When Dream And Day Unite('89) **1/2
A little while back, I would have given this album one star. But I recently
had a great listening experience, and I'm starting to turn around
on it. This album features Charlie Dominci on vocals, and he's pretty bad.
He sounds a lot like a guy trying to imitate James LaBrie. But despite
Dominici's whining vocals, John Myung's farting bass, and the guy's armpit
on the cover, this album contains a lot of well written songs. Some DT
freaks even claim that it's the best in that area. I don't know about that,
but it's worth listening to a bunch of times, to get yourself to see what's
good in it.
Images and Words('92) *****
Dream Theater returns with a totally different sound, and it's incredible.
Dominici is gone, replaced by LaBrie, who fits much better with the band.
They are a lot heavier too, at least when they want to be. I can only
imagine what it would be like to have heard WDADU first, and then heard
"Pull Me Under" come flying out of the speakers. That and "Take the Time"
even received a significant amount of radio airplay. "Surrounded" is an
excellent, glowing, mid-tempo song. "Metropolis" is the best song on this
album. I challenge anyone to find a better instrumental jam than the one
in this song. The whole album has a perfect crisp sound, that goes great
with the band. Get this album!
Live at the Marquee('93) **
I got this album soon after I saw Dream Theater on their "Waking up the
World" tour, and I had an insatiable desire to hear more and more Dream
Theater. Unfortunately, this album isn't nearly as cool as actually seeing
them live. You get to hear LaBrie doing two WDADU tracks, and that's ok,
but that's about all that's new here. Bombay Vindaloo is kind of a boring
instrumental. Surrounded is the only song that might be better than the
album version. If you're looking for live Dream Theater, get the video
instead.
Live in Tokyo [Video] ('93) ****
This one is definitely a lot better than the live CD. The sound quality is
pretty poor, but everything else about it is really good. "To Live Forever",
a non-album song, starts out cool, but then John Petrucci fools with his
guitar for like ten minutes, and then it's awesome. About 2 minutes of
ending are added on to "Take the Time." You get to see Labrie jumping around
like a fool, Moore signing some chick's tits, Myung strangling himself with his
giant bass, and Petrucci's huge condom. The parts with the band hanging out
in Tokyo are pretty funny.
Awake('94) ****
Once again, Dream Theater returns with a different sound. This album is
darker, heavier, and crunchier than the last. Kevin Moore, who left the
band after this, has gotten all depressed, and wrote some pretty down stuff.
LaBrie also decided to try some crunchy vocals, which I don't think his voice
is really suited for. But there's still a bunch of amazing stuff here. The
twenty minute trilogy is really cool, even though I have no idea what it's
about. "The Mirror" and "Lie," two fairly simple songs (for Dream Theater)
are also their heaviest. The intro to "The Mirror" was played as the intro
to "Take the Time" on the Images and Words tour. The final song "Space
Dye Vest" is totally depressing, but executed perfectly; a great song.
A Change of Seasons('95) ****1/2 // **
It's difficult to give this EP a single star rating. It's essentially a
single with a bunch of covers for b-sides. The single, "A Change of Seasons"
is an incredible song. You'd think it would be hard to make a twenty three
minute song without it getting boring, but Dream Theater being the badasses
that they are hardly even repeat sections. The song has changed
considerably since it was originally written, and it's become a lot better.
Of course, the music is excellent, but the lyrics are exceptional as well.
They could be very cheesy, but they aren't. The only thing missing is a
balls-out solo. Oh well. The second part, the covers, is kind of, "eh."
The Elton John songs are probably the best. Maybe if I was a Zeppelin fan.
Bohemian Rhapsody is cool, but the bastards stop right before the singing.