Happy birthday to this awesome album. I usually rank it as #2 in their discography, only second to I&W.
Same here...but I have been rediscovering it lately, and paying more attention to the details in the story, and it could well surpass I&W soon in my ranking. This is a work of art!!!!
a work of art that is very flawed (James only having an estimated 10-30% of his range and power, Portnoy being Portnoy, JP not being at his current level and many other factors), I see why people love it though (hell, even I! (seriously!) did when it came out, I remember it as if it were yesterday, boy was I easily impressionable back in the day) and to Jordan's eternal credit, it turned out to be the way we know it today.
I even remember being overwhelmed by that massive D that Jordan plays starting off Overture 1928. The album was on heavy rotation when I was 9. Met2 was the first full album cycle that happened after I became a fan. (and the first DT tour I attended in 2000, Porcupine Tree opened for DT)
Met2 has always been the album to turn other people on to DT for me (my closest friend as an example, still his alltime favourite DT album to this day), did the trick very well.
All things considered, happy anniversary Met2