Prophets of War
Prophets of War is the sixth track from Dream Theater's 2007 album, Systematic Chaos.
On January 26th, 2007, Mike Portnoy recruited 50 Dream Theater fans to come into the studio and record chants for this song. A video was released on April 20th, 2007, which included the intro and outro to the track, along with the recording of the fifty fans that were there. The video can be viewed at this location. Similar to the song "Never Enough" from the album Octavarium, this song has been compared to the work of Muse, mainly due to the predominant use of the synthesizer and LaBrie's employment falsetto on certain words and phrases.
Unlike the other songs on the album, "Prophets of War" does not contain a guitar solo, instead featuring a verse sung by Mike Portnoy. It is also the only song on the album with lyrics written by the band's singer, James LaBrie. The Title of the song is a play on the word "profit" as evidenced through the lyrics which address the controversial issue of the war in Iraq - specifically asking the question "Are we profiting from war?"
The song is written in the key of G Major/E Minor.
According to Chaos in ProgresS: The Making of Systematic Chaos, the song's working title was "Song #3" or "Carpet Babies".
Credits
- James LaBrie - vocals
- John Myung - bass guitar
- John Petrucci - guitar
- Mike Portnoy - drums, vocals
- Jordan Rudess - keyboards