Yay, Finally Free! My favourite song from SFAM. I agree with MP's fills during the murder scene being very good and fitting but I prefer the drum solo at the end. That is amazing drumming.
But that goes without saying so
9. The Ones That Help To Set The Sun- When Dream and Day Unite
Watching my window I was led like a
child
As the roadway lamplights
misguided my mind through the night
a shadow of limitsI think if you'd been following son_ov_hades top 50 thread and saw my reaction to where he'd placed this song, then I think you could of guessed that this song would have been making an appearance. Some of you are probably mortified that this song made the list, and the rest of you are mortified it's this high! But why is it this high? Let's start with that intro. Footsteps. Rain. Door open. Door slam. Window wipers, MOORE KEYBOARD, BAND. (No Seatbelt click though, Mr Unsafe driver!) The start gets you in the mood for some mysterious journey, the unknown coming your way, and it becomes a more band experience and around two and a half minutes in, the wipers come back in, become louder and louder.. THEN BAM. We're rocking out.
Whilst the song doesn't have the mysterious imagery that the intro has, the lyrics by Petrucci do. Some kind of journey made with a partner at least, and it's just rocking through out. The guitars, especially, are a highlight on this song with that bloomin' guitar solo just being one of my favourites. It might sound like I'm repeating myself, but damn, everyone on this song is perfect as well, ESPECIALLY Dominici. This is certainly one of his more comfortable sounding performances, but not his best. That's coming up later!
8. Lines In The Sand- Falling Into Infinity
We fabricate our demons
Invite them into our homes
Have supper with the aliens
And fight the war alone
We conjure up our skeletons
Enlist the den of thieves
Frightened from our closets
Then sewn upon our sleevesAand speaking of intros that I love, say hello to Lines In The Sand. Sherinan keyboards with Portnoy drumming taking the center stage for the first moments, and then EVERYTHING I love about Falling Into Infinity kicks in. THE MIXING. THE DRUMS. THE BASS. THE KEYS. THE GUITAR. THE WAY IT ALL BLENDS INTO THE BEST SOUP. The keys and guitar are my favourite things about this song, but that's before we get to the lyrical performance of James LaBrie. This is more fitting to his voice than a fair amount of content post-throat death, and you can just hear how comfortable he is singing it. He gives it his all and it's just perfect. The guest vocals are amazing too, Doug Pinnick of King's X fame does a fantastic job.
Then the second half of the song happens. Everything dims for a moment, and then the guitar comes at you. The second half is an amazing moment in music full stop, it comes for you, to hold you close and tell you that every piece of shit music doesn't matter any more, you've got Lines In The Sand and it loves you.