Spent much time the last month listening to 'Awake', 'Metropolis Pt 2' and 'Six Degrees of Turbulence'. I treated them all as 'double albums', so I'd repeat a listen after twenty minutes or so.
Prefer disk 2 of 'Six Degrees'. Great stuff. Wish I'd have heard them years ago (would have helped us at the DT/Qryche concert a couple years back).
Suggestions for my next purchase?
j+III
Scenes From A Memory (concept album), Train Of Thoughts (their latest, heavy stuff), Images and Words (classic!) are all awesome. If you like Dream Theater you NEED these! ;-)
Live at the Budokan
or any other live album. They really are amazingly live. I hardly listen to their studio albums, but listen to live stuff very frequently.
I saw them a couple of years back in London on the Train of Thought tour (I think)
They had a backdrop with a very familiar crest on it, you know the one with a Phoenix at the top, and a crab, lions and fairies around a Q.
The wording beneath the crest was Dream Theater A Night At The Opera. They covered Death on Two Legs that night. I happened to be wearing my leather with the Queen crest painted on the back, and was asked what the album was that DOTL was on as the kid asking me thought that he had all the Dream Theater albums. I enjoyed the look on his face when I told him it was Queen.
(Does anyone have any photos of this stage set up?)
Anyway back on topic I'd recommend Images and Words.
Dan
Well, since we're on Queen covers: can I throw in their Bo Rhap from A Change of Seasons?! ;-)
And yes, they are great as a live band. Though one has to be lucky that James LaBrie has a good day. I've heard them a couple of times on a 'bad' day... My cat is still in agony ;-)
jeroen wrote: Well, since we're on Queen covers: can I throw in their Bo Rhap from A Change of Seasons?! ;-)
And yes, they are great as a live band. Though one has to be lucky that James LaBrie has a good day. I've heard them a couple of times on a 'bad' day... My cat is still in agony ;-)
Mwoah, it's only 10% of the time that is spend on singing, so even if he has a bad day, it's still 90% flawless. And on the ToT tour James was in pretty good shape. I've heard about 10-15 shows by now, and my opinion is that his voice improved since last tour.
SCENES FROM A MEMORY! I consider this one to be one of the best albums ever. Especially Overture 1928, Strange Deja Vu, Fatal Tragedy, Home and The Dance Of Eternity are brilliant! And it is a concept album, just like disc 2 from SDOIT.
TRAIN OF THOUGHT is also brilliant, but heavier. If you like some of the earlier stuff from Metallica (Master Of Puppets & And Justice For All) you'll definately like this one two! God I love these songs: As I Am, This Dying Soul, Honor Thy Father, Stream Of Consiousness and In The Name Of God.
IMAGES & WORDS I'm a Dream Theater fan since SFAM and discovered their other music later. Although there are some brilliant songs on the early albums I prefer SFAM, SDOIT and TOT. I just prefer the line-up with their current keyboardplayer.
iljaiya wrote:
Although there are some brilliant songs on the early albums I prefer SFAM, SDOIT and TOT. I just prefer the line-up with their current keyboardplayer.
Same here. I really like Jordan's keyboard playing. Although Kevin and Derick also were excellent keyboard players. They do deserve some credits. But Jordan just fits better in the band. More interaction with the other instruments. Derick stood a bit more on his own.