This album is great. Easily the best they've put out since Metropolis, and probably their most accessible since falling into infinity. It took me awhile to really sink my teeth into as many of the songs aren't all that memorable until you've heard them a few times.
Octavarium is much different than ACOS in terms of approach. ACOS took an approach that had dream theater throwing tons of somewhat similar sounding parts at you and forming a song out of it. Octavarium is more of a marriage of a few very different parts with one of the best instrumental sections in Dream Theater history. Technical, confusing, and packed with about 8 different emotions in the span of a minute and a half (or however long it is). I'd put ACOS and Octavarium about equal in terms of quality, but vastly different. It is the song that has taken me the longest time to appreciate on the album though.
Those who've skipped out on DT because of Labrie(the singer), they may want to give this album a shot. His singing is much improved on this album in my opinion, and he's not sucking helium nearly as often. His voice is really one that takes time to get used to. I didn't like it for the longest time but one day I just suddenly loved it and then fell inlove with the band. They're still not Pain of Salvation, and Labrie is certainly no Daniel Gildenlow, but he's quite good in his own right.
Highlights of the album for me(every song has atleast 1)
Root of All Evil - Petrucci's solo. His most tasteful technical solo since Home (on Metropolis)
The Answer Lies Within - The last couple minutes, primarily the symphonic stuff. Very nice.
These Walls - The pre-chorus and the ending.
I walk Beside you - The intro...such a dream theater thing to do.
Panic Attack - Pretty much the whole song is flat out awesome. I'm not a big fan of the solo (sounds alot like the solos on Train of Thought, which I thought were for the most part pretty uninteresting)
Never Enough - Again, I love every second of this song. I've been told it's very very similar to Muse's "Hysteria", though I've not been able to listen to that song yet to see just how close the two are. The mid section has one of the best unisons in dream theater history. It's interesting, cool sounding, and having tabbed about the first third of it out, it's VERY difficult to play. Good stuff.
Sacrificed Sons - The "political" song of the album, a trend they've had since Six Degrees of Inner turbulence. This is the best they've done, imo, slightly eclipsing In the Name of God(which was by far the best song on ToT). This may be my favorite song on the album, and it's fantastic from end to end. Has a very odd melody in the first half that although somewhat dissonant, fits absolutely perfectly.
Octavarium - This one took me some time, but after about 20 or so listens I feel it's every bit as A Change of Seasons, though completely different. The entire song is great, but from about 13:50 on it's just fantastic. The last few minutes are just incredible though.
And that's about it as far as my thoughts on the album go. Right now I'd put it above Train of Thought, Six Degrees, Falling into Infinity, and probably Awake(though I'm not sure there...) on my list of dream theater favorites. Metropolis pt.2 and Images&Words are both still better I thitnk, though. The album is still getting better each time I listen to it, though, so that may change.
