The insane drum fills towards the end are, well, insane. That Mike Portnoy really is one hell of a drummer.

Here’s what I love about this song.

• 2:45 eerie stuff
• 3:23-3:31 cool bass thing
• 3:31 rockin’ stuff w/ strange time
• 4:12 strange keyboard solo
• 4:29 cool keyboard tone kicks in. sounds like a piano but not quite
• 5:26 chills out a bit. kinda calm almost
• 6:01 rocks again
• 6:08 klutch pinch harmonic
• 6:16 drum beat changes & Mike stands which is pretty sweet
• 6:34 first of my fav drum fills
• 6:41 french horns
• 6:42 snare madness on drum
• 7:53 eerie keyboard stuff is back
• 8:42-8:58 absolutely amazing drumming
• 9:15-end take us home boys

Now image you’re in the NY orchestra and they tell you you’re gonna be backing a metal/prog. rock band. You’ll probably think there’s gonna be some wanking and non-musicianship going on. It’s totally beneath an orchestra guy to play metal. But then, they hear songs like this… or the 24 minute long Octavarium.

Dream Theater’s no joke dude. These guys are musicians. I really wish I was there and could see the orchestra guys’ faces when they first heard the music that they’re gonna have to back. I bet they were pleasantly surprised/interested.