Progressive Metal & Dream Theater: Cheesy and soulless or melodic and innovative?
Courtesy of Carsten Petersen – A true geek passionate about geek-like music played by knights and pretentious goblins
Editors Note:
In order to prove that this site do not support censorship and offers a genuine window through freedom of speech and diversity, our goblin reviewer goes into his geekiest tastes and takes Dream Theater as a reference to prove (not really) that Prog Metal is not one of the most pretentious and soulless forms of music disguised in virtuoso-like guitars and unnecessary falsettos.
Ok, that was a pretty long time. The last months have been rough and dark. The blog has been at a standstill and I am sure it spoiled Christmas for pretty much everyone (sarcasm) on this planet. Luckily, these dark ages have passed and once again it is time for another rambling pseudo-essay from your, I’m pretty sure, favorite reviewer (..).
Needless to day, I have gotten myself acquainted with a few new bands. Or, well, ‘new’ bands. As always, all of these have already been around for longer than I can say the word ‘pretentious’ and that’s a pretty damn long time! It is getting harder and harder to get to know bands that have a style that really fascinates me. The more bands, the more music you know, the more you go ‘ah well, I already heard that one before’. With time, your ear gets used to all those little tricks that just a while ago used to be so goddamn surprising. You get older, you are not as easily fascinated anymore as you were in your younger ages, so basically those ‘WOW’ (not World of Warcraft!) moments come less and less. Fortunately, I am not dead yet, so these great moments do come back from time to time.
Basically, it is two bands that right now dominate my mind. Rush and Dream Theater. Surprise, surprise! A geek reviewer who likes yet another pair of geeky bands! Honestly, both of these groups have earned their image as geek bands so much, it is surprising I don’t start to wear goblin costumes. Both bands have introduced a harder-edged sound to progressive rock – hard rock and metal. Being a very picky listener in both of these categories, these guys ain’t a natural choice. Now, while Rush has slowly grown on me over several months, Dream Theater made an entrance with a big bang. And therefore, after this long and boring, yet strangely enjoyable and not at all wordy review, the metal dudes shall take today’s spot.
Dream Theater emerged in the late 80s, during a time when Grunge slowly crept out of the caves to destroy everything around it. Nirvana became the Zeitgeist of the moment and at the same time, the flashy hair metal bands became a thing of the past. The motto was ‘back to basics’. And along comes a progressive metal band that put virtuosity in big letters on their foreheads. Yep guys, GREAT timing! Honestly, if they had decided to do a silent black-and-white movie, the likes of making actual money would have been a lot bigger. Their first album, When Dream and Day Unite, was a first step and despite all odds already got the band a foot in the door. However, their breakthrough should come 3 years later in 1992 with Images and Words.
Before the recording, the old singer left the band and a Canadian guy called James LaBrie joined. A singer with a very operatic style that fascinates some and annoys a lot more. Speaking of it, before finally coming to the actual review, this is a good timing to discuss the general standing of the band. Just like LaBrie, the band draws a lot of heated discussions. For fans, Dream Theater are the gods of melodic songwriting, innovative albums and especially great virtuosic playing. However, for a lot of enemies and bitter critics, this band has become the purest symbol of empty, bland, pseudo-bombastic, annoying and completely soulless shredding being devoid of anything resembling actual resonance or feeling. If there ever was a love or hate band, this is the one (well, except Rush of course). But well, enough of the introduction mambo-jambo, lets get to their 1992 hit record.
Dream Theater – Images and Words
What does the album sound like? First of all, you can definitely hear the time of its origin. This has a very strong early 90’s feeling flowing through each of the songs. A dramatic singer, strong keyboard presence and a whole lot of ballads. Yep, you heard right. This album might have gone down in history as prog metal, but the truth is, if you expect actual stereotypical hard shredding metal, you will be incredibly disappointed. Even the harder numbers cannot be compared to real ear-shredding metal. There are elements of metal and some hard guitar here and there, but overall the style focuses more on progressive, rock as well as more pop-like elements. This especially comes as a courtesy of singer LaBrie. His singing has a strong pop-ish touch to it and nowhere on the entire record does he descend into the typical metal growling. Instead, you get some operatic lines along the likes of Freddy Mercury and a lot of early 90s influenced harmonies. All of this glossy, shiny songwriting is combined with virtuosic shredding of the highest order. Needless to day, this is a very weird combination. Question of the day: Is this for better or for worse? What does this crazy, weird combination make of the record? Oh well, let’s look at the actual songs and see what happens.
Some of the material is simply utterly amazing. The album opens with Dream Theater´s biggest ever hit, ‘Pull me Under’. I heard this song two weeks ago for the first time. I rushed out and bought the album. Doesn’t happen too often, but damn, it’s justified here. The song is killer! An intro consisting of an hypnotic guitar line welcomes you to the record. Soon, metal riffing adds to the picture and then the song takes off. Great riffs with some kind of rhythmic keyboard increase the intensity to no degree. And then, LaBrie joins in. Honestly, the guy might go overboard at times, but his entrance is simply amazing! Self-assured, he steadily leads through the intense combination of crushing, solemn guitars, crashing drums and otherworldly keyboards. Oh man, and does he take off in the middle! For a short time, he goes into falsetto, the exact style that puts so many people off. But man, the way this voice and the thunderstorm of instruments combine…holy hell! “This world is spinning around me, the whole world is spinning around me.” Indeed.
After the ballad ‘Another Day’ (more on the ballads later), we are greeted with ‘Take the Time’. A fast paced pop-metal song, if such a thing ever existed. Now, while metal has always been fascinating, it always lacked something for me: optimism! Yes, deep in my angry soul I count myself being a happy person. Which means that, I always take music that is optimistic at its core over anything that has more of a depressing feel to it. Hell, no wonder this song is a highlight for me! A metal song, that is basically the equivalent of the sun coming up? Bring it on! Rarely have I heard a song so shock-full of pure joyful excitement. That chorus! One of greatest spirit-lifting choruses that any of the major pop bands never wrote. LaBrie once again is a true star here. Fast, energetic, he tears through the song like a true madman. And hell, once again, he goes for true falsetto on this one and oh, does it work here. Fast reckoning drums, sunshine keyboards, and cheerful guitar lines complement the picture a song, that should get anyone out of a depression in no time. Needless to day, there is incredibly fast playing all around with each and other member showing off like mad. But hey, thats the great thing. This is a song, where the playing is not just a gimmick, but actually completely becomes an integral part and makes the song! There is no way, this song could have achieved its up to sky rising joy without this wonderful, energetic Speedy Gonzalez playing.
For the ballads, the star is the second to last track ‘Wait for Sleep’, written by the keyboarder Kevin Moore. Simple, yet incredibly beautiful, courtesy of a wonderful piano melody. Yes, this one has “early 90’s” completely written all over it but unless you react allergic to this, that shouldn’t be much of a problem. It is especially neat, how this serves as a moment of relief in between a real rollercoaster ride of an album.
Unfortunately, this record does not make it that easy on us. The rest of the album past these three classics can be a truly frustrating ride. Great moments, bad moments, tough moments. They all take turns here. The other ballads are simply not up to par with ‘Wait for Sleep’. ‘Another Day’ is completely cheesy, with LaBrie crossing the border between opera and kitsch. ‘Surrounded’ actually starts of nice, but unfortunately, they decide to add more and more bombastic layers after the first minute and as a result, the song becomes totally obnoxious at the end.
Which brings me to another point. Yes, these guys are great players. But it is true, at times this gets in the way with them. Images and Words is clearly an album that shows Dream Theater in a more restrained mood than later on. Still, a ‘restrained’ Dream Theater is basically like a wolf with one tooth in the back missing. They still bite like mad! The best example is ‘Metropolis Part I: The Miracle and The Sleeper’. (Part II would emerge as whole album in 1999). The song starts of awesome. The intro is out of this world. The keyboards, the bells ringing, it sets a wonderful scenery. A futuristic, dark Metropolis indeed. More metal riffing to great effect. Then LaBrie, and with him the opera, starts. This is one of the moments where I wish, this dude would slow down a bit instead of going full force right ahead. The song adopts an overly dramatic mood that makes me think of the ‘less is more’ philosophy. Still, the song goes along fine. Then the middle section: Once again, starts of great, with wonderful melodies and guitar lines. But then, these guys make the mistake of all mistakes. Each damn member gets a solo spot! Bass solo, keyboard solo (terrible! how did the otherwise most restrained musician of the group come up with this???), and of course guitar solo. As a result, the song loses its initial feeling and becomes more of a show off case. Too bad…
‘Under a Glass Moon’ has a great, crushing introductory riff and, yes, a long but great solo courtesy of John Petrucci. But in the middle, there is just too much noodling for my tastes once again. And then, finally, the album concludes with ‘Learning to Live’. After a good intro, the song sets into another of these overly operatic moods that by this time already start to tire me out. Then, the middle section starts and…oh man, that middle section. A gentle, reduced atmosphere of pure beauty. Wonderful guitar by master Petrucci and a peaceful atmosphere that lets you forget everything around. It’s wonderful, it’s inventive, it’s only 3 minutes long. Considering that we are fighting through a 12 minute track here, this goes away way too fast. After three minutes of bliss, LaBrie comes in with my least favourite singing part of his. Completely going for Knight Rider kitsch, making the quiet bliss of before to completely vanish.
It is these tracks, that make the album a very rough listen. You see, each of the songs, has wonderful, awesome moments in them. Great atmosphere, great melodies, great feeling. But there is also these moments where it gets too much. Too much noodling or too much operatic, bombastic gloss. Just as much as these guys hit the nail on the ground, they hit way too many notes. It is really, really hard to relax during a wonderful moment in a track, when you have to keep your finger on the skip button and watch out when the great moment is over. It really is a rollercoaster ride of the highest order.
So is the album perfect? Hell no, far away from it. Do I love the album? Hell yes! ‘Pull me Under’, ‘Take the Time’ and ‘Wait for Sleep’ are classics to end all classics. And the rest of the album, despite all its flaws, still shows off this feeling of excitement, unpredictability and pure experimental spirit that already won me over on earlier progressive albums.
There is a sense of musical journey on here that is hard to describe. These guys go overboard, they are bombastic, they are indulgent, they tell weird stories (Metropolis), they take twists and turns, they are rough. I love it. Maybe you know the feeling. An album with flaws, but with a spirit that makes it all alright in the end. My first Dream Theater album won’t be the last, thats for sure. If I will enjoy it or if those less enjoyable sides of the band take over, like those critics like to point out, well, I guess that is left for me to discover. Is Images and Words really THAT Dream Theater record or are there other surprises? How good or bad does their virtuosity really get? I will let you know.
