SFAM ----> DT 12 Ranked and Reviewed

[pcs90]

I thought Kevin's solo in 6:00 was one of his best, but I guess that's just me.
The sampling annoys me, too. For some live shows on the following tour they didn't use it.

[RoeDent]

The sampling is an integral part of the song. Take it away and the song simply isn't the song anymore.

[FsF]

Been really enjoying these song reviews, keep up the good work! Especially interested to read the rest of the Awake reviews, DT's masterpiece in my opinion. I honestly can't believe I didn't notice Mike repeating his initial drum riff under the section after the quiet bit til you pointed it out. Awake, still interesting after all these years...

[OnTheBacksofAngela]

Thanks for the comments guys!
@pcs90: Ahhh. You are right, it is an extremely good solo, guess I wasn't expressing my true views as I wrote it. Sorry!
@RoeDent: I understand what you are saying. Even if it annoys me, you're right.
@FsF: Thanks!  I'm sure you will enjoy this and yesss! It is very interesting!

Caught in a Web (5:29)

Ah, here it is! CAUGHHTTT IN A WEEEEB! I feel like this is an extremely strong performance by James Labrie as you can really feel his anger throughout the whole song. As usual, I have my own interpretation of this song and I'm sure you guys know what this song is originally about. It was written by both Labrie and Petrucci so that is an extra. Anyways, the beginning of the song begins with Moore's distorted intro. Actually all the band is present immediately from the beginning. Mike playing a simple beat, Moore's distortion lead, Myung's bass and Petrucci's riffing. Moore fades a bit after as Petrucci's riff is the most prominently heard. Labrie comes in almost immediately.

Silence disguised, I watch you
Show me the hurt that haunts you
Would you despise the thrill
If all you hide were mine?

We can see that the main character is in the shadows watching someone. Apparently, that someone is going through some tough times. She is being haunted by all the hurt and anger that has dwelled on her. He(the main character) is asking her if she wanted to go through life the way he did. He is saying to the girl that the hurt he faced is nothing compared to what she faced so she should just suck it up, unless she wanted to go through the exact same thing he went. Kevin Moore's distorted lead comes in once again and verse two immediately comes in.

I can't hold on any longer
These feelings keep growing stronger
Echoes that deafen the mind
Will bury my voice in their wake

We can hear Labrie's more grating through this section like a build up. He can't hold this pain anymore. He is going to blow up soon. The pressures is too great. He has to do something, but he might end up regretting it. His mind is deafened as he is unable to think straight and the voices in him just go stronger and stronger. I think I have a hunch that the character in the story is actually the character from Voices, but that is all opinion. Then, the chorus comes in.

Caught in a web
Removed from the world
Hanging on by a thread
Spinning the lies, devised in my head

That is an extremely nice analogy. Spiders are usually reclusive as they hide in their web and trap preys. He is basically secluded from the world and is barely hanging by a thread. Have you heard the expression caught in a web of lies? That expression could mean this. He lies and lies and has lied so much the only thing he could do is lie. His brain is geared to only one thing, lying. When someone asks him something, the first response his brain gives is to lie to others. That is pretty sad. This taught me to not lie a lot or I will find myself caught in a web of lies as the pressure from everything will me blow up in a bang.

I've seen the path, the one you take
Shows the truth for you to make
This turn of phrase, we might not see
Is the thirst of desire found so easily

He sees the path the girl took and that path made him understand more of what the girl did and how the girl feels. We can tell that she is taking the same path as the man had taken. The thirst of desire found so easily is lying. "This turn of phrase, we might not see," proves it because when we lie, we are twisting our words, we are turning the phase of the word and if we lie and lie, it might just come out naturally, we might not even notice we are lying because we do it so often. Ouch. After this, we can feel the rage of the man as Labrie sings the next part, which is the highlight of the song.

Try to push me 'round, the world some more
And make me live in fear
I bare all that I am, made of now, attractive I don't care
'Cause even when I danced with life, no one was there to share
Does this voice the wounds of your soul?
Does this voice the wounds of your soul?[/i]

I swear, I love this part to death. Notice how I'm not truly expressing how I feel because it would look like this: OMGGG! DID YOU HEAR THAT PART! THAT WAS SO GREAT! MY EARS! MY EEAARS! AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!

Yeah, that's only the beginning of how much I love this part. Labrie yells this part, growling. He has been pushed around the world by a lot of people and they try to scare him, try to make him live in fear. He has realized this and the only way to overcome is to as Petrucci says, "Wither." By withering, he bares everything he is to the entire world not caring if that act is attractive or not. He was dancing with life all alone, with no one to share his joy. He has been secluded, removed from the world while his soul has been wounded. He is yelling at everyone if what he has endured brings them guilt or wounds their soul. Labrie sings the chorus once again. Then it's the instrumental section.

The first part of the instrumental is when Petrucci's riff is most prominent. Petrucci riffs out for a while with the rest of the band follows suit then he changes to his lead guitar as Myung is also prominent. It ends in a band as you can hear the rattle and Petrucci's sharp guitar noise. It falls silent temporarily as Myung is heard the most prominently. Petrucci returns to his riff as Moore gets a mini solo then Labrie comes in with a yell then....!

Tried to live the life, you live and saw
It doesn't work for me
I bare all that I am, made of now, attractive, I can't be
Inside the dance of life is one, I'll never hold to me
You can't heal the wounds of my soul
You can't heal the wounds of my soul

I swear. Another highlight of this song! I love this part to death also, but it is changed a bit. When can see him talking to the girl now and says you tried to live the life you saw me live, which is lying and it ended up not working for her. He bares everything he is now, his lying and rage and says he can't be attractive living like this. We've heard of the three dances: death, deceit, and life. There is another dance and who could forget the polar opposite of death, which is life? He once agains questions, but this time to the girl that no matter what she tries she won't be able to heal the wounds of his soul. There is a short instrumental as Labrie sings the chorus. The second times he sings it, it is worded a bit differently.

Caught in a web
Refused by the world
Hanging on by a thread
Spinning a cage, denied and misread

He is caught in his web of lies, but we can see he was refused by the world. That being done, after being refused, he was then removed. That's why he hangs on his thread, spinning cages as he denied and misread by everyone. Wow! What a way to end this song. I learned that if i lie too much, I will be refused and removed from the world while I just sit there, spinning lies.

[OnTheBacksofAngela]

Innocence Faded (5:42)

Innocence Faded is a great song. It has perhaps the most extreme LaBrie performance ever, for better or worse. I say that because its middle section can get annoying sometimes. Overall this song is great, but that part just gets to me sometimes, but hey, other times, I enjoy it!  And that's how LaBrie's vocals are here, you see every single range he's ever done in a Dream Theater song, from the calm and collected vocals that remind me of Falling into Infinity more than anything, to his second highest pitch ever next to Learning to Live. Except it worked in LTL, it's obnoxious in Innocence Faded. I mean yes, he tries venting out the frustration like in Caught in A Web, but it worked for Caught in a Web. Right here, it doesn't reawlly fit for me.  Musically, though, Innocence Faded is a lot different from most other songs on Awake. For one thing, it has a far poppier structure. It's not nearly as metallic of a song, and the only really prog metal thing that you can see is LaBrie's vocals. It's also not dark, in fact it's the most "light" song on the album by far. Heck, I could call this song happy, that's certainly not the case in any other song here besides maybe Lifting Shadows, which is still a dark song. But anyway, I've went on for quite some time. Lyrics.

Animation
Breathes a cloudless mind
Fascination
Leaves the doubting blind
Until the circle breaks and wisdom lies ahead
The faithful live Awake
The rest remain misled

The opening of this song is a mesh of keyboards and guitars. I just love that intro very much. I could spend hours and hours listening to this song. That's how quite a few songs on this album open up actually, except they make it an extremely dark beginning like Caught in a Web. Innocence Faded has a bright and colorful opening, setting the rest of the song to follow suit. Eventually it quiets down to little more than Petrucci moving to acoustic and Portnoy on drums, and LaBrie's voice is cool and chill. As he goes though, he builds it up slightly, and that's how the entire song goes. Takes a step forward, then another, then maybe takes a slight step backward, then just rockets even further forward. A bunch of songs from Images and Words have a similar structure, though even in those LaBrie doesn't go that far overboard. See, that's the thing with Innocence Faded, it's always felt to me like it belonged on Images and Words, but then my respect for Images and Words would have dropped a bit.

Animation and fascination are the two words to look out for here. The important one being fascination. There are always doubters and they claim that miracles are not real. Once they actually see a miracle that happens, they still refuse to believe that it is real because they doubt and the only thing they do well is doubting. They don't become blind literally. They are just blind to the miracles because  they refuse to believe that it is real. Let's say that doubter refused to believe that money could fall from the sky. Let's say it did, it appeared out of nowhere and the doubter saw with his own mind. Since all he does good is doubt, he won't believe that, he has cold heart.

There's an interesting reference in the chorus, however. "The faithful live awake". Indeed, that's how Dream Theater got the names for their albums in the past. The most obvious one being "where images and words are running deep". This isn't the only reference though, there's another one in The Silent Man which is far more prominent and for that matter, well executed than this one, but it's still an interesting part. Anyway, what follows is the pre-chorus and the chorus.

Some will transcend spinning years
One as if time disappears
Innocence faded
The mirror falls behind you
Trinity jaded
I break down walls to find you

As you grow older, the strings of life are spinning and spinning as time passes, so much so as if it feels like time is disappearing. As we grow older, our innocence starts fading. We get introduced to the world, the beauty and the horror of it. Thinking of it as like a mirror shattering as you lose your innocence. The trinity is your heart, soul, and mind. They get jaded as you slowly lose your innocence. You must have someone watching over you until you are well enough to take care of yourself. This is followed by a Petrucci riff which is beautiful, and makes an incredible transition between the two. Following the chorus, the rest of the band takes a backseat to LaBrie. Here is where the song kind of gets annoying, but it makes it up towards the end.

Callow and vain
Fixed like a fossil, shrouding pain
Passionless stage
Distant like brothers
Wearing apathetic displays!!
Sharing flesh like envy in cages!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Condescending!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
NOT INTENDING TO EENNND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 Dude. LaBrie. Chill out. This song does not warrant that. His vocals in the first part of this were fine, I mean a little vocal explosion here is nothing too shabby. They were already too high pitched by the part where I started capping it, but that "not intended to end" is just... ugh. That's why I get kind of annoyed. It just rattles my brain when he screams and just some days, it is not my day. Then he moves to the pre-chorus in the fashion that he did the first part of this verse. Good. It's surprisingly natural how he does that, but yeah. Here's where it goes from there.  After the prechorus, he returns back to the chorus. After that.....

Beginnings get complicated
The farther we progress
Opinions are calculated
Immune to openness
Beyond the circle's edge
We're driven by her blessings
Forever hesitating
Caught beneath the wheel

This right here is the highlight of the song. The first part of this bit is an absolute spectacle in LaBrie's vocal delivery, plus even though he builds up as he goes, it actually has a fulfilling climax which isn't way over the top. This is where Innocence Faded shines through, right there, and this is why it got the spot that it does without being ranked lower due to being a little stylistic awkward and grating in that one part. But anyways, you may be wondering what the lyrics here are referring to. The common theory is that it's about Moore, but let me just debunk that right here and now. This song was written about Petrucci. Petrucci, nor anyone else in Dream Theater save Moore himself, knew what he was thinking nor how alienated he was becoming from the band. Hell, just look at them releasing Space-Dye Vest, which was Moore's song through and through, yet they stated that was a bit uncomfortable afterwards, seeing it there, which is fairly believable. That's just how it went down, Moore walking out was hard to see coming. It's about growth and realizing the reality of the world. Hence the name, Innocence Faded. It's actually a fairly well written song for that. And as a whole it's hard to regret its placement on Awake.

After that, it returns to the chorus and he lingers on the "Find you." After that, there is an instrumental section and the song comes off to a close! Yeah! Alright, after reading this, you might think that I have some resentment to Innocence Faded, but no. I'm just a bit annoyed by it, by I can bear with it. Everything is cool!

[fischermasamune]

I don't think "drown a man" in 6:00 is literal. I think is just about ruining somone's life, or simply a particular disappointment.

[pcs90]

...to his second highest pitch ever next to Learning to Live.

I thought his second highest was in Illumination Theory? He doesn't hold that note out for long at all though.

[Rodni Demental]

James has gone higher than F#5 many times:

He hit up to a G5 in Voices once (Chili) and has reached this note a few times during The Killing Hand. He also manages to slide up to a G5 on Children Of The Damned. Highway Star, Space Truckin, Smoke on the Water, Since I've been loving You have some G5 screams aswell.
G#5 I think in Octavarium and once in TDEN. Cemetery Gates screams are about this pitch too.
He hits an A5 in Number of the Beast, and a crazy A5 in the chorus of LITS. Also on Perfect Strangers.

Also, technically he hit a B♭5 In a version of The Killing Hand (Milan). And I believe he (possibly accidentally) hit a B5 (instead of E5) during Under A Glass Moon in a more recent version.

Those are all live performances though. As far as studio goes, Build Me Up Break Me Down takes the cake with A5 screams. Followed by New Millennium and Octavarium which both reach a G5.

[RoeDent]

As far as studio goes, Build Me Up Break Me Down takes the cake with A5 screams.

This gets nowhere near the credit it deserves. Consider also that the A5 notes came from a (then) 48-year-old voice, compared to the 29-year-old voice that delivered the F#5 note in Learning to Live.

[Crow]

then it's a damn shame the song is an unlistenable abomination 

[OnTheBacksofAngela]

Erotomania (6:44)

Ah! Erotomania! Our first instrumental is here, yipee! Well, second, technically, but since we skipped over the Ytse Jam, Erotomania is first on this write up. What can I just say? It is an epic instrumental and I love it do death, but sadly, it still falls onto the middle/lower tier of the instrumentals. I mean, if I could, I would put it in the high tier, but SoC, Dance of Eternity, and Hell's Kitchen refuses and just kicks Erotomania to the middle tier where it resides with Enigma Machine and some others. This instrumental is an introduction to The Mind Beside Itself Suite and it basically the introduction. What follows this song is a masterpiece and I love this suite very much. Anways, let's being shall we?

This song begins with Kevin Moore, all by himself, playing a couple of notes. Portnoy's ride comes in then the song explodes as Moore continues his own riff. After a while, Petrucci changes riffs while we can hear Moore in the background. The introduction is nothing really special as Petrucci's riff take the spotlight for this entire part. After around 1:18, the pattern of the song changes as after a while, Moore gets his own spotlight. Petrucci changes to his lead and plays a mini solo. After that, he continues riffing and that's when the highlight of this song follows. Moore changes to a melodic piano and OMG. At 2:25, onward, I just love this part to death. Petrucci and Moore and have a little duet with Moore taking the icing on the cake. Godddd I love that part to death. Petrucci plays his acoustic as he and Moore continue their duet, then the theme of Silent Man plays. Moore plays a bit of the Silent Man, then Petrucci joins later. We can see his electric guitar prominent on the left part of the earbuds as Portnoy's ride takes the right ear. After Petrucci's part, Moore and Petrucci begin jamming again as Moore gets the spotlight again a little later.

At 4:25 is when all ears turn to Petrucci. He gets another solo that is prominent on the left bud. Oh man, I could listen to that part every day. After a while, he is shredding like there is no tomorrow as the rest of the band are behind and backs him up. After his shredding, Portnoy has a mini drum solo, then Petrucci's riffing comes back in. As Moore plays in the background, then Moore starts his pattern again, the pattern we heard from the first part of the song and nostalgia from like 6 minutes ago, come to us. Near the ending, they slow down, then Petrucci gets a short outro finisher as Myung can be heard near the end as the introduction to voices start coming and some sound effects, then........

[Rodni Demental]

Woo! I love A Mind Beside Itself as a whole. It started off with just loving Voices then I realised the other 2 bits were awesome aswell. When I made my top 50 a couple years ago A Mind Beside Itself was at the top (I merged a lot of continuous pieces on the list, so the last spot I could count 3 songs in one and screw the rules ). I dunno if it would hold that spot anymore but I still really like this 'suite'. I especially like the part in Erotomania where Petrucci goes all Beethoven on us, I'd love to hear more classical esque sections like this in DTs music.

But anyway, one thing I really like about DTs instrumentals is that each instrument normally gets a shot in the spotlight, and it's fun to see them cycle lead sections. It's not as prominent in some of them as it is in Ytse Jam and Enigma Machine but it's still there in this one too. The instrumentals are normally a great showcase of each player's technical skills.

[OnTheBacksofAngela]

Voices (9:53)

Here it is! Part 2 of the Mind Beside Itself Suite! God, I love this song to death! It's about a person in conflict with religion and lust. Basically a sex crazed person who has schizophrenia. That would be an extremely terrifying combination to face and to be in. This song, I could probably listen to everyday as it if that good, especially the Petrucci solo. And the sampling is also really beautiful as it draws you in and the atmosphere just wow's you. It starts off really smooth and softly, but then it explodes until it dies down at the middle and rises up once again. We can hear Myung's bass start of this beautiful piece as the rest of the band comes in eerily. Myung is our main man here as we can hear the atmosphere grow then the whole band is in and playing. Petrucci with his riff takes the stage then the duet between Moore and Petrucci. Portnoy's double kick could also be heard sometimes and then it dies down as Labrie comes in.

'Love, just don't stare'
He used to say to me
every Sunday morning
The spider in the window
The angel in the pool
The old man takes the poison
Now the widow makes the rules

Only the piano and some sound effects can be heard during this part. This first part is basically a demon in his head telling our main character to go and have sex with that girl, don't just stare at her. We can see lust coming in almost immediately. I know that sometimes, some males just look at the females, but don't do anything. They just stare and stare. That demon is saying, "What are you doing? Why are you just staring at her? Make a move! Go do something instead of just staring!" As the demon is talking, he is having all sorts of visions. This is some kind of horror movie as he sees a tiny little spider resting at the window. The angel in the pool could be a religious reference. Petrucci is clever with the last two lines as I see it in two different ways. One is that the old man took poison and therefore died, making his wife, the widow, the head of the household. The widow (since the old man is dead) now makes the decisions and is in control. Or the widow might be a type of spider and it bites the old man, injecting him with poison and killing him.

'So speak, I'm right here'
She used to say to me
not a word, not a word
Judas on the ceiling
the Devil in my bed
I guess Easter's never coming
So I'll just wait inside my head

The mood is very eerie still. We can hear traces of Petrucci making this piece really mysterious still. The girl notices the guy staring at her and tells him to speak to her. As the man is about to speak, she adds, "Not a word." So in whole, she is saying, "Speak....not a word, not a word." Judas is a character in the bible who hung himself. He is having nightmares, courtesy of the demons by seeing an image of Judas being hung from the ceiling and the devil in his bed that is convincing him with lust. Easter is a spiritual day for us Christians and he is basically saying that the demons have got him and that there is no hope for him. The piece is still eerily silent, but you can hear the mood building up and the peak, the song explodes.

Like a scream but sort of silent
Living off my nightmares
Voices repeating me
'Feeling threatened?
We reflect your hopes and fears.'
Voices discussing me
'Others steal your thoughts
They're not confined within your mind.'

That's when all hell breaks loose. The demons all surround him and they've got him. He tries to scream, but nothing comes out. He is really scared. The demons are all around him. he is living out his nightmares as he keeps on hearing the demons saying, "Feeling threatened? We reflect your hopes and fears." All the demons are talking about him as one demon also adds, "Others steal your thoughts, they're not confined within your mind." This is a really scary place to be at for the narrator as the demons have him in his clutches and they will do anything to make him feel miserable. This would truly be a scary moment for a man who is having a conflict with religion and lust, but also has schizophrenia. His schizophrenia is the main sources of the demons talking to him.

Thought disorder
Dream control
Now they read my mind on the radio
But where was the Garden of Eden?
I feel elated
I feel depressed
Sex is death, Death is sex
Says it right here on my Crucifix

The main character is going crazy. Labrie sings this part as if he is experiencing the main character. Petrucci is riffing like crazy as all the band is following suit. The demons are controlling his dreams and his thoughts are all in disarray. The demons are reading his mind as he is filled with biblical facts, images, and thoughts. The Garden of Eden, once a safe haven for humans, is barren and deserted, shut off from us. He thinks that sex=death and death=sex. His lust and the demons are teaming up together to give him total hell. The demons are making him sex crazed and violent. If we were to experience what this main character was experiencing or if we witnessed the main character, we would be scared out of our minds. The chorus rolls around once more as Labrie sings in the same frantic tone he has sung during the explosion of vocals. Then, comes sampling.

[Dialogue by rap artist Prix-mo reading from the book "Cultural Revolution".]
"I don't wanna be here, 'cause of my
suffering, 'cause of my illness.
Only love is worth having, only
love is what matters, loving every
people on equal terms. "
"You've got to know who you're
dealin' with because, like a stranger,
a-heh, just might come in through
here with a gun... and then, what
would you do? (Heh.)"
"Everything is immaterial..."
"'n' you know that reality is immaterial."
"This is not reality..."

Now that is perhaps one of the best samplings I've ever heard. Heck, even the sampler right now is very scared and we can hear in his voice how threatened he feels. This sampling gets more and more intense as time passes and near the end, Petrucci is riffing his heart out and it all grows soft. Just like that, the music slowly reverts to its original phase.

I'm kneeling on the floor
staring at the wall
like the spider in the window
I wish that I could speak
Is there fantasy in refuge?
God in politicians?
Should I turn on my religion?
These demons in my head tell me to

His fits are done for now and he finds himself kneeling in horror, in the cold truth. The effects of going crazy may have ran out, but it isn't over yet. He questions everything he can. Should he turn on his religion or should he turn it off? All these demons are telling him to. If he turns on his religion, it might be an output for the demons to start making his life more miserable.

I'm lying here in bed
Swear my skin is inside out
Just another Sunday morning

Feeling your skin being turned inside out is not a pleasant feeling. Imagine what the man is going through! The Sunday morning is there because usually, that is when people are at church.

Seen my diary on the newsstand
Seems we've lost the truth to quicksand
It's a shame no one is praying
'Cause these voices in my head
keep saying...

These clues didn't fit very well into the Christianity plot. Do they fit into the politics theory? I'm talking about "See my diary on the newsstand/ Seems we lost the truth to quicksand."  And your diary on the newsstand means that what you suspected some time ago has now turned out to be true. And no one is praying for him to get better, maybe because he's an introvert and doesn't communicate with people well! We can see he refers back to the demons.

'Love, just don't stare.'
'Reveal the Word when you're
supposed to'
Withdrawn and introverted
Infectiously perverted
'Being laughed at and confused
keeps us pleasantly amused
enough to stay.'

We can see the demons again tempting him with lust. We can see that as time passes on and on, he becomes withdrawn and introverted from society and he becomes so perverted. Lust is just filling him up and he doesn't know what to do. And to make matters worse, the demons are laughing at him, much to his confusion. The demons enjoy the suffering he is going through and since the demons are enjoying his suffering, they want to stay. They are pleasantly amused by it and want more. Labrie holds the word "stay," then Petrucci comes in with a beautiful solo. Halfway through his section he starts shredding like there is no tomorrow and that is the part that I am in love with very much. This song itself is indeed epic and hey, I'm currently listening to it right now! After the shredding, Labrie comes in immediately.

Maybe I'm just Cassandra fleeting
Twentieth century Icon bleeding
Willing to risk Salvation to escape from isolation

Cassandra, in Greek mythology, was predicting a disaster which later indeed occured. The protagonist compares himself to Cassandra (who was punished for daring to say that something bad was about to happen). I think "20th century icon bleeding" also refers to Cassandra, but I'm not really sure about that part. Hm, it's a lyrics that has stumped me.  Salvation, according to the widow, comes when one behaves well. The protagonist believes that if he speaks, he won't behave well. Therefore, if he were to speak (in particular, talk about how religion could be much nicer) he'd risk his salvation.

I'm witness to redemption
heard you speak but never listened
Can you rid me of my secrets?
Deliver us from Darkness?

Here, redemption represents widowish Christianity. The protagonist asks, ironically, if redemption could ever help him get his ideas of "old man Christianity" out to other people, if redemption could help get people delivered (meaning "liberated" here) from the darkness they're in.

Voices repeating me
'Feeling threatened?
We reflect your hopes and fears.'
Voices discussing me
Don't expect your own Messiah
This neverworld which you desire
is only in your mind.

Imagine an accentuation on "your" in the last line. The protagonist shouldn't expect someone else to be his private Messiah and do the talking for him; what he thinks is in his own mind only. Or perhaps the protagonist believes that he's not the only one disliking the current policy of the political party, but then the voices convince him.

And that concludes Voices! I love it very much! Now, onto the last part of the Suite!

[OnTheBacksofAngela]

The Silent Man (3:47)

I love the silent man. And that would be the understatement of the century. Naturally, Dream Theater isn't the type of band that's about singles, but when they do indeed make one, they can sure dish it out well.  They're about the long and the epic, so obviously when they're doing something soft and sounds like it could be on the radio, that's something quite a bit different. Yet The Silent Man is so great, it manages to combine both of those at the same time. That's right, it's both long and epic, short, and single-worthy at the same time. The Silent Man is the conclusion to the incredible suite A Mind Beside Itself, which is a twenty minute epic in and of itself, and it's the most beautiful ending the suite could have ever asked for.

It's the perfect single (Sorry Moore, Myung, and Portnoy!) , and a perfect song to transition Awake's first half to its second half. But anyways, let's talk about A Mind Beside Itself. It starts epic and crazy, of course. Erotomania, its opening, is by far the weakest of the three parts, but it's awesome anyway, at least the way I see it. It's an instrumental, which sets the tone for Voices, the ten minute underrated beast of an epic which constitutes the main events of the suite. Both of these songs are heavy, technical pieces of music, but then it all closes with The Silent Man. A song which is transitioned by an abrupt chance in mood at the end of Voices. So through The Silent Man, Petrucci delivers the message that he really wanted with the suite, which technically makes it possibly even more important than Voices. That, and it's an acoustic ballad, featuring Myung on acoustic guitar (fine, I'm lying. It's Petrucci XD XD), and a vocal performance that'll move even the most hardened LaBrie skeptic. If that wasn't enough, it's got some of the best lyrics Petrucci has ever written. Such that I can't resist digging into right now.

A question well served is silence like a fever
A voice never heard or a message with no receiver
Pray, they won't ask behind the stained glass
There's always one more mask

Has man been a victim of his woman, of his father?
If he elects not to bother will he suffocate their faith?
Desperate to fall behind the great wall
That separates us all

I dare you to tell me that those lyrics aren't beautiful and keep a straight face whilst you do it. I dare you. LaBrie doesn't waste any time in getting to them either. Half a chord is heard, and then LaBrie immediately gets into it, and his voice is very soft and subdued. It's to provide a contrast to the raucous performance that he delivered in Voices, is the thing. But anyway, the lyrical subject and structure is also quite different than in Voices. That song was told from a first person perspective, depicting one crazy thing after another, at times almost being non-sequitors in how random yet insane they are (albeit all connected). All this done through a long and complex, progressive structure. The Silent Man has very short verses, and maintains a philosophical outlook on life for the vast majority of the song. So how exactly does this connect to Erotomania and Voices, you ask? Well, I'll get right to that.

If you forgot or didn't know, "erotomania" is defined as a person's delusion that someone is in love with him or her, almost to the point at which it becomes a disease. Excessive sexual desires, if you will. That song (or instrumental, I should say), transitions into Voices, which is about a number of things, but the overwhelming thing is the person's conflict between lust and religion, while experiencing some other mental problem. Most likely schizophrenia, but I'll get into that when I actually do the writeup for that song. The Silent Man talks, for the most part, about seclusion. Specifically, the type that one purposely draws onto themselves. Silence is that form of seclusion, in that through not attempting to connect with society anymore, one locks themselves in their own little world and gets away from the world at large. In that way, the messages that they actually do have to give, have no receiver, and the voices are never heard. Now granted, Petrucci took a few lines in this song from various literary sources. Now I have a soft spot for people who do that in their songs, so I think that's a rather nice touch. Makes it all that more strong in its message.

In that way, though, people are desperate. This is all because people have been brought down in the past, because they've been victimized, so to speak. And then their desperation to isolate themselves from others is just as strong as the delusional desperation they had in the past. Do you see where I'm going with this, yet? It's a direct continuation of Voices, in that this is the fate that people like the character in that song will inevitably face. And in a sense, Petrucci is telling us to avoid that. The chorus, in any case, epitomizes everything the song is about, while pulling the delicate beauty level of this song up another notch. Petrucci and Myung are both on acoustic guitar, and with LaBrie's vocals thrown on top of that array, it's just compelling. There's no other way to describe it. Two contrasts are presented: being awake, and being The Silent Man. When there is balance and reason, we are "Awake". Yes, see where the album draws its title? And since The Silent Man is about a hundred times more telling than Innocence Faded, this is what I would call the true title track. But when there is no answer and we suffer, there lies The Silent Man. Because truth be told, as much solace as we find in it, being this so-called silent man hurts us amore than anything else.

When there is reason, tonight I'm awake
When there's no answer, arrive the silent man
If there is balance, tonight he's awake
If they have to suffer, there lies the silent man

Here is the chorus! Here is where the title for the Silent Man lies and possibly, the title of the album. This part is very beautiful and you can hear parts of maraca's. When there is any part of reason, you are awak As soon as that absolutely gorgeous chorus is done, enter an acoustic guitar solo. That is why this song is amazing.

Sin without deceivers, a God with no believers
I could sail by on the winds of silence
And maybe they won't notice
But this time I think it'd be better if I swim

Arguably the single greatest verse that Dream Theater has ever written. If you feel absolutely nothing from the last verse, I don't know what to tell you. LaBrie puts emotion into it more than I can even begin to describe, and it's completely sincere. Now, granted, A Mind Beside Itself hasn't exactly been a happy tale. A person goes mad over their schizophrenia and lust, and then several years later, they're a recluse from society and can't face anyone. That's how the story went over, but The Silent Man ends on the most positive note imaginable. Hell, it's almost as good as "I won't feel better in the cold light of day / But I wouldn't stop you if you wanted to stay" from Collapse the Light into Earth. It's yet another contrast, but it's the most optimistic telling imaginable, with this person finally coming to terms with themselves and being able to face society yet again. At least, that's the way I see it. Some say The Silent Man is John Myung. And some say it's Jesus, what with the religious references in Voices. Either way, The Silent Man is just divine. There's no other way to put it. I'd say, as far as this list goes, it's the first song to make it as of yet that I can truly call flawless.

When there is reason, tonight I'm awake
When there's no answer, arrive the silent man
If there is balance, tonight he's awake
But if they have to suffer, there lies the silent man
There lies the silent man

[OnTheBacksofAngela]

The Mirror (6:45)

This is actually one of Dream Theater's most popular songs that they have, which isn't a 10 minute epic or a single. The reason for that, is partly because of what it does for its album. After the sprawling twenty minutes of musical bliss known as the A Mind Beside Itself suite, the listener is immediately treated to The Mirror to transition their way out of it, and towards a more realistic, human ending towards the album, and it's a fantastic song to follow it off. Honestly, if every song on the album was as good as The Mirror, Lifting Shadows, Scarred, and Space-Dye Vest, Awake would be in my top two album, easily, but that's not the case. The Mirror begins a pentagram of pure awesomeness, though, all starting with the duo of The Mirror and Lie.

As you may be familiar with, Lie is very similar to The Mirror, though honestly, I don't consider there to be any real connection between the two, except for a similar theme, though the themes have nothing to do with one another. They're both heavy beasts of songs, which brings me to another point. The Mirror is the obvious prelude to the Twelve Step suite. Naturally, though, four of the five songs are better than The Mirror, so it's not a full fledged member of it. That, and I don't think it's ever been officially referenced to as a part of it, but let's face it. The Twelve Step suite was entirely penned by Mike Portnoy. The Mirror was Portnoy's FIRST song to be written for an album. Now that's an accomplishment I'm pleased to have seen happen. The Mirror stands out in that regard, plus it's heavy, just like those songs, it just can't match the exact progressiveness or the length of them. What likely occurred, was that Portnoy wrote The Mirror based on personal experiences, liked the idea and wanted to go further with it, and then the Twelve Step suite was born or maybe this is actually the intro to the Twelve Step Suite, I'm not really sure.

But yeah. Listen to The Mirror and then The Glass Prison and the latter will be even greater an experience than it was the first time through, if that is at all possible. Don't even get me started on The Mirror's ending. We'll get to that later in this writeup. But either way, The Mirror starts slow, but furious, and in quite a gritty and heavy fashion. What it comes down to, is one of the darkest songs on the entire album, though, and Awake is arguably Dream Theater's darkest release in terms of musicianship as well as lyrics (it does end with Space-Dye Vest, after all). The Mirror is centered around a rather repetitive riff. It's essentially a one second pair of chords being played by Petrucci repeatedly, with Portnoy's drums being thrown into it at random intervals. What comes in slightly after, though, is Moore on synth and then keyboards, then Myung's bass comes in for good measure, and you'll see exactly what I meant when I said The Mirror is dark as heck. It's a phenomenal intro, and it just gets better when LaBrie enters, but before that, we can hear Portnoy's gruff voice (or I think it's his voice).

Temptation-
Why won't you leave me alone?
Lurking Every Corner, everywhere I go

There it is. Temptation. I'm sure you can agree with me, but if there is something that tempts you, it starts following you like a little toddler follows his or her mom. Let's say that I got grounded from playing my electric guitar and my parents say, "Don't touch your electric guitar until you bring up your grades." And let's say that I agree, but the electric guitar is still in my room. Of course I will be tempted. Let's say that I was learning the solo for SoC. Hell, I'd want to pick up and start playing, ignoring what my parents just said. That's temptation. Wherever I go, it would temp me. "Come on Angela, play the guitar. Your parents won't know...." If I'm at school, in my room, etc, it'd follow me and lurk every corner, until I begin playing it. That's temptation people.

Self Control-
Don't turn your back on me now
When I need you the most

Ah, this part directly correlates to temptation. You need self control to overcome temptation. You need to learn to control your desires. As your self control starts deteriorating, that is when temptation begins to overcome you. The speaker, Mike, is being tempted to alcohol and he is using his self control to avoid temptation, but as it starts deteriorating, Mike finds it harder for self control. It is like self control is giving up on Portnoy and turning its back on Portnoy, refusing to cooperate and that is when Portnoy's temptation begins to slowly overcome. To make matters worse, Portnoy needs self control the most right now, but, it's abandoning him. That is basically how I feel with life. Life tempts me with worldly desire, and sometimes, I can feel self controlling having totally abandoned me. The temptation always wins.

Constant pressure tests my will
My will or my won't
My Self Control escapes from me...still

Pressure from all around may not help with your self control. Let's say I see videos of people playing SoC on the guitar. I feel the desire to do as good as them. And people on this forum keep on telling me when I will learn SoC because it's fun for me. That would be pressure from all different sources and it would test my will. If I will break the rule and play on my electric guitar, or if I would just be strong and not pick up the guitar. Even then, self control can fail because constant pressure could break your will and self control.

LaBrie's vocals are pretty good. I'm actually surprised that people bash on his vocals from Train of Thought for trying to sound too gruff or like a billy badass, but no one ever picks on his vocals in The Mirror. He talks through a couple of them, sounds extremely gruff on a few of them, and it's something I like. That being said, it's what I'd expect others to hate on, but it never happens. Can't say I'm complaining though. He really starts getting into the song around the end of that verse there, and then Moore returns on piano. This song, aside from the really obvious one, is one of the best unisons between vocals and keyboards that Dream Theater have pulled off. Reason being, LaBrie's vocals flow right into the keyboards, the lyrics are haunting, and they just give the keyboard a different feeling.

Hypocrite-
How could you be so cruel
and expect my faith in return?

Ah, hypocrites. If you treat someone with disrespect and anger, chances are, they will do the same. That is what this verse is saying. This is another character that the speaker hurt and when the speaker turns to them for help, the other character replies, "You hypocrite. When I was suffering, you didn't help me. What would think that I would help you doing your suffering? You mocked me and ridculed me for my suffering, and I will do just the same!" Ouch.   

Resistance-
Is not as hard as it seems
When you close the door

I agree with you 100% Mr. Michael Stephen Portnoy. The answer has been there all along for me! During our temptations, we might think that resistance is really hard, but actually it isn't. Why? Just shut the door! For me, that would be handing my electric guitar to my parents so I won't be tempted by it! We just choose not to close the door and instead, make excuses, saying that it is too hard. Just shut the door! Just find ways to overcome temptation. Banned from playing video games? Hand it to your parents and go outside to play! In all honesty, resistance should come pretty easy, we just have to break the wall that disallows us to close the door and make excuses.

I spent so long trusting in YOUUU
I trust you forgot
Just when I thought I believed in you...

The other character is still scolding the main character, "I spent so long trusting in you. I thought you were my friend, I thought you would help me. I'm sure you forgot about that, right? If you hadn't you would have helped me, nor asked me to help you. Just when I thought I believed in you, you just go and crush my dreams and ridicule me. I trusted you and believed in you, but you screwed it over." That is true, what the other character says. We can't just go to someone for help, whom we have ridiculed and mocked.

"What're you doing?
What're you doing?"

Sampling
"What are you doing coming to me? No really, what are you doing?"

It's time for me to deal
Becoming all too real
living in fear-
Why did you lie and pretend?
This has come to an end
I'll never trust you again
It's time you made your amends
Look in the mirror my friend

The other character is still ranting to the main character. "I'm done with you, you worthless piece of trash," he growls, "You lied and pretended? Why? You know what, all this shi*t has to come to an end. YOU treated me like trash! I will never EVER EVER trust you again for everything you've done to me. Don't even come to me or speak to me ANYMORE. I am severing all ties with you, you hypocrite. It is time you made your amends buddy. Look in the mirror and see what you've become....a mess, a broken person." I have to wince at the tone and the harsh words of the speaker, but in all honesty, the main character deserved it.

In every possible way, that right there is one of the absolute best parts of the song. First of all, LaBrie's vocals are passionate and pained. That's exactly the kind of thing you want to hear from this. He sings the song as he's experiencing this terrible situation himself, and again, it's haunting in a way. Perfectly delivered. Lyrically, it's by far the best part of the song. It doesn't conform to the structure from the beginning of the song, it's flowed into brilliantly from the short sample from earlier, and it's another instance when you can feel yourself in the situation. Naturally this is told from the perspective of someone close to Portnoy. Maybe it's a family member or a close friend or something, but Portnoy obviously wronged them very badly. Now what they have to tell him is straightforward. They no longer want anything to do with him, and this is the exact moment when the song transitions. Quite a progressive touch, and it's something I like.

"That I haven't behaved as I should"
"Everything you need is around you.
The only danger is inside you."
"I thought you could control life,
but it's not like that. There are things you can't control."

What follows a bit after that is sampling. Yes, The Mirror is one of the many songs around this time period of Dream Theater's that have sampling in them, deal with it. It's actually executed very well, in that Moore's piano is always going on when the sampling is, so that it just adds to it. It's very similar to Space-Dye Vest, though it's obviously not pulled off nearly that well. It provides a neat transitioning tool, though, as the first chorus is where all the tension is released. After that, the song becomes quite a bit more mellow. Less guitar and drums, and a bit more from Moore, which I have no beefs with.

Let's stare the problem right in the eye
It's plagued me from coast to coast
Racing the clock to please everyone
All but the one who matters the most

The first thing to hear is a line that would be reused in This Dying Soul -- "Let's stare the problem right in the eye". Obviously, now the perspective has changed from this other person to Portnoy, and now he's actually planning on doing whatever needs to be done to fix his issue, because being told off by this person has convinced him. As the First Step has it, he admits that he is powerless over alcohol. He says that it's "plagued him from coast to coast", and in that way, his entrance into Alcoholics Anonymous has already begun. It's revealed to likely be a close friend that he's talking about, since he mentions how he's been trying to please everyone but the one who matters the most to him, so yeah, that's who it probably is. Maybe this is a true story and there's an actual person that Portnoy had in mind, who knows.

Reflections of reality
are slowly coming into view
How in the hell could you possibly forgive me?
After all the hell I put you through

This Dying Soul took another part from The Mirror around this part, in that this song says "reflections of reality". That's part of Step Five, if I'm not mistaken. But yeah, moving on. LaBrie and the rest of the band take it up a notch, as Portnoy quickly adds drums into Moore's peaceful synthesizing, and LaBrie cries out "How the hell could you possibly forgive me after all the hell I've put you through?". Is that a little cheesy when taken out of context? Absolutely. Does it work in context? Yes it does. It doesn't look great, using the word "hell" twice in the same sentence, but the way LaBrie pulls it off, it's just incredibly intense. Plus it segues right into the chorus, which is just as good the second time through as the first time.

It's time for me to deal
Becoming all too real
living in fear-
Why'd I betray my friend?
Lying until the end
Living life so pretend
It's time to make my amends
I'll never hurt you again

Portnoy changes it with the story, though, and delivers one final, absolutely beautiful line to close off the song: "I'll never hurt you again".

What follows that is without one shadow of doubt, without any hesitation what I can conclude is the best moment in The Mirror as well as one of the best parts in all of Awake by far. LaBrie is still crying out the end of that line, when Moore starts to play an absolutely different piano riff. It doesn't sound like anything you've heard in the earlier portions of this song, at all. Everyone I've ever heard talk about this song, says that this riff is the same as the one from Space-Dye Vest. I could buy that. The Mirror already has enough similarities to Space-Dye Vest that I wouldn't be surprised, but honestly, I hear The Glass Prison's riff MUCH more than I hear the one from Space-Dye Vest. The latter is far slower, whereas this sounds exactly like the beginning of The Glass Prison, when it's riff really starts going. So honestly I can sympathize with both approaches, but I'm still going to side with myself when I said back in the day that it's 100% The Glass Prison. Shortly thereafter, Myung rocks out on bass to cap it off, the song quiets down, but that's all cool. Your mind, should you possess a soul, has already been completely blown. You wouldn't think the ending of this song would be that emotional and that beautiful, but it is. If the vocals weren't enough, it's that riff that pulls it off. All in all, The Mirror is a little all over the place. No lies there. What it is, though, is an absolutely sublime intro to the Twelve Step Suite, and one of the most solid songs on its album.

Lie (6:33)

The odd thing about Lie is that it's actually a single.  Basically they stopped after SFAM until Systematic Chaos when they did not only singles, but music videos for Constant Motion, Forsaken, and most recently A Rite of Passage. The thing with those songs (except for maybe Forsaken), is that they're all very radio friendly sounding songs. Sure, they may have solos, but they're cut down, and apart from that they're straight forward in both meaning, delivery, and overall lyricism. They're things that are obviously decent to good songs, but the public can eat up. I don't feel Lie is like that at all. It's a very gritty song. Rather heavy, too, it's one of the heaviest on one of Dream Theater's overall heaviest albums. It features LaBrie on a vocal style that is decent, but it's not exactly the most accessible thing in the world. Hell, I think Peruvian Skies from their next release would have been a better choice for single than this one, but hey, it is what it is. Let's check it out. Rather heavy riff, continuing from The Mirror then LaBrie enters in a rather quiet tone. And man, I am in complete orgasm when I hear his voice. 

Daybreak
at the bottom of lake
it's a hundred degrees I can't breathe
And I won't get out
'til I figure it out
Though I'm weak like I can't believe
So you tell me 'trust me' l can trust you
Just let me show you
But I gotta work it out in a shadow of doubt
'cause I don't know if I know you

I'm not even going to start delving into things yet, since I think you can tell what it's about just based on the title, and the last half of that. It's about betrayal, and trusting in someone that you shouldn't have trusted in. Now, I'm going to say now. Some of this song's lyrics are ridiculous and make no sense. Like the thing about the bottom of a lake. That's just a metaphor that I don't quite get. Though, I kind of think that this is a continuation of The Mirror. Can this be part of the pre-suite? It might be, considering they both have same themes of lying and betrayal, and the ending of Lie sounds like The Mirror. Now, some more lyrical analysis. "But I gotta work it out in a shadow of doubt 'cause I don't know if I know you." I'm pretty sure after the other character severed ties with the main character, the main character begged for forgiveness and that made the other character (I'm going to call him Character B), said to wait a bit and let him think, because B doesn't know A after the incident. A has become a totally new person to B.

Doing fine but don't waste my time
Tell me what it is you want to say
You sin, you win, just let me in - hurry
I've been out in the rain all day
So you tell me 'trust me' I can trust you
as far as I can throw you
And I'm trying to get out of a shadow of doubt
'cause I don't know if I know you

Character A is pissed with Character B's act. He is saying, "Why don't you just forgive me? I admit I wronged you in the past, but that doesn't mean you have to go far to sever your connection with me. I've been out in the rain and I've been knocking to enter your house, please let me in, before I get." Character B replies, "I'm sorry. I can trust you as far as I can throw you, which means I can't trust you and I"m trying to get out of a shadow of doubt. I don't know you, please go away."

Don't tell me you wanted me
Don't tell me you thought of me
I won't, I swear I won't
I'll try, I swear I'll try

I love Kevin Moore wrote this part. B is telling A to "Don't tell him you wanted me. Don't tell me you thought of me."
A replies, "I won't, I swear I won't."
A soon finds that promise hard to keep and changes.
"I'll try, I swear I'll try," A says.
That is smart (Kevin Moore.)

Mother Mary quite contrary
Kiss the boys and make them wary
Things are getting just a little bit scary
It's a wonder I can still breathe

This part if kind of confusing for me. I can kind of understand the "Kiss the boys and make them wary." If I went up to a random boy and kissed him, he'd be frightened, confused, and a bit wary because girls just don't go around and kiss any random boy. I think he might've written this to rhyme. Mary, contrary, wary, scary, they all rhyme! 

[Darkstarshades]

I always loved the transition between the calm and soft Silent Man to The Mirror.

You see, I have a personal connection to The Silent Man, and it always brings me close to tears. When it ends, it just feels awesome when The Mirror starts, it just fills me with energy, you truly feel how the album is essentially split in two parts. I never related The Mirror to any addiction of any sort, and it's much more poethic than it's followups, but still, 3rd place in the album for me.

[OnTheBacksofAngela]

Lie Part 2 (Ran out of room XD)

Never been much of a doubting Thomas
but nothing breaks like a broken promise
You tell me 'bout your two more coming
but once is just enough for me

Thomas was a character in the bible that doubted. He thought that Jesus had not risen from the dead when he actually did. He wanted proof of Jesus' rise from the dead and he doubted. Character B is telling A that he doesn't doubt that much, but since A broke a promise from a while ago, that left a gaping wound that would be hard to close. B is afraid that if he trusts A again, he will be lied to and betrayed again. B gave A one chance and that is enough.


The chorus is repeated then the ending. Now, let's talk about the ending of this song. Noticed what this song is musically similar to yet? In structure and delivery that it is? Well, if not, then the ending will spell that all. After the rest of the song is done and the single version cuts out, Portnoy comes in with The Mirror's drum riff. It's the precise exact same riff, and you'll notice, yes, Lie actually does parallel The Mirror. The ending is this song is absolutely gorgeous. Sure, that drum opening is completely out of place. Sounds very awkward right after there, but then it turns into something incredible. So a shaky start, but an otherwise brilliant performance. It's The Mirror, basically rehashed. And it's awesome. So maybe Lie means something different. The Mirror is about Portnoy betraying people through his alcoholism, so... Lie could be connected. Either way, The Mirror and Lie are put next to each other for each a reason. Lie appeals to me a bit more than The Mirror.

I had gotten used to being a soul destroyed
She comes in apparently to fill the void
All dogs need a leash and
at least I'll forget it
And she would never hurt me though
she's never said it
But I'm not gonna ask her today
I don't wanna scare her away
Your town, I'm all alone
and I just can't stare at the phone
I wanna talk about lifelong mistakes
and you can tell your stepfather I said so

I kind of wish the entire song had been like this. You know, more melodic, softer like this, and erupted with the guitar solo that follows later, though kept the ending, since Lie's ending is AMAZING. But anyway, Moore wrote something very good here, bringing the question of it being about a lover into confirmation. First part is great lyrically, plus the end of that verse is beautiful from LaBrie. It's rather abrupt in its transition back to heaviness, but it's decent. What follows is a guitar solo, which reminds me rather of the one from Caught in a Web. If you're listening to the single version, you don't know about either that one or this song's gorgeous ending, which is unfortunate. But anyway, here's something else that's been theorized, besides the lover's idea. It's widely known that Kevin Moore had a completely direction than the band. And no one knows what he was actually thinking at the time. Maybe he felt that the band had "betrayed" him, but he felt isolated within Dream Theater, and that's why he left them. So, in a way, he looks like the betrayer in there, but maybe he sees the situation differently. Regardless, he knew he would leave the band, so Lie could have just been grouped together with 6:00 as statements he wanted to make while he was still in the band. It's doubtful, sure, but definitely possible.

[OnTheBacksofAngela]

I always loved the transition between the calm and soft Silent Man to The Mirror.

You see, I have a personal connection to The Silent Man, and it always brings me close to tears. When it ends, it just feels awesome when The Mirror starts, it just fills me with energy, you truly feel how the album is essentially split in two parts. I never related The Mirror to any addiction of any sort, and it's much more poethic than it's followups, but still, 3rd place in the album for me.

I can understand.
Dream Theater does that to you. 3rd place for the Mirror? I'm guessing that The Silent Man is first and Space Dye Vest is second?

[Darkstarshades]

I always loved the transition between the calm and soft Silent Man to The Mirror.

You see, I have a personal connection to The Silent Man, and it always brings me close to tears. When it ends, it just feels awesome when The Mirror starts, it just fills me with energy, you truly feel how the album is essentially split in two parts. I never related The Mirror to any addiction of any sort, and it's much more poethic than it's followups, but still, 3rd place in the album for me.

I can understand.
Dream Theater does that to you. 3rd place for the Mirror? I'm guessing that The Silent Man is first and Space Dye Vest is second?

Almost.
Silent Man is 2nd, my 1st place is Voices and 4th place is either SDV or Innocence Faded.

[OnTheBacksofAngela]

Lifting Shadows Off a Dream (6:05)

Lifting Shadows off a Dream" began as a poem and two chords brought to the band by Myung. "We worked on it, racked our brains, recorded the jam and by the end of the night we were like 'Ahh fuck it. This sucks,'" Petrucci recalled. "We came by the next day, listened to the recording and thought it could be really cool. All of a sudden it evolved into this song." Oh man, I feel bad for the band, but I'm glad they still tried this because it is indeed awesome!

You need to hear all of its subtleties to truly appreciate how well it works, plus it's only after a lot of listens that you realize how well it flows from beginning to end. And then you just like the song that much more when you understand what it's about, and it's really a great subject matter. But here's yet another selling point about this song: John Myung. Besides To Live Forever, Lifting Shadows is the first of his four songs to make its appearance on the list. And I hate to say it's the worst of them, though look what we have to work with: Learning to Live and Trial of Tears, both of which are absolutely incredible, and then there's Fatal Tragedy. That's just testament to how great Myung is as a songwriter. When I say Lifting is the worst out of the four, doesn't mean it sucks! It is really worth hearing and epic, but the other 3 are a bit more better.

So why is he able to write songs like that (because you have to admit, LtL and ToT(Tears) are two of Dream Theater's best written songs, without question), yet he has only four offerings? Remember, I'm talking about the phase where Myung went on a hiatus, SDOIT---->BCSL. Well, the band simply doesn't let him write songs anymore, because he can write lyrics but they don't flow together with the songs. Dream Theater does of course write the songs first and then put lyrics on top of them, which is understandable, and I guess Myung isn't able to fit in with that approach, and that's quite a shame. Either way, no matter what he's writing, Myung has always done it for me, and Lifting Shadows is no exception. It's part of the absolutely amazing trifecta that closes Awake, and once again proves that it's a very bottom heavy album. Lifting Shadows is powerful, emotional and shakes your soul, Scarred is an epic that I'd call very underrated even by myself, and Space-Dye Vest is a lot like Lifting Shadows, except it's the dark side of the light found there. It's the song that wallows in the shadows that Lifting Shadows lifts off, and while it's one of the most ambitious things Dream Theater have ever done, it was a success. See, I'm already comparing Lifting Shadows to Space-Dye Vest. That should say a lot about this song's quality.

So I talked about how this song shakes your soul. Well, yes, that it does. In a way I think of this song as the younger brother to Surrounded, from Images and Words. Both songs are incredibly happy and uplifting, and depict coming out of a difficult situation. Sure, Lifting Shadows is a bit more mysterious and multiply layered, and it has the John Myung effect, which is definitely a good thing. If you're not sure what I mean by that, turn this song on. What's the first thing you hear? Bass. Lifting Shadows is one of the most bass heavy songs on the album and hell, Dream Theater's whole discography, so that's something I definitely approve of. Moore does a fantastic job getting this song started on keyboards too, so that's what you have going for a lot of this song. Bass and keyboards, and it's a beautiful effect. It sets the scene for something dark and enigmatic, and what can possibly be more enigmatic than the human soul. Ambitious concept for a song like this, sure, but Myung pulls it off. Doesn't seem like the kind of song that will erupt in guitar anytime soon, eh? Well, yeah. Wait until LaBrie's vocals come in.

He seems alone and silent
thoughts remain without an answer
Afraid and uninvited
he slowly drifts away

Moved by desire and fear
Breaking delicate wings
Lifting shadows
off a Dream once broken
She can turn a drop of water
Into an ocean

Lifting Shadows is, as a whole, one of LaBrie's better vocal performances in the early days, and besides for a couple moments in Voices, as well as the ending of Space-Dye Vest, he doesn't surpass his work on this song anywhere else on the album. He's able to draw you into a somber type of mood early on in the song, match the character as his emotions rise, and then has a couple vocal lines which absolutely shake you inside, and the buildup that he uses throughout is absolutely beautiful. Once again, this is a song that I can't really see an objective reason to dislike, but I digress. Let's take one thing at a time, though. Lifting Shadows doesn't look like a very happy song at first, but just wait for it. It shows a man who's quiet and isn't showing much emotion. He's acting like a recluse and drawing himself away from society, but there seems to be some emotional drive behind him. Wait for this song's "chorus" to explain that. This song doesn't actually have a clear cut chorus, but rather two lines that get repeated a couple times, and that's the last two of that.

I might point out, that's an incredibly neat title and concept, "lifting shadows off a dream". It's the idea of never believing something can happen because the world has shrouded the idea in darkness, but then it can just suddenly emerge. But either way, it's obviously a female presence that causes this to happen. Something has no hope, but suddenly it does. The last line has a rather obvious meaning, so I doubt I need to analyze that too much, but that's precisely what Myung was striving to get at with this song. The idea that a man and a woman complement each other greatly, and the two provide an odd duality to one another which couldn't be found otherwise, nothing more and nothing less. There's more to this whole development than that, however. Myung and Moore are still the two star musicians in the early part of this song, but after that verse the song starts to build up a little bit. Guitar enters at last, LaBrie kicks the vocals up a notch, and you get bombarded with emotion.

As the rain is pouring down
Tears of sorrow wash his mind
Drifting with the current
This stream of life flows on

He seems alone and silent
waiting on his hands and knees
The chill of winter's darkness sits quietly

Moved by desire and fear
he takes a few steps away
Lifting shadows
off a Dream once broken
She can turn a drop of water
Into an ocean

Listen to that verse right there and tell me that Myung can't write songs, or that he shouldn't still be a fundamental part of Dream Theater's songwriting process. Sure, that takes ideas from the first part of the song, but it's still incredible. First of all, the song flows amazingly, because it maintains unity even while it builds up the way it does, but that's beside the point. The man is slowly removing his sadness, but it's a gradual process. The images that Myung presents here are beautiful, and you can probably get the idea from them, but it's a repetition. He keeps running from his emotions, and the age old parallel of life to a river is drawn here, but all too appropriately. The second to last line there is my favorite, though, first of all based on the way LaBrie sings it, which is great, but apart from that, because of the idea of darkness sitting quietly, as if it's willing to move whenever he takes the first step. And although Myung says he takes a few steps away there, that's really not what you can gather from the ending of this song, in fact from what comes immediately after the chorus. Speaking of the chorus, it comes around again. It's more intense this time, with LaBrie putting a great deal more feeling into it this time around. Again, it's an emotional buildup. We're about to see all that climax.

And she listens openly
He pours his soul into the water
reflecting the mystery
She carries him away
and the winds die slowly

Oh my god. Oh. my. god. Yes, that was a pretentious way of prefacing that line, but there's no other way to possibly do it justice. That one line has perhaps more weight than the rest of the entire song put together, and I'm not trying to put down the rest of the song. I can't think of any one single line in Dream Theater's discography with that kind of effect, except maybe "There's no one to take my blame if they wanted to", or "This time when I reached out my hand, it reached all the way to heaven". And while we're on the subject of comparing Lifting Shadows to Space-Dye Vest, this is the "There's no one to take my blame if they wanted to" of that song. It's the point where it starts to climax, but you can perhaps consider the beginning of said climax to be the best part of it, just because of the mood it sets. LaBrie repeats the line once, and it just hits like no other. It's one of those lines you need to hear to exactly understand the effect it has on the song, but the way Moore just matches his vocal tone as he builds into the solo... incredible. That is how you structure a song.

Oh, did I give away the fact that this song has a solo? Guess so. The song goes from being all acoustic with bass and keyboards, to a full out electric guitar solo. Let me just say this, though, this is perhaps the most mellow guitar solo Petrucci has ever recorded, and I mean even more than the Another Day one. It's a very low key, it's not very loud, but all of a sudden the song goes electric when it's been acoustic up to this point. I've heard this called out of place many a time, and yeah, from a musical standpoint, I can see why you would say that. It flows extremely well in this song, though, if you just look at it emotionally and through the moods it creates. Despite being a very calm, dark, mellow solo, it manages to be dynamic at the same time, and you can feel all the emotions of the man throughout it. It's a catharsis of the soul, if you will. Lo and behold though, the song is not done climaxing.

The song has taken a brilliant turn. LaBrie is singing with about the same intensity as he did in the second verse, but the song has transitioned to electric. Petrucci is still there, Portnoy makes a presence felt, but the song stays as bass heavy as it was before. It's a rather subtle change, but all the effects of it can be felt. The man was lost and now he was found, now he has spilled his soul out to this girl. And LaBrie/Myung remind us once more, "and she listens openly". Perhaps it's now that we can understand what this line means. It's the man giving her his heart, and her responding to it with an open mind and an open heart, and returning his gestures. THAT is why Lifting Shadows Off a Dream is a happy song, because all is well that ends well. It's a very human song, and takes the listener through a personal journey, but one that many people can be familiar with. And that is why I constantly refer to it as such a soul shaker. Because it's one of the first Dream Theater songs we've seen yet that is genuinely touching and emotionally inspiring. From beginning to middle to end, this is a lucid, emotional masterpiece that takes the best of both the light and the dark.

And she listens openly
And she listens openly
Lifting shadows
off a Dream once broken
She can turn a drop of water
Into an ocean
Lifting Shadows off a Dream
Lifting Shadows off a Dream

Listen to that finisher. I have nothing left to say except this beauty, except wow.

[OnTheBacksofAngela]

I always loved the transition between the calm and soft Silent Man to The Mirror.

You see, I have a personal connection to The Silent Man, and it always brings me close to tears. When it ends, it just feels awesome when The Mirror starts, it just fills me with energy, you truly feel how the album is essentially split in two parts. I never related The Mirror to any addiction of any sort, and it's much more poethic than it's followups, but still, 3rd place in the album for me.

I can understand.
Dream Theater does that to you. 3rd place for the Mirror? I'm guessing that The Silent Man is first and Space Dye Vest is second?

Almost.
Silent Man is 2nd, my 1st place is Voices and 4th place is either SDV or Innocence Faded.

Voices. XD
Damn, should've known that. Sorry. Where would you rank Scarred at?

[Darkstarshades]

Scarred... Well...
I don't like it thaat much, probably along with Lie and 6:00, which are my least heard songs in the album.
Dunno, it's not a song that has clicked on me really that hard.

Live versions are another thing, every song on Awake with a live version (except for Caught in a Web and maybe 6:00) is better than its studio counterpart, specially SDV and The Silent Man (Scenes), IF in Score is beautiful and I also like Scarred in BTFW.

[OnTheBacksofAngela]

Scarred (10:59)

Scarred is underrated. I said the same thing about Lines in the Sand, both of these songs are in the same situation. Third best song on their album, not as good as another long song on the album, but that doesn't mean they should be ignored, because they're incredible. Plus they both saw the light of day on Chaos in Motion and the Systematic Chaos tour (along with Blind Faith), so that at least counts for something. Here's something else that's more subtle, though. Lines in the Sand and Scarred are both about religion. Lines in the Sand is more blatant (and so is Voices, for that matter) about it while Scarred is more subtle, but still, you can't rely deny how easily this song can be interpreted as being about a connection to God. Not something that I mind at all, though who knows, maybe that's bad luck for the band. Either way though, it's just a situation in which you're probably listening to Awake unaware of what you're getting in to, and when they get to a ten minute epic, you're thinking wow. Wasn't expecting that, let's see what it has to offer. Scarred isn't the most epic of their epics, though. A Mind Beside Itself is far grander in proportions, but Scarred doesn't try to reach that level. Hell, this song could have easily been less than ten minutes, but it is what it is and I have no complaints.

Fitting in with that, the opening to Scarred isn't anything mindblowing, except for Labrie's vocals. XD, and the song isn't in a hurry to start blowing your off. Hell, apart from the ridiculously catchy chorus and the guitar solo towards the end, the song doesn't really have one moment where it tries to throw itself at you. It's designed more like a normal seven or eight minute song than an epic, but it hit 11 minutes, so that's where it is. There's not really any filler in the song though, it's just deeper than your typical song that's a little shorter than it. The song opens with drums and bass, that's certainly not how a song like A Change of Seasons decides to make its entrance. But it's a slow opening that gradually evolves into something that's a lot more intense (that chorus that I speak of), plus the whole song is incredibly consistent in greatness and doesn't really have a bad moment, so again, you're not going to hear a bad thing from me all writeup. Myung's way of opening this song is excellent (ever notice Myung completely shines in the entire second half of Awake?), though it's certainly welcome when Petrucci comes in. He's extremely electric on his entrance even though the song remains calm and peaceful. Either way, LaBrie comes in soon as well.

To Rise, To Fall.
To Hurt, To Hate.
To Want, To Wait.
To Heal, To Save.
Can't hear it
we fear it
awareness won't come near it
Distractive
Reactive
Disguised in spite of time

That's a rather interesting way of starting the song. First of all we've got two things that are complete opposites, like rising and falling, but then the rest of the things seem to go together. This on top of Petrucci finally being on electric guitar, but the most prominent instruments still being the bass and drums. It's a very different type of epic, but I love it. And then there's the next verse, and I love LaBrie's vocals on it. When he gets to the "Can't hear it, we fear it", his voice is just vibrating with intensity, but if there's one emotion that penetrates his vocals, it's fear. How appropriate that part of that says we fear it. But I'm not going to waste any time in getting to the point. Scarred is about dissociation with religion. Sure, there's some different ways of interpreting it, I suppose, but I honestly can't side with anything that's not directly about God. The song gets gradually more and more clear about that while it stays subtle at the beginning, and still, there's ways to twist the meaning of it if you don't think that's what it's about. And if you don't, let me know, but to me, Scarred is about religion and doesn't stray from that at all.

Either way though, the beginning of this is like the rest of it, someone losing faith. Petrucci is, I believe, rather firm in his religious beliefs (I know Myung is the most firm in his Catholic beliefs, but I digress), and this is his song, so there you go. People unable to hear the voice of God, and needing to question His existence, and because of that, being in fear of Him, but also being in fear of the unknown, yet straying from that. And the beginning, that's all the actions and emotions we take in the path of questioning religion. As it starts though, the song is incredibly mellow, and does its building gradually. It's one of the few songs with an electric guitar that's this soft and quiet, but eventually, Portnoy starts pummeling down on his drums, and then we hear Moore in full swing. His duality with Petrucci in transitioning to the next verse is phenomenal, and it's the exact thing that characterizes Awake for what it is. It's slowly becoming heavier, though, and even though the next verse is still pretty mellow, LaBrie's vocals are a lot more heated now, and the keyboard is a lot more prominent.

I never bared my emotion
My passion always strong
I never lost my devotion
but somewhere fate went wrong

Can't let them rape me again
Your venom's not family here
won't let them fill me with
fatalistic remedies

LaBrie sounds angry at this point, but anger isn't really what the feeling is here. It's somewhat of an emptiness of the soul that one is trying to deny but knows that they possess anyway, and forcing themselves into denial that way is causing some kind of emotional turmoil. Hence, LaBrie's rather intense vocals through this part. LaBrie expresses never at one moment losing religious devotion. The emotion, the passion, and the devotion were always there, but as time progressed, some kind of decline happened to him. The passage of fate had it that deleterious effects came upon him, and he's feeling angst about that even though he doesn't want to. While all that's going on, people are trying to change him. Not necessarily for religious purposes or to force him into their beliefs, but he's facing the weight of people telling him what to do. He describes it as venom and being raped, and sometimes it is indeed for what he says is his greatest problem, but he'll accept nothing for that either, because it's for the worse.

Scarred has an interesting structure and it's very progressive, let's not forget that for a second, even if isn't the most "epic" thing ever recorded. There's a quick, nice little guitar riff in between that verse there, and when LaBrie returns on vocals for it, he's calmed down a little bit, though he just builds it up again. At the instant it's done though, Moore enters on keyboards and the song tricks you into thinking it's entering a mellow state again. That's one of the interesting things that this song pulls off, though. It has a chorus as well as a pre-chorus, and the whole thing is done three times in the song, which is rather nice, but the pre-chorus comes along, just without the chorus. I'm going to wait to talk about that until the actual chorus comes around, though, since the whole thing can't be dissected, for my money, since as a whole it works extremely nicely. But whatever, when that's done Petrucci enters on guitar again, and LaBrie enters his angriest vocals yet. This time though he's speaking to the entire world, feeling the effects of not having some kind of religious presence in his life.

What if the rest of the world
was hopelessly blinded by fear?
Where would my sanctity live?
Suddenly nobody cares.

It's never enough
You're wasting your time
Isn't there something I could say?
You don't understand
You're closing me out
How can we live our lives this way?

You tell me I'm wrong
I'm risking my life
Still, I have nothing in return
I show you my hands
You don't see the scars
Maybe you'll leave me here to burn.

The world is influencing LaBrie, and it's primarily because of the lack of a religious presence in his life. They're talking to him and trying to help him, but just like he lost his association with a higher being a while back, he's lost his ability to accept help in his life from the people surrounding him. Partly because the acceptance of religion in your life comes from within and not from people around you. That can only foster the relationship with God, not begin it, the answer lies within. And people don't understand that, so he isn't being helped, but he's also suffering for his lack of faith. Here's where we have the only reference to a "scar" in the entire song, though. It comes from the psyche, though, not from the physical. He extends his hands, and they appear clean, but inside, he's hurt, bleeding, and scarred. Meanwhile, people try to change him but they don't even realize that. He "risks his life", though, because he's both on a decline from it, and because when you die, you want to believe in some kind of higher power such that you can reach salvation. Without that, even if you don't believe, you risk the possibility that there actually is an afterlife and you won't be a part of it.

That's one way of interpreting this verse, but I feel I should throw another one out there since it's one of the deepest and most important parts of the entire song. It's possible that Petrucci is talking directly to God with this section, as if he still does hold belief in said higher power, but he's criticizing and talking about his own personal angst through that. Doubting God, which is what he's doing, is wrong. The Bible says as much. Yet he feels he has nothing for the faith he's shown. People around the world are negatively affecting him and he's unfond of them, and they're emotionally scarring him, and he feels God is not there for him and is going to leave him there. Either way, this is the most intense moment of the entire song, by far one of the most important because it's where the title comes from, and the absolutely amazing chorus is about to come. I should note a guitar riff comes between the two parts, but then there's keyboards again. It begins.

What if the rest of the world
was hopelessly drowning in vain?
Where would our self pity run?
Suddenly everyone cares.

The beginning of that poses an extremely important question. Now granted, we've heard/seen this once already, with some minor differences. Before the world was hopelessly blinded by fear and we had to question sanctity, and no one cared. Now, however, everyone cares. Now, those are very subtle differences and if you're listening to this song for the first time, you might not even pick up on them. I think they're very important though, because if you think about it, no one doing something to everyone doing it is a pretty major change, even if it's only one syllable in a word. And I'll be the first to admit that I'm not sure what that part of the song and the transition from no one to everyone represents. Apparently more people care about drowning in vain, versus being blinded by fear, and about their self pity as opposed to their sanctity. But that's part of the reason why this song is so deep, and why Dream Theater as a whole are better lyricists than people give them credit for. Because the fact that the exact meaning behind a little subtlety like this eludes me. That's a mark of quality writing ability, because it intrigues me. It interests me more than it should, what Petrucci was striving to say there.

I will say this, though. The song becomes clearer and clearer as it goes that there's a religious connection to it, and while that might have been obvious yet, it's definitely getting there, though the focus at this point is obviously a change in Petrucci's life, and how he and the people interact with one another as a result. As the song goes on though, he improves himself and I'd say he finds God all over again, so I'd say everyone caring is definitely a good thing, and he's just a part of everyone, following the crowd. Being completely hopeless in life and feeling little to no responsibility or pity for his being doesn't sit well with him. That's the best theory that I can come up with, and even that's a little far fetched. So, maybe this is why the pre-chorus didn't come with the chorus the first time around. The band uses the same melody to show a transition, and then the chorus itself, which is absolutely outstanding by the way, is just what's happening to him. But anyway, the song slows down, it's groovy, and LaBrie's vocals are filling with the same fear and passion that was coming through from the beginning.

Blood...Heal me
Fear...Change me
Belief will always save me
Blood...Swearing
Fear...Staring
Conviction made aware
Give up on misery
Turn your back on dissent
Leave their distrust behind
Wash your hands of regret

"Blood, heal me, fear change me...", it's just passionate, I love it. No, screw passionate, it's desperation, and LaBrie isn't afraid to let that penetrate his voice. But let's go deeper into this. A scar when shed, is eternal, but it must bleed. Petrucci knows he'll feel at least some effects of this for the rest of his life. But blood is a defense mechanism, and will heal him. Deep inside himself he knows there must be some higher power, which leads him to fear, which leads him to believe, changing his outlook of life to follow. Through that, he convinces himself to change his ways. Enter the post-chorus, which isn't quite as awesome as that chorus, but it's awesome all the same. He's miserable now. He wants to be rid of that, and to do that he needs to believe as he once did. He feels regret and suffering because of himself and his peers, and he knows that he'll be able to rid that from himself. Anyways, throughout the last part of the chorus, LaBrie's vocals are emphatic again, and the keyboards are strong as ever. This is the second half of Awake, after all.

Do you feel you don't know me anymore?
And do you feel I'm afraid of your love?
And how come you don't want me asking?
And how come my heart's not invited?
You say you want everyone happy
Well, we're not laughing.
And how come you don't understand me?
And how come I don't understand you?
Thirty years say we're in this together
So open your eyes.
People in prayer for me
everyone there for me
Sometimes I feel I should face this alone
My soul exposed
It calms me to know that I won't

This is the last part of the song to offer much in the line of new lyrics, and it once again raises an important question, as to whether Petrucci is addressing his peers, or addressing God directly. We know that the song consists of both, but the only question is where it does what. First of all though, it's clear that he's changed as a human being. Because of that, people don't know the new him. He wants people to believe that he thinks they actually do care about him, but he's come across as being opposed to it for so long, that who knows. Same goes with God. He's turned God away for so long, and then the only emotion he had was fear, so he isn't sure that God Himself knows what to believe about him. He has these thoughts inside his head, but at the same time he's still angry at the people. Reason being, they're hypocrites, and that's the way a lot of people who work with religion are. They act in the name of God, but in reality their only interests are finances and political gain, and he still feels as rejected as ever by these people, as much as he wanted to assure them in the first place. Maybe his reason for saying this comes from being a different person twice over, and this giving him the ability to see the true colors of them.

There's some people that he feels are standing beside him, though, which is what he lets out by saying "it calms me to know that I won't". Which I have to say, I think the lyrical highlight is the "you don't see the scars, maybe you'll leave me here to burn" part, plus the musical highlight is the chorus, but this part of the song is incredible as well, plus extremely important towards the finalization of the song. He talks about himself, people, and the connection that those two have with each other in their association with God. As in: "thirty years say we're in this together". He has without a doubt gained some respect for human beings back with his gradual restoration of faith, and that's seen from "people in prayer for me". What a play on words. Either way, everything up through the ending is amazing. The chorus again, no complaints there, and then Portnoy absolutely blitzing away at drums, similar to Metropolis Pt. 1 actually. What comes in is one of Petrucci's finest solos ever, though, so what can you possibly say to justify that. Nothing. This solo is almost better than the one in Lines in the Sand, even though it's a lot more static and not nearly as dynamic. It does the same thing for awhile, but that's what makes it great.

Plus you know what, the solo ends and then the chorus comes back yet again. This is what makes Scarred great. The post-chorus is what concludes the song, but the last line is changed to "I'm inspired and content". Inspiration. Something that comes from faith. That's one of the major reasons that I feel this song is about losing faith in a higher being and then returning to it, though there's evidence all over the place. Now you can believe me or not believe me, makes no difference, but to me, it's always going to be grouped together with Blind Faith and Lines in the Sand as the religious epics. The song ends with an awesome keyboard solo that segues into Space-Dye Vest, and there you go. Scarred is underrated, what else can I possibly say. From beginning to end it's flawless, and it's one of the deepest songs the band ever wrote. Like the band or not, this is a song you wish you could write.

[OnTheBacksofAngela]

Scarred... Well...
I don't like it thaat much, probably along with Lie and 6:00, which are my least heard songs in the album.
Dunno, it's not a song that has clicked on me really that hard.

Live versions are another thing, every song on Awake with a live version (except for Caught in a Web and maybe 6:00) is better than its studio counterpart, specially SDV and The Silent Man (Scenes), IF in Score is beautiful and I also like Scarred in BTFW.

Ah, what about Labrie's vocals? Don't you like them? And hm, interesting. Why would you say that the live version is much beter than the studio version?

[Darkstarshades]

Scarred... Well...
I don't like it thaat much, probably along with Lie and 6:00, which are my least heard songs in the album.
Dunno, it's not a song that has clicked on me really that hard.

Live versions are another thing, every song on Awake with a live version (except for Caught in a Web and maybe 6:00) is better than its studio counterpart, specially SDV and The Silent Man (Scenes), IF in Score is beautiful and I also like Scarred in BTFW.

Ah, what about Labrie's vocals? Don't you like them? And hm, interesting. Why would you say that the live version is much beter than the studio version?

I'd say it's because of the ambience. Just how natural and great BTFW sounds makes me like just everything they play there more than its original version. 2nd best live album for me, only bested by Score and that's because Score has Octavarium and Six. Labrie sings awesomely, both then and now.

[OnTheBacksofAngela]

Space Dye Vest (7:29)

Space-Dye Vest is one of the most beautiful, yet most haunting songs Dream Theater has ever written. It definitely starts in a way intended to haunt you: Moore's piano, yet despite that, everything else is in silence. That is all you can relate to in the beginning. LaBrie joins in a little after the minute mark, but for the beginning of this song, that's all we've got: a duet between LaBrie and Moore. The lyrics are dark and rather depressing (don't get me wrong though, they've got nothing on Disappear) -- it's Moore's admission that he really may be insane, inspired by how he sort of fell in love with a model wearing a space-dye vest in a magazine. Hint: "I saw the future dressed as a stranger / Love in a space-dye vest". That's as chilling as it gets. LaBrie's voice is very different here: he's a lot deeper in this song. Like... you've never heard him this way. And gosh, the piano gets me every time. If I'm ever in a happy mood, all I have to do is listen to this song and I will be in a bad mood. If I want to be depressed, all I have to do is listen to Disappear X'D. Also, this write up is pretty short, as it is pretty simple, but the musical quality is awesome. And the sampling is oh my God, so haunting and fitting. Love it.

Falling through pages of Martens on angels
Feeling my heart pull west
I saw the future dressed as a stranger
love in a space-dye vest

Isn't this haunting? Flipping through a magazine and finding the perfect man or woman on the cover of the magazine. Have you guys ever had that feeling before? That model Kevin saw was wearing a space dye vest, hence the title of this song.

Love is an act of blood and I'm bleeding
a pool in the shape of a heart
Beauty projection in the reflection
Always the worst way to start

Very beautiful. Love can be awesome, but it is also very painful in case of heartbreaks and betrayal. We can see Moore is spiritually bleeding as the blood forms the heart. "Beauty projection in the reflection," is the worst ways to start the love.

[Sample is Julian Sands from the film "A Room With A View".]
"But he's the sort who can't know
anyone intimately, least of all a
woman. He doesn't know what a woman
is. He wants you for a possession,
something to look at like a painting or an ivory box.
Something to own and to display. He doesn't want you to be real,
or to think or to live. He doesn't love you, but I love you.
I want you to have your own thoughts and ideas and
feelings, even when
I hold you in my arms. It's our last chance... It's our
last chance..."

This sampling is basically saying that there are two people that loves a woman. One is basically just treating her like a display. He wants her only to look at and to fill his needs. The other is saying that he will treat her much better. He doesn't truly love her, but the main character truly does. It's their last chance together.

Now that you're gone I'm trying to take it
Learning to swallow the rage
Found a new girl I think we can make it
as long as she stays on the page

The woman is forever gone and the main character is barely controlling his rage. He is really mad, but swallows it and he finds a new girl on a magazine, but realizes that it'd be better for her to stay on the page because if she doesn't, it will lead him to more heartbreak.

This is not how I want it to end
And I'll never be open again

He didn't want that relationship to end like that, so abruptly. He will never be open again as he lost his love twice.

[Sample from "The Trouble With Evan", from the Canadian series "The Fifth Estate".]
"...I was gonna move out...ummm...get,
get a job, get my own place, ummm,
but... I go into the mall where I
want to work and they tell me, I'm,
I was too young..."

This talks about a girl, probably 18, who was going to move out and live on her own. She tries finding her own job to support her life, but she the mall she wanted to work at refuses her because she is too young and she is saddened. Sexism might be in play here also.

[Sample is Jim Hill from a news commentary about the OJ Simpson freeway chase.]
"Some people, gave advice before,
about facing the facts, about facing reality.
And this is, this without a doubt, is his biggest challenge ever.
He's going to have to face it.
You're gonna have to try, he's gonna to have to try and,
uh, and, and, and get some help here. I mean no one can say they know how he feels."

This sample talks about how the main character, Moore will have to face reality. She is gone and she is part of the magazine so his biggest challenge is to face that challenge and let her go, no matter how much it hurts. He will have to face it to survive.

[Sample from the Conan O'Brien show.]
"That, so they say that, in ya know
like, Houston or something, you'd
say it's a hundred and eighty degrees,
but it's a dry heat.
In Houston they say that?
Oh, maybe not. I'm all mixed up.
Dry until they hit the swimming pool."

This part, I'm not really sure. I think Moore chose this sample to be part of this because it is pretty mysterious much like his other songs.

[Sample from "The Trouble With Evan", from the Canadian series "The Fifth Estate".]
"...I get up with the sun... Listen.
You have your own room to sleep in,
I don't care what you do.
I don't care when.
That door gets locked,
That door gets locked at night by nine o'clock.
If you're not in this house by nine o'clock, then you'd better find some
place to sleep. Because you're not going to be a bum in this house.
Supper is ready..."

This sample is heartbreaking. I think it is talking about the girl we saw 3 samples above. She moved out of the house because the father was so tight and strict about the rule. We can see that she has to arrive at the house by 9 or else, she'll have to find another place.

There's no one to take my blame
if they wanted to
There's nothing to keep me sane
and it's all the same to you
There's nowhere to set my aim
so I'm everywhere
Never come near me again
do you really think I need you

We can see Moore heartbroken and he is basically giving up. He can't be sane anymore, he will be all over the place. He doesn't ever want to see the girl again because she "betrayed him." He doesn't want her near him ever again.

I'll never be open again, I could never be open again.
I'll never be open again, I could never be open again.

He'll never be open. 

And I'll smile and I'll learn to pretend
And I'll never be open again
And I'll have no more dreams to defend
And I'll never be open again

Wow, poor Moore. He will try to smile and tell everyone he is alright while deep down inside, he is far from alright. He will pretend and he will never be open again. His dreams are crushed and he will have no more to defend. He will never be open again. After this, Moore's strings sound comes in and they have a duet with the piano. By this time, all of the band are in and this song closes. So beautiful. :'D
Next, we will have Falling into Infinity! Can't wait!

[OnTheBacksofAngela]

I'd say it's because of the ambience. Just how natural and great BTFW sounds makes me like just everything they play there more than its original version. 2nd best live album for me, only bested by Score and that's because Score has Octavarium and Six. Labrie sings awesomely, both then and now.

Ah, that makes sense. Would you recommend me listening to BTFW? What is that anyways? Sorry, I have no clue. And what is Score?

[Crow]

no, the riff you talked about in the mirror is very objectively the same riff as Space-Dye Vest, sorry

[RoeDent]

And what is Score?

A live album and DVD done in 2006, as a 20th anniversary show. Setlist was one song off each album up to Octavarium, including the full 42-minute Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence.

[pcs90]

no, the riff you talked about in the mirror is very objectively the same riff as Space-Dye Vest, sorry

Exactly. I kind of see how you could immediately follow it with the TGP one, because the style of it is similar in this case, but the actual melody is definitely not from TGP.

Also, I have to say that several of these recent ones (noteably Lie and Scarred) really look similar to another website's write-ups of DT songs that has a similar title to this thread's...

[OnTheBacksofAngela]

Exactly. Richard Beast right? I know him personally
Thankfully we kinda worked on this together although he let me borrow some so meh :/
Geating lazy a couple of times.

[Train of Naught]

I based my write-ups on his aswell, just because they were so good, I didn't exactly copy parts, but I used the same terminology and such, although I don't know him personally. 

So as long as you stick to that style consider me satisfied.

[Rodni Demental]

I'd say it's because of the ambience. Just how natural and great BTFW sounds makes me like just everything they play there more than its original version. 2nd best live album for me, only bested by Score and that's because Score has Octavarium and Six. Labrie sings awesomely, both then and now.

Ah, that makes sense. Would you recommend me listening to BTFW? What is that anyways? Sorry, I have no clue. And what is Score?

If you haven't seen/heard Breaking the Fourth Wall (live in Boston) or Score (NY) yet you've seen Chaos in Motion, then you have some live material to catch up with. Unless you were just unsure of the abbreviations? This place is shocking for that. 

[Darkstarshades]

I'd say it's because of the ambience. Just how natural and great BTFW sounds makes me like just everything they play there more than its original version. 2nd best live album for me, only bested by Score and that's because Score has Octavarium and Six. Labrie sings awesomely, both then and now.

Ah, that makes sense. Would you recommend me listening to BTFW? What is that anyways? Sorry, I have no clue. And what is Score?

If you haven't seen/heard Breaking the Fourth Wall (live in Boston) or Score (NY) yet you've seen Chaos in Motion, then you have some live material to catch up with. Unless you were just unsure of the abbreviations? This place is shocking for that. 

I actually heard about Chaos in Motion (and songs there) before I even got to know about Score, and BTFW wasn't out yet. So, it's... possible.

[Calvin6s]

Are you going to review Eve as the last track of Awake?