But above all else Dream Theater is yet another masterpiece in a long line of masterpieces. Now, almost three decades since their beginning and after releasing 11 albums, they have finally decided to release a self-titled album, and while I was initially confused by the decision, after several listens I can see how it's a perfect example of everything the band is now and everything they have been, though it also introduces new elements that hint at possibilities for future albums. Aside from one minor letdown in Falling Into Infinity (which was partially effected by their producers interfering with the songwriting process, leading to the band self-producing every album since), the band found massive success over the years and released one impressive album after another, with my personal favorite being the concept album Metropolis Pt. So after a long process they settled on new singer James LaBrie, released the progressive metal classic Images and Words, and all of a sudden Dream Theater had officially taken off. While their debut When Dream and Day Unite showed signs of what they were capable of, some production issues and the lack of a vocalist who fit their sound held them back. Inspired by both the classic progressive rock bands of the 1970's such as Pink Floyd and Yes, but also metal bands such as Metallica, I doubt they could have ever imagined becoming as big as they have over the years, under their now much more famous name, which they came up with before their official debut. The perfect self-titled album Back in the mid 1980's, a group of young men decided to form a band called Majesty. There are so many cheesy moments here, really ruins the experience. Seriously though, if they took some money and hired someone to write their lyrics for them, it wouldn't be a bad idea. If they left this whole album an instrumental with only vocals on Looking Glass, and this song, it would be an instant classic. The string section is beautiful, and Labrie sounds his best in the part following it. This song literally gets a whole star by itself out of the 3 I gave the album. The song itself is very reminiscent of Dream Theater's earlier stuff.Īnd then, there's the long overdue epic Illumination Theory. Surrender to Reason is different however, because John Myung wrote the lyrics, which pretty much clenches the best lyrics of the album. Instrumentals are great, but my god, I feel like 16 year old girls could write better lyrics.

Horrible lyrics (seriously why do they keep letting Petrucci write on most of these) and forgettable melodies make The Bigger Picture, Behind the Veil and Along for the Ride laughable filler. He kills these tracks, one after another.īy the Bigger Picture however, I am starting to see it more clearly (cheesy pun intended) because it's the beginning of the cheese fest of the album. The long awaited instrumental Enigma Machine is next, and although it doesn't live up too Dance of Eternity standards it's a shredder and Mangini makes it known if you hadn't caught on by track 4.

Then they start to hit their stride with The Looking Glass, which is totally inspired by early 80's Rush, one of the stronger tracks on the album. I'm not even sure that would have been better as an instrumental. Already Labrie sounds worse than in a long time. The intro track is real promising, but all too soon it's over and the god awful Enemy Inside is next.

Dream theater the bigger picture