The Dark Eternal Night

Song infobox
Name = The Dark Eternal Night


Format = CD
Artist = Dream Theater
alt Artist =
Album = Systematic Chaos
Released = 2007
track_no = 4
Recorded = 2007
Genre = Progressive metal
Thrash metal
Length = 8:51
Label = Roadrunner Records
Writer = John Petrucci
Composer = Dream Theater
Producer = John Petrucci
Mike Portnoy
prev = "Constant Motion"
prev_no = 3
next = "Repentance"
next_no = 5"The Dark Eternal Night" is the fourth track from Dream Theater's 2007 album, "Systematic Chaos".

The lyrics to this song were written by John Petrucci. According to him, the song is about "A monster from long, long ago, who's a pharaoh that comes and haunts a town." On April 28, 2007, a rough version (not the final mix) of this song leaked onto the internet.

Petrucci uses an Ernie Ball/Music Man seven-string guitar on this track, as can be seen on the EPK video for the album. John Myung uses a 5 string bass, which appears to be a Musicman Bongo 5-string, as opposed to his 6 string JM-2 Yamaha signature bass. The bass performance is notable for the use of popped tritones in the verse and a pick near the end of the song, of which both techniques are atypical for Dream Theater. The song features verses with heavily distorted vocals and the EPK video shows both James LaBrie and Mike Portnoy contributing vocals. There is also a short break in the song where Jordan Rudess provides a small solo that replicates the sound of vaudevillian piano. The song also features short blastbeats, and the instrumental section eventually escalates into, for Dream Theater, an unusually fast double bass drum staccato part.

An In-Studio video was released on May 11, 2007, which documents the recording of this song. [http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/artists/DreamTheater/video.aspx] The video features John Myung comically collapsing from the chair after botching the staccato-section.

On the documentary "Chaos in Progress" the ending riff is referred to as the heaviest riff in Dream Theater's history.

On the "Chaos in Progress" documentary Mike explains that the continuum solo was a one take improvisation by Jordan messing about in the studio when they were tracking the drums. They originally had no plans for a solo over the end riff but thought it sounded so cool that they kept it (in the documentary a caption reveals that Jordan Rudess improvised the solo while Mike Portnoy was filming something else. The caption says: "...that's how HARD the man rocks").

According to Chaos in Progress: The Making of Systematic Chaos, the song's working title was "Song #5" or "N.A.D.S." (North American Dream Squad, as seen on the video played on the screen during the shows for the Systematic Chaos tour).

Personnel

*James LaBrie - lead vocals
*John Myung - bass guitar
*John Petrucci - guitar
*Mike Portnoy - drums, backing vocals
*Jordan Rudess - keyboards, continuum

References