Static invades the airwaves, and with this unsettling realization, the album ends. The tour culminated in a show at Roseland Ballroom in New York City, on August 30, , where Mike Portnoy reportedly had to be hospitalized with exhaustion and dehydration after the show. In subsequent releases, the duo of Mike Portnoy and John Petrucci were fully established as the dominant axe in the band, and unquestionably earned the trust from record company execs.
Fans were relieved to hear the band once again producing material close to the roots of the group, and for more than a decade, they seemed unbreakable. The attention to detail can also be seen on the exquisite cover, which merges the faces of Nicholas and Victoria, with scenes from both their lives represented in polaroid pictures. After the promotional tour, they only played it back to back on a show in Sao Paulo on the Octavarium tour. We documented this tour with a concert review and photo gallery that can be seen here.
By Editorial Team October 27, By Editorial Team October 11, By Editorial Team September 30, Bravo, bravo, bravo!!! Sonic Perspectives never desappoint! The mellow parts of the album are just as brilliant. Two emotional pieces standout here and show LaBrie's best ever singing quality. LaBrie's voice sours ahead of all of his previous work.
LaBrie and Petrucci's best songwriting skills is seen clearly here although it is in most of their other tracks too. Scenes from a Memory is the very definition of progressive rock and this album remains one of the best concept albums and finest pieces of music ever written. Nicholas is getting hypnotherapy because the dreams he has been having concern a girl who lived in the s named Victoria.
As the hypnotherapist counts down from 10, a soft acoustic tune fades in and Nicholas begins to dig into his subconscious It goes into "Strange Deja Vu," one of my favorite song on here with lyrics. It describes Nicholas' dreams and how he and Victoria seem to have a strange conncection. But it ends with nothing solved. It reveals that Nicholas is in fact the reincarnation of Victoria!
Nicholas sets out to figure out why the memory of her has been plaguing him in his sleep, and discovers that she was murdered by a jilted lover. A short instrumental follows, with a breathtaking conclusion as the hypnotherapist opens the next track It seems that murderer killed Victoria, then committed suicide.
A witness came to find them both, and called for assistance. This song has the most awkward lyrics of the album, and fails to rhyme or even make sense at times.
A good part of this song is instrumental, and a great one at that. Nest is "Looking through her eyes" is a good ballad-type song which looks at Nicholas mourning Victoria's death. The second act opens with "Home," a fairly good but somewhat overlong song about the Miracle and the Sleeper. As far as I can tell, the Miracle is Victoria's jilted lover and the Sleeper is her admirer and eventually her boyfriend, I think. It is able to switch from heavy metal guitar to classic piano in an instant, and if you listened to "Metropolis Part One," the "dance of eternity" is love.
Maybe about the Sleeper and Victoria's love, or the death of Victoria, but then again, I'm not exactly sure. Next we have "The Spirit Carries On. This song is about Nicholas coming to terms with the death of Victoria. Finally there is "Finally Free. This means he is the "witness" in "Beyond this Life. He turns on the TV, then listens to some music, then the hypnotherapist wakes him up again? I have no clue. Very, very strange ending.
I cannot make heads or tails of it. Pretty cool progressive metal overall. Overall, there are some splendid songs over these 77 minutes. The shorter tracks Regression, Through My Words don't really add anything either, as they exist mostly to push the story. The others are somewhere in the middle. Strange Deja Vu is pretty good, but with some pretty poor lyrics, Fatal Tragedy has the same flaws, and the final piece doesn't feel good enough to be the conclusion in this story, even though it has its moments and obviously wraps up the story.
All and all, this albums has its moments, some of them glorious, but has too many flaws to be considered a "great" album. But, to my ears, this is the best Dream Theater ever did in their career at least up to I believe it to be their most progressive stylistically , their most ambitious, and their most successful.
If you want a good comingling of classic symphonic prog and metal this is a damn good choice. The instrumental work is spectacular, no one finds better than this anywhere! Just for this reason, this album could be a masterpiece. The technical quality of the band line-up is unquestionable. The architecture obeys to an opera rock album; it has 2 acts which subdivide in several scenes.
It has an interesting story, about past lives. The main character has repetitive dreams about a girl, who calls him, and he is compelled to make a hypnotic session with a therapist to discover the reason, like he knew he will solve his own life. So the album starts with Regression - a hypnotic session which makes us, the listeners, get into the ambience of the story.
It's an original overture for the album, and it fits so well! The voice of the therapist is perfect: you can feel yourself being relaxed, like you're being prepared to listen to a monumental suite. As this happens, a small and beautiful melody appears slowly, with acoustic guitar, introducing the album.
With Overture the album starts truly. The first guitar solo , is magnificent. This guitar solo is going to reappear in One last Time of the second act, culminating wonderfully the emotional heaviness of this music.
Wonderful crying guitar! In fact, this album has lot of deep emotional parts. We can find beautiful and complex piano melodies, particularly in the beginning of Fatal Tragedy, on One last time and Spirit Carries On just to mention some. This last is the lyric explosion of the album: Labrie sings "If I die tomorrow I'll be alright because I believe that after we're gone, the spirit carries on" as the character feels death coming.
We can find some good melodies all over the album, like in Fatal Tragedy, Through her eyes which assents in the album like Floyd's The Great Gig In The Sky in the Dark Side of the Moon and specially in the last track, Finally Free which ends brilliantly the album, and is my personal favourite. For fans of metal and technique, you can find in the second part of Fatal Tragedy the highlight of the album, with heavy guitar riffs and drums, psychedelic guitar and keyboard solos; but also in Beyond this life, the crazy Dance of Eternity and Home.
In this last, Rudess imitates the oriental guitar citara on his keyboard. Perhaps the band took too long their technical experiments in this music who blames anyway? The negative aspects in this album are the excessive technical quality of its members, they can exaggerate in some parts , by other hand, Labrie's voice can be hard to accept. Though a major force of technicism, feeling and songwriting, the album is not a brilliant force of originality.
I don't know if anybody remembers a book called Fortunately, Unfortunately from when they were little kids, but it will provide a perfect format for this review. Maybe some people who didn't like his screaming on Awake might breathe a sigh of relief, but for me it makes the performance seem like it was lacking some of the dynamics it could've had. Fortunately , the premise for Scenes from a Memory is a very interesting read, and fun to contemplate. Unfortunately , the execution of this concept just doesn't work out anywhere near as well as it could have.
The trouble, in my opinion, is the opposite of the problem I have with PINK FLOYD's failed concept, The Wall --instead of the music being lacking and dominated by the concept, Scenes goes for the other extreme: the music gets so far out of control that it ends up interrupting the flow of the story.
I find myself wanting to skip ahead to the parts where the story itself is happening. I've heard that on previous albums like the masterpiece Awake , where that lineup produced some truly wonderful, memorable music that has earned a very special place among my collection of prog albums. Unfortunately , there has been a lineup change since those times, and bad things have happened.
He simply goes on too long, and I don't always like the tone of the synthesizers he uses. He needed more time to develop as a keyboardist with an appropriate sense of when and when not to play--his best moments are certainly not here. Fortunately , there are a few good songs that do stick out to me as memorable in and of themselves, and are one of the few reasons that at this time I've decided to hold on to Scenes and see if the whole album will grow on me. The first is "Overture ", one of the better metal moments on the album I know, I know, some reviewers don't care for the metal influences, but I seek it and the second, which meant even more to me, was the inspirational "The Spirit Carries On".
I saw one reviewer trash this song for the gospel choir--but I really feel that was unjustified, that the choir is perfectly in context with this song. This song is so different from the rest of the album that it is instantly memorable. The lengthmeans that it is among the most restrained of the songs on the album.
I'll be revisiting this theme someday when I give a positive review to Train of Thought. I may be a sentimental sap, but the lyrics and delivery of this song just about bring me to tears, and even if I end up selling this album, there's no doubt I'll be ripping this song to keep forever. Unfortunately , most of the songs are so bogged down by endless, undisciplined soloing that they're impossible to tell from each other. I have no objections to fast, technically impressive solos.
This is what I refer to as discipline --knowing how much you can get away with before it crosses the line into self-indulgence, and having the guts to edit the self-indulgent parts out before the album hits the shelf. DT, unfortunately, slows down too much, and I'm convinced that most of the time, slower music just isn't their strong suit. This accentuates the feeling of the album dragging its feet during the solos, too, and makes it all the more clear when they don't STOP when they need to.
Sometimes they have a good thing going I seem to remember a very cool Eastern-inspired riff in "Home", but they manage to make you completely forget the good they did by going on way, WAY too long for their own good.
Ultimately, I think "Fans only" describes this album to a T. I think one has to be a serious DREAM THEATER fan to get into this album, and the way things stand now, I am only a casual fan, and I think they're better off when they tend more towards pure metal, and the metal element is only an occasional visitor here.
It may be a little embarrassing to admit all of this, considering the accolades this album gets The album is divided in two acts and nine scenes. First half is as introductory as laconic.
It represents the powerful side of the album, that takes right on after the hypnotic prologue in the voice of James LaBRIE, who by the way, I never perceived as devoted to his inner growth like I did in here. Quite convincing I must say. Thus, by experimenting several changes of costumes throughout five different characters, the Canadian front man leads our senses all along the nine scenes in a paused yet anguishing way.
The voices, the impersonations, the ambition to display unleashing strength and passion, they all match perfectly to the music and that's what I call dedication.
I still don't digest LaBRIE's particular way to perform behind the microphone entirely, but this time the argumentation is well justified.
Up to scene five, the tracks run devouringly neat and yet they get to strike fiercely inside your ears, plagued of ease, compassed keyboards, rhythmic and crunchy guitar interludes and of course, thunderous drum beating by Mike PORTNOY. All in all, there's this piece right at the end of act one I don't appreciate completely, which is "Through Her Eyes".
The track is just way too mellow, almost intolerable to conceive within the depths of this album, but I think the total running time needed a "missing you" break to take on the ride to come in act two.
And so, act two. Personally, the latter half of the album is better arranged and explained, musically and lyrically. The closing section to "Scenes From a Memory" is totally cathartic, is evidently detached from act one no matter if what we're handling here is a concept album. The fact of distilling such powerfulness through the strings of that guitar, forced LaBRIE somehow to measure up to a level of commitment and ravishing composure.
Under my personal appreciation, he's the best keyboardist and choir conductor the band ever lined-up. By flowing from present to past in its conception, "Scenes From a Memory" is unarguably the band's finest piece of work in my opinion. Devotedly crafted, outrageously executed and exceptionally intertwined. Maybe to many compliments in few lines, but believe me, they are insufficient to describe the quality of this Prog Metal milestone. Mesmerizing, captivating, representative.
It sounds like an exaggeration but this album goes on for 77 minutes and I can scarely point to the bits of music I enjoyed Far too much of the album was monotous and predictable. Surely we turn to prog-rock expecting variety, not formulae? I eventually sold my copy of this album, and I haven't really missed it. Dream Theater - generally and on this album in particular - focus on structure and virtuosity. The music is always very controlled, refined and thoughtfully laid out. But with all this technical perfection, this album features beautiful melodies as well.
Production also is nearly perfect, I cannot understand people who say otherwise. However, there might still be a chance that you will not like the album or Dream Theater at all: The vocals are not everybody's cup of tea, as are the classical and avantgardistic ZAPPA influences and lengthy solos. Nope, it's not. It comes damn near perfection at some points, and then at others, it falls flat on it's face.
Now what is it all about? Scenes From a Memory is a concept album revolving around one Victoria and her relationship with the Sleeper and the Miracle. The story is rather interesting the first couple times, and even has a few good plot twists. Yes, plot twists in an album. But what about the music? Here's where it gets really debatable. I'm gonna go piece by piece, there's really no other way to do it. First off we have Regression, with some pretty singing and it really makes you feel relaxed when listening to it.
Not a bad piece, but it doesn't count for much, so I'm going to include it with Overture Overture is a really killer piece, all instrumental. It's got some great melodies along the way, and is one of the most passionate pieces on the whole album. Yup, that's right, without singing.
Next up is Strange Deja vu, the first real song. Here are some more strong melodies, especially th section "Tonight I am searching for it Otherwise, Labrie's voice tends to get wearisome, which holds back the otherwise awesome instrumentals. The song kinda meanders along until it gets to a faster section, then goes back to the original theme with a nice piano entrance.
It's nice, but Labrie's voice pisses me off, and it does kinda wander along. Don't think it's a bad piece though, because it's not. Fatal Tragedy suffers from the some wandering as Strange Deja vu, but also has basically the same strengths as Strange deja vu.
Labrie's voice is much better here though, and the whole thing seems much more focused until about four minutes in, where they solo for a good two minutes aimlessly until it ends. I used to love the solo section cause it's great musicianship, but now it's just wearisome. Other than that, great piece. This song really has some great lyrics and great instrumentals, and Labrie comes through very well. In my opinion this song should be about 6 minutes max instead of 9, and it shouldn't be half awesome and half random solo-ing.
THIS is a good piece. LaBrie is dead on here and sounds great the whole time. The lyrics are excellent and the song is well-put together, overall, I have no complaints, it's an excellent piece. Good lyrics too, just furthers the mystery already drawn up. Excellent stuff, heavy too, very powerful, just the damn solos! That's what holds this album back! Great instrumental piece, chaotic as it should be, just a bit too long. Cut it back to five minutes and you've got one hell of a piece.
I like it quite a lot I dunno know about this piece. It starts off pretty average, with Ruddess farting around playing fast for the sake of playing fast, but builds to something amazing with a familiar melody from earlier songs.
Labrie sounds kinda bad hear, especially in the beginning. Portnoy is REAL good here, however. At about the mark the song picks up and doesn't let up until the end, where it exits with a haunting piano melody that fades right into The Spirit Carries On.
I give it The Spirit Carries On is one of those songs you don't really like at first but it grows on you pretty fast. I still don't love it, but it's a great sing-along song, hehe. The lyrics are pretty good and the melody is nice and soothing. It isn't really that great, but it's not bad at ALL. It reveals the awesome climax of the album which you're better off hearing on your own.
It's got some nice piano work and has good background sound effects, which is incidentally all the last four minutes is. Fine work, powerful, I love this song, even if about half of it is just story. This album is NOT perfect. Number one: it gets stale after a couple listens. Because of the overly long story, some cheesy parts and some bad singing by Labrie, you want to move on to other things. However, I try to listen to the albums I review a couple times before I do the review, and this is no exception.
It loses all of its' sheen after a few listens, and someglaring flaws stick out. Then, you will be able to discern after a few more listens that the individual songs aren't masterpieces, at least not them all as you probably first though, but simply great or good osngs that flow together extremely well. As an album, it's unbelievable, as a collection of songs, if you catch my meaning, it's not DT's best. All that aside, excellent album, one that still spins in my CD player occasionally.
You should definitely get a copy. There's a lot of "bling" but no real substance in this album - similarly to "Images and Words", which was the last Dream Theater album I reviewed.
In fact, the two are pretty much interchangeable - there's nothing much to distinguish the two from each other, in terms of musical styles and textures apart from the annoying "relaxation tape" section right at the beginning.
It's been a real slog to review this, as it simply does not hold interest. Most times I've switched off somewhere in the middle of song 3 - but I've felt that I should give it a real chance, since it's so highly rated, so I've kept at it over the last year and a half, in order to build up a picture of why it holds no interest, and why I do not find it to be a masterpiece.
Firstly there's the "relaxation tape" bit. What's that about? If it wasn't for the fact that I've heard these kinds of words so many times on old tapes from the s, I'd still hate it for the patronising way the words are delivered. Before the acoustic guitar enters, a background female voice is apparent - strongly reminiscent of "The Great Gig In The Sky".
The vocal is terribly "precious", and the guitar playing precise and without feeling. The music itself is very cliched, reminding me of something from "The Wall", but without the drama. The first indication of prog is the title of the next piece "Overture ". The first issue I have is with the production - it's just too brittle, which gives a clinical sound overall. This, combined with the pristine execution just makes the entire album sound fake and loses a significant amount of musicality.
Then there's the music itself. The main riffs are terribly derived - the first one sounding like it might have come from an early Van Halen album, and the drumming is so precise it sounds like it could have been done via a MIDI drum machine with no quantization. The technicalities and fills are so "in your face" that it's difficult to appreciate the music that underpins the technical trickery. Answers on a postcard to Pity about the vocals and dreadful half-baked harmonies.
Structurally, there is nothing exciting going on - typical rock song structure, and the overall effect is that of a standard and forgettable rock song with extended bridge passages.
These are quite interesting in and of themselves - but do not either grow from the existing music, or bear any realation to previous thematic material as one would expect in prog rock. The sudden shifts of mood may appeal to some, but I find they disturb the progression of the music rather than enhance it. At the first bridge occurs, and has a smorgesbord of Queen about it. The riff and melodies are good, if not particularly imaginative, and do not really develop, but drop into and out of a soft rock flavoured mush at , then there's a drop to a quasi-Rakhmaninov piano section - very basic, but quite nice in itself if, again, unrelated.
There is no real harmonic invention - the safe option is chosen all the way through, and attention is paid to timbre the sound of it with various layers. A plethora of cheesey devices lead to a monotonous riffing section at ish - but none of this stops this from being a very standard rock song with excessive frills and decoration, which is ultimately derivative and forgettable.
There might be a mind- boggling succession of changes, but ultimately, these do not generally serve to drive the music but are wearying, and explain why I've normally stopped listening by now. Some of the pyrotechnics are very good in and of themselves - impressive and immaculately executed, but I can detect no real feeling for musical direction and drama, rather the opportunity to stick together the ultimate collage of bits and pieces.
The main problem I have here is that this piece challenges the analyst in me - in ways that I'd prefer not to be challenged. I don't want to have to piece together the collage myself to view the overall picture - I expect the creators of the work to give an overall coherence to the music that makes analysis difficult, rather than blatantly obvious.
When the building blocks of the music are so obvious, it detracts from the overall big picture - and I'm really not surprised as, musically, there isn't one. This is music written to go with a concept - the music itself is non-conceptual and disjointed. I think a final summary is better than a continuing blow-by-blow account, as the "blows" are densely packed - and if you like that sort of thing, then this is probably right up your street, and will make you feel like an analyst listening to it.
If you are already analytically inclined, then you will probably hate this and find it somewhat amateurish - despite the obvious virtuosity, polished performances and production. It's not really prog rock, as there is nothing organic about the music - on the contrary, there is a profound digital edge to it - which again, some people might find appealing. It's not really metal either, despite the metal riffs and "hot" guitar sounds. Metal is driven by riffs - they are not incidental. It's kind of progressive, in that there is a deliberate attempt to fuse a variety of different styles together - even if it doesn't work particularly well, as the whole album ends up sounding very samey on a casual listen.
So you could see it as unique - but it sounds like a soft conglomeration of a lot of other bands work. A kind of nu-prog, I suppose. It's not altogether bad - there are moments that are really, genuinely enjoyable - but these are few and far between, IMO. In short, if you're already a fan of DT, you've probably already got this album and completely disagree with every word I've said. If you're not already a fan, then I would advise buying some real prog. The Album begins with a relaxing acoustic introduction with warm and gentle singing of LaBrie.
Once the listener is drawn in and the story begins The quality of the music is Dream Theater at their best, lyrically, and instrumentally. The first half is not extraordinary though, with great but not excellent rockers, a few ballads, and a long song called 'Beyond this Life' which doesn't appeal to me.
It depends on a mediocre heavy riff that reminds me of 'america' from Emerson Lake And Palmer. It has an instrumental section of pointless soloing, but the song is saved by beautiful choruses. The Second Half is stronger than the first half in my opinion. Home is the heaviest track of the album and it floors me every time I listen to it. The main riff of the song is excellent, and the soloing is better than in 'beyond this life'.
While The Dance for Eternity is for me the weakest Dream Theater song I know it has no structure and I do not like the solos , the last two tracks are some of the best songs the band did. The Spirit Carries on is an anthemic sing-along piece of great melodies, and Finally Free has a mesmerizing slow distorted riff and some of the best drumming ever put in record. Once the 'open your eyes Nicholas' is finally heard, you will end up with satisfaction. Scene TWO: I.
Scene Three: I. Through My Words 7. Scene Seven: I. Scene Nine: Finally Free 9. So, as is obvious now, I am NOT one of these crazed fans. BIG difference. Dream Theater has accomplished more in terms of music than any other ProgMet bands can or ever will do. Now, for this album itself. I'm stating right here that this album is most likely in the top ten albums ever made.
I have no shame in saying this. Also, understand that my main focus and love in terms of prog is symphonic prog, not metal! Yet, I feel that when you mention Close to the Edge, Thick as a Brick, Brain Salad Surgery, and all the rest of the prog works of everlasting art, this absolutely must be mentioned along side of them.
You can talk about the band's playing instrumentally all you want to. It's my personal belief that Mike Portnoy is the best drummer on earth as of right now. I don't say this because he is absolutely insane technically. That, of course, has something to do with it, but it's also because he can be very tasteful when needed. Petrucci is technically brilliant as well, and Rudess is the most brilliant keyboardist on earth right now too. Pattern forming? Myung's bass is also as good as you get, even though it could probably be a little louder at points.
Finally, guys, stop knocking LaBrie. Yes, his voice can get, well, iffy, when they are live, but in the studio, he's fantastic. As a five part whole, the saying "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts" applies to the max. Dream Theater is the tightest group to ever exist.
As my cousin once said, "You kinda get angry after you listen to them. You say 'Ah, how can they actually be that good? However, I do not think this is a masterpiece because of the band's playing.
Sure, that helps. But it's mainly due to the pure feeling and sheer overwhelming quality it delivers.
In terms of songwriting, Dream Theater cannot be beat, and they know how to tell a story, if you haven't already guessed this is a concept album, what with the Acts and Scenes. Act I Scene I: Regression - The simple clock ticking opens up the album, and while the hypnotherapist speaks, you can hear a woman in the background, and it foreshadows the rest of the album to come. Gradually, Petrucci's acoustic guitar enters, washing away the hypnotherapist, and LaBrie helps immerse the listener and the main character in his memories.
This is how you open a concept album. Instrumental song that packs everything one would come to expect from Dream Theater plus more. It also introduces some of the themes that show up later throughout the album. Everything is woven in brilliantly. Absolutely perfect to calm down the album, even only for about a minute, before it kicks back in again.
Get ready, because then 2 Fatal Tragedy - Whoa. It could be the best song on this album. And that would be saying something. It proves that emotion can also be delivered with Dream Theater music. I'm trying to find a word to use other than "brilliant" to use on this album, and I simply cannot. The lyrics here are from a newstory, and it is actually pulled off very well.
As with Fatal Tragedy, there are unbelievable keyboard and guitar solos. This song is just pure cool. It's also very good as one of the longer songs on the album. Yes, it's much slower and features female vocals, but that does not mean that it is sappy or bad at all. In fact, I find it to be a very touching song that does well in ending the first half of the album. It has a slightly Middle Eastern feel to it at points, and overall the effect works.
It shows a span of Dream Theater's work. Surely, this album couldn't get better. It brings back Overture , and then goes in a whole new direction, with every type of solo. The standout solo for me, that is : the ragtime piano solo. Rudess knows how to play, and this shows that his solos aren't just measures of 64th notes also listen to the piano solo in the Solitary Shell section of Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence.
LaBrie is indeed fantastic here. This is probably a standout track for him. Then again, every song is. Maybe even more emotion than One Last Time.
Here, everything has been brought full circle. Everything comes back here, and the culmination is complete. It might have received my vote for best album closer ever, if it was in fact the end of the album, and if there wasn't another even better closer, which luckily is in fact on this album.
Well, this proves that they are even better with closers? This also has the good chance of being the best song on the album. Absolutely incredible. It singlehandedly takes the album in a new direction in a good way, mind you , and it is also extremely cool, and is also extremely emotional, all at the same time. The middle section with the, well, event going on I don't want to ruin it is phenomenal, made even better with the addition of the hypnotherapist saying "Open your eyes, Nicholas" in a very frightening way.
Then, of course, he says it again, and after a short yelp, the needle leaps off the record. Suppose you are a casual prog fan. You know, you have one or two Yes albums, a Genesis album, and a Pink Floyd album. Well, regardless, you should still have this. Let's go one further. Suppose you like music.
You know, you have some Led Zeppelin, maybe some other bands. This album is that good, that everyone should have heard it. I do not think that it is the greatest album ever made a status that can never be fully realized for any album at all , but it's up there.
The voice is pretty unemotional or plain bad and the keyboards are more annoying than anything else. The Dance of Eternity" makes me think of a Medley where each part has not any link to the other before or after.
It is like if the band had something to prove from a technical point of view. I just can't listen to this without thinking "those guys are show-offs who want to prove something to someone".
True, the music is technically advanced, but where is the emotion? The critics on those two songs are representative of what I think about this album. I don't dislike this album at all. It is a "good, but not-essential" album, which mean what it means: you DON'T have to have this album in your collection if you are a prog fan.
This is NOT an essential album, unless you are deep in neoprog, metalprog or "technically-advanced-we-play-guitar-riffs-like-if-we-were-on-acid-progmusic". The opening of the album, Regression, begins with clocks ticking back and forth and the voice of a hypnotherapist voiced by Ex-Rush Producer Terry Brown , and is a nice acoustic opener to the album the theme to this song is repeated later in The Spirit Carries On. Overture is the first instrumental on the album, and it shows what kind of direction Dream Theater were going in, clever use of chords and themes some very Alex Lifeson inspired sections are in this song.
It's one of the better Dream Theater instrumentals and is one of my favorites on the album. It segues into Strange Deja Vu, which is the first song that revolves around the story no matter how convoluted it is. It has some powerhouse riffs and piano work and some great vocals from LaBrie. It segues into Through My Words, which has a repeating theme throughout the album.
This one minute piano-vocal duet is a perfect mellow theme to the album, but then all hell breaks loose on the next track. Fatal Tragedy is the "Inspector Gadget rip off" of the album, and it has some great guitar work from Petrucci some of his best on the album. The mini-jam in the minute has some extremely complicated rhythms and ideas that flow so perfectly with one another. The instrumental break in the middle has some great keyboard and drum interplay and there are some great sections of unison work between Petrucci and Rudess.
It segues into Through Her Eyes, the poppiest track on the album. It has some nice synth drums and soothing vocal from LaBrie. This song is better represented on the Live Scenes From New York live album which features a full performance of this album. And with the end of this song ends Act I of this album.
Act II opens with Home, possibly the strongest song on the album. By far the heaviest, with it's dropped D tuning to give it that extra punch. The Dance of Eternity follows, and it's another technical nightmare, with revolving time signatures almost every single measure. Almost every type of solo imaginable is featured here, even ragtime piano, yes, ragtime piano.
This is one of the most triumphant Dream Theater tracks and is a fan favorite. The Roger Waters type lyrics are complimented perfectly with a Petrucci version of a David Gilmour solo.
Finally Free ends the album, and it goes through many different moods, from somber and metallic, to triumphant and majestic. Julian screams. Edward fires two gun shots at Julian. Victoria screams in terror. He knew for sure that he was in the clear and that this would look like a murder suicide.
To make his story even more believable, he becomes the witness to the crime, leaving his statement for the paper to print.. Edward hides away as Nicholas comes in.
Wondering why the record player and the tv is turned on Nicholas shuts off the tv and walks over to the player. Lifting the needle, when Edward, aka The Hypnotherapist walks up to him and speaks to Nicholas an all to familiar line with an all too familiar voice. The needle scratches the record as Nicholas is startled, the record player is stuck on the inner edge of the record….
And create great confusion. The needle scratches the record as Nicholas is startled, the record player is stuck on the inner edge of the record… Related. Register or Login. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use. To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy. We are thrilled to announce that we will be joined. Happy release day!
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