Dream Theater

Published: 6 Sep 2024
Last updated: 21 Oct 2024

When Day and Dream Unite

When Day And Dream Unite Album Cover

A rather unassuming and inauspicious start to Dream Theater’s long, sprawling and acclaimed career - this feels like a “trial run” of an album, demonstrating enough songwriting and instrumental chops to put together a competent album, just missing last handful of magic touches and flair to truly turn into the band we’d come to expect. The overly 80s (and frankly ill-fitting) production, combined with missing the trademark singer really adds to this feeling - Dominici isn’t bad by any means yet doesn’t feel like he doesn’t fit, how much is legitimate criticism and how much this is Dominici just not being LaBrie is difficult to pin down.

This album is often overlooked due to being rather out-of-place in the grand scheme of DTs discography and easy to skip, and I don’t see enough to really claim otherwise. Enjoyable as a curiosity.

RIP Charlie Dominici :(

Best Tracks: Ytse Jam, Afterlife

Images and Words

Images And Words Album Cover

This is where Dream Theater really come into their own, with all aspects of production, songwriting and performances all majorly improved - the melodies are in particular much improved and a highlight in themselves and a real memorable quality that was missing from their debut, specifically for the more metal-orientated tracks here. There’s also some extrenely cheesy ballads that are far too sickly-sweet personally (see Another Day with its Sax) even if earnest in its wholehearted cheesiness, but the more prog-metal-bent tracks are legitimately fantastic epics.

Best Tracks: Pull Me Under, Take the Time, Metropolis - Part 1: “The Miracle and the Sleeper”

Awake

Awake Album Cover

Dream Theater take the Images & Words formula, with a noticeably added metallic edge and heaviness combined with a general darker atmosphere and attitude - and its this addition that really adds cohesion to the whole record. Combined with the best ballads the band’s ever written (despite vocalist LaBrie seriously overusing his high notes when not doing the harsher vocals, jeez) and it all fits together in a way no other Dream Theater album does - there are plenty of songs I’d pick from other albums ahead of this on an abstract top 10 DT songs list, but sometimes you want to hear a band entirely playing as a unit, gelled together and all pulling towards a single musical vision.

Best Tracks: Caught in a Web, Erotomania, The Silent Man, The Mirror, Lie, Scarred, Space-Dye Vest

Falling Into Infinity

Falling Into Infinity Album Cover

An oddball of an album in the grand scheme of Dream Theaters discography, partially due to being stuck between the acclaimed/quintessential DT albums, but also for being quite straightforward hard rock. That approach would be short-lived.

Its not a successful experiment nor direction. To put aside the arguments on the artistic ambition to stick or twist and the reasons to do so - mainly because the album is frankly neither good nor bad in an interesting or experimental way, its just overwhelmingly dull and un-memorable.

To be fair, its not all doom and gloom, the back-half of the album is a little more interesting and varied. I’m still not sure if any of the tracks really work - Lines in the Sand & Just Let Me Breathe are goofy/comical in their own way but at least have some energy and passion going for them, and Take Away My Pain isn’t totally dull for a ballad (in comparison to Anna Lee, which is snore-inducing). The real bright spot, however, is the 13-minute closer Trial of Tears, a bona-fide prog rock epic - what such a good song is doing buried at the end of the album I have no idea, but after slogging through for an hour this last track is welcome respite.

A shame, we’ve all had those moments thinking that DT were being overindulgent and would like something more simple, but alas this is what we got instead.

Best tracks: Lines In the Sand, Trial of Tears