Discussion
I think I am probably the only person in the world who thinks their first album, "When Dream & Day Unite" is their best! Probably because I listened to it over and over again aged 17 when it first came out and it's fused itself into my psyche!!
Still a great band, but the first album will always be the one for me. As stated above, Petrucci and Portnoy are about as good as it gets with their respective instruments and the rest of the band aren't exactly shabby either!!
Still a great band, but the first album will always be the one for me. As stated above, Petrucci and Portnoy are about as good as it gets with their respective instruments and the rest of the band aren't exactly shabby either!!
Portnoy has won Modern Drummer's 'Drummer of the Year' for the last 12 years on the trot which says something.. I believe he's also the 2nd-youngest drummer to be admitted to their 'Hall of Fame' (and the only metal drummer so far). Their later stuff has become quite a bit more mainstream as well - is that a bad thing?
Love some of their albums, like others.
Images and Words is still a stellar album and really shows what Labrie could deliver at that time.
Live they tend to leave me a bit cold as they really come across to me as Musicians first and showmen 2nd.
As musicians they are some of the most technically brilliant and tight on the planet IMO.
It's a real shame that Labrie has had some fairly heavy vocal medial issues over the years and as such is a few 10ths down on his best but give the man his dues, he still has some class vocal quailty on the albums.
Images and Words is still a stellar album and really shows what Labrie could deliver at that time.
Live they tend to leave me a bit cold as they really come across to me as Musicians first and showmen 2nd.
As musicians they are some of the most technically brilliant and tight on the planet IMO.
It's a real shame that Labrie has had some fairly heavy vocal medial issues over the years and as such is a few 10ths down on his best but give the man his dues, he still has some class vocal quailty on the albums.
The only album of theirs I own is Seasons but I have heard a lot of their other work, and I've heard enough of Petrucci to know he is awesome. Some of the vocal work on Seasons is astonishing! If you like Dream Theater you need to listen to Liquid Tension Experiment which was founded by Mike Portnoy, very proggy and apparently some of the tracks, or parts of them, are improvised.
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