Speaking as a guitarist, Awake is the best playing Petrucci has ever committed to tape. Creative, funky, progressive, heavy, and often times just flat out ferocious. If I&W established him as a prog hero, Awake cemented him as a guitar god- easily on the same level of the Vai’s, Satriani’s and Yngwie’s of the world. Petrucci is always good, but Awake is next level; a showcase of his versatility and a treasure trove for prog metal guitarists.
The only dig on Awake, and this is probably controversial, is JLB’s overly operatic, and frankly, over bearing delivery throughout. Obviously, a powerhouse performance, but I feel like instead of turning him up to 11 throughout most of the album, dialing him back a bit would have serviced the songs better. If you’ll excuse a pro wrestling analogy, but it’s like if you’re constantly doing “high spots”, it starts losing it’s effect.