430.msg5969#msg5969. Retrieved 2011-09-28. 
9. ^ [2]^{[dead link]}
10. ^ "Younique at www.last.fm". Last.fm. http://www.last.fm/user/id552/journal/2005/10/31/28698/. Retrieved 2011-09-28. 
11. ^ "Train of Thought: Dream Theater: Music". Amazon.com. http://www.amazon.com/Train-Thought-Dream-Theater/dp/B0000CDLA7. Retrieved 2011-09-28. 

External links

• The writing of Train of Thought
• The recording of Train of Thought