Apologies for writing in a thread that has been inactive for 5 years, but maybe you won't crucify me.
I've never actually written proper album reviews, and so my style is not something you'd expect to find in some music connoisseur magazine. As I wrote my "review" for When Dream and Day Unite, I noticed that it actually comes across like something more resembling a "live reaction" thing than a proper review. But anyway, here it goes. Let's see if I actually have the stamina to go through all the albums, let alone doing them chronologically, but here's a start.
When Dream and Day Unite
What the heck is with that album cover? I remember getting this album way later than the rest of them, partly perhaps due to the fact that when browsing albums in a record store, When Dream and Day Unite doesn’t exactly scream “pick me!”. Maybe it has some weird kitsch or cult aesthetic all over it which I don’t get, but man, it is ugly as hell. Well, I guess album covers were never really the strength of this band anyway, unlike many of the classic metal acts, such as Iron Maiden or Megadeth.
A Fortune in Lies
Good opening, I feel intrigued right away. Interesting riffs with good keyboard sections and a great guitar solo right at the beginning. Some tempo, and in comes Dominici, who sounds great. The song has a nice flow to it and moves nicely from one part to the next. The chorus is not perhaps the strongest aspect of the song, but it doesn’t really hurt the overall vibe. Great start and a strong opener for the album!
4,5
Status Seeker
I hear some Rush in the very first riff, right there. Sounds promising, but when the song actually starts with the verse, the quality drops quite a lot. The chorus is boring and doesn’t really do anything for me. Reminds me of some cliché AOR song. The guitar solo seems oddly low in the mix, didn’t notice that in the previous song. All in all, a very pointless song.
1
The Ytse Jam
Some cathy stuff and good riffs in the beginning. I hear some oriental or middle-eastern inspired melodies as well, or something like that. I’m not a big fan of instrumentals overall, and this is not something I’m overly excited for this time either. But it isn’t a bad song, just perhaps a little all over the place, with many nice parts here and there.
2,5
The Killing Hand
The intro is beautiful and feels like a fresh approach after that last whirlwind of a song. Keyboards sound cheesy just in the right 80’s way. Okay, this is apparently divided into 5 (or V) sections. Section I works well, but sections II and III are apparently pretty much the same stuff and a little less dramatic for my taste than section I. Okay, now we’re speeding up, sounds like something from The Ytse Jam. Apparently, we’re on section IV now. The end of this section brings forth some neoclassical bits. V: Exodus now, we’re slowing down, but nothing overly exciting going on. I don’t understand anything about the lyrics though. Cool riffs as we near the ending. An okay song which started out very nicely but sort of fell flat from section II onward.
2,5
Light Fuse and Get Away
I’m 2 minutes in the song when the first exciting moment comes. The verse sounds pretty good and somehow dark. Weird jump to what I think is the chorus, which is not that catchy. That phone message sample from the girl is super cheesy, my god! Some cool instrumental parts which sound improvised. The rest of the song sounds uninspiring, doesn’t raise any particular feelings other than boredom.
1,5
Afterlife
At this point I need to remind myself that I’m actually listening to Dream Theater. These riffs don’t do anything for me. The chorus has some potential but somehow manages to sound like Bon Jovi. Dominici hasn’t caught my attention once since the first song. Somewhat of a Hotel California moment with the keyboards near the end.
1,5
The Ones Who Help to Set the Sun
The beginning of this song is the most interesting thing that has happened since that nice acoustic intro in The Killing Hand. An eerie feeling comes creeping, almost sounds like a horror movie soundtrack. Looking at the lyrics, I get the same horror movies vibes. This is good stuff! The riffs are nice, but the weak production sort of reveals itself here. This could be much more powerful with a proper guitar sound. Still, I’m kind of rediscovering my faith for the band now, and this is the strongest song since the album opener.
4
Only A Matter of Time
The good stuff apparently continues. This sounds more like the DT I’m familiar with. But when the vocals come in, I find myself a bit underwhelmed again. There is some good stuff there, but the song somehow feels oddly put together by random riffs that don’t connect with one another. Some good instrumental bits here as we approach the ending. A bit better than the average song on this album, but not great.
2,75
And the mean is 2,53 / 5
Well, all in all I would say that this is not a strong album, but all the elements that later made up the core sound of the band can be found in these songs. Even though I rate some of the songs pretty low, this is not bad music by any means. It’s just that I’m used to the very high standard of some of the later albums which makes me feel pretty indifferent, or “meh”, toward some of these compositions. Production-wise, this is not the band’s greatest achievement, but it’s not a total disaster either. And Dominici is not the most interesting singer, certainly not compared to James Labrie, but he’s not bad either. I would say that the album comes off as this week precisely because we have the experience of having heard all the other Dream Theater (and other prog metal) albums after 1989, so rating this in 2021 does not work in the albums favor. I’m pretty sure I would have felt differently about it, had it been my first DT record I ever heard. And I can imagine rating it entirely differently, had I been there in 1989 and hearing it at the time of it’s release. Context matters, but what I did now was simply to hear the music as an isolated work of art and try to judge it solely based on how it sounded to me.
Topic: WDaDU Appreciation (Read 24806 times)
