Dream Theater - Images and Words (CD)

prog metal masterpiece

By Yahoo! Shopping User  Oct 14, 2006 | 1 out of 1 found this Images and Words review helpful

Pros: the more you listen the more curious you are

Cons: perhaps not for non prog community

This can probably be a revolution for progressive metal! Somewhere in 1992, an unknown album from an unfamiliar band was played in a music shop. It shocked the rock communities who were bored with the current trends. Soon, they were amazed because th...e songs were unique, long, melodic, and sometimes complex. Listening the 5th and 8th track, people thought that the musicians were crazy but they wanted to know the name of the band. Then, some of the older remembered groups like Rush or Queensryche and tried again to listen to them. Okey, maybe it is just fictive story, but in my opinion it is to describe how surprising ‘Images and Words’ is. Actually Dream Theater had released their first album three years before but it was unsuccessful. Their second attempt was not perhaps heard in the mainstream. However, for many prog fans, this work was one of the masterpieces. It is not easy to explain what actually the main power of this group. We may say that John Petrucci is the most influential with his most song writings or Kevin Moore as lyricists and composer in other parts. Their guitar and keyboard harmony builds the band’s melody and enrich the music. How about the rest? Mike Portnoy is an aggressive drummer though in this album had not yet made any lyrics. His beat is distinctive and difficult to imitate. John Myung’s bass lines also get along, not only with Portnoy playing but also with Petrucci’s. Then how is the vocalist? There are rarely singers like James Labrie who has an excellent range and timbre and melodious characteristic. After hearing the whole tracks in this album, there are a lot of impressions. Each song offers something really different and tasteful in beat, technique, complexity, and even lyrical imagery. I think I can stop digging up those eight tracks from the first time I heard them. It is hard but always interesting by myself to describe this album. It is a bit a mystique that all of the songs cannot be separated one by one in my mind though in fact, the characteristics and themes are not same. (Maybe it is too subjective but real in me) Song like Metropolis is closely related to all of other songs in ‘Images…’ The cerebral audio imagery in most part is Dream Theater representation and even overshadows the rest of works in their career. It is like an examination to pass if somebody wants to be an expert. “Learning to Live’ is a must to know if you hear the band’s name. It is also a high level of musicianship with its frequently altered tensions, colourful melody, and great range of vocal. As complex as the previous two, ‘Under Glass Moon’ and ‘Take the Time’ bring another side of Dream Theater lyric and music. The first is like a poem and put with visual manifestation from feeling and the second is about someone’s thought. Interestingly, those five guys can combine major and minor tension to show the big emotional degree. Hence, not only about the sophisticated music they can produce but also multi-coloured words and moods, as the album’s title implies. The rest songs features ‘Surrounded’ that is more poppy but still contains a lot of progressive aspects in beat and melody. It comes with optical images as illustrated in the lyric. Then, ‘Pull Me Under’ and ‘Another Day’ are close to rock anthems with guitar-keyboards domination. Still they are amazing and meaningful, not as cheesy as what they impress at first. ‘Wait for Sleeps’ seems like a ‘bonus track’ for its short duration. Nevertheless, this is a beautiful track to remember by its sentimental vocal and keyboards playing as the sole music here. In conclusion, this is a must-have album by prog fans and recommended to trying-to-be rock artists. Learn from this work and you can do anything with your band and music. Dream Theater is the right musicians in the right place and it is their masterpiece! Perfect! ***** Read more Less