IMAGES AND WORDS

Images and Words is considered by many a breakthrough album - both for Dream Theater and for Prog Metal in general. This reputation is not ill-deserved.

This album is truly an amazing album. Amazing melodies are carried by equally amazing riffs and accompliments. There's always more than just melody + chords going on in this album - be it the amazing drumming of Mike Portnoy, synth accompliment by Kevin Moore or heavy riffs from John Petrucci there are always multiple layers in this album, from the fist acoustic guitar note of "Pull Me Under" to the dramatic fade out of "Learning to Live".

The songs, although indeed with a metal edge, follow some of the main principles of prog. They rarely follow conventional structure, us interesting harmonies and chords and intruments not normally associated with metal (Saxaphone solo, anyone?).

Alas, this is not a perfect album. There are very few "perfect albums" and if I only gave 5 stars to completly flawless albums, there would be hardly any. Bassically, the biggest flaw for this album is the mediocre "Under a Glass Moon" - though it has a great solo, it is not up to the standards of the rest of the album - it is uninteresting in comparison with the other songs.

The lyrics, though lyrics interest me little, are often quite interesting, especially on "Pull Me Under", "Take the Time", "Another Day", and "Wait for Sleep/Learning to Live".

"Learning to Live" is the epic of this album - "Wait for Sleep" is part of the same song - an intro to the larger, much heavier piece. "Learning to Live" is an amazing composition work, especially in it's use of 15/8 time (or 5/4 in triplets) it's an astounding progression - going from strength to strenght - including an amazing piano solo. This song is the biggest masterpiece of the album.

In conclusion, this album is still a masterpiece, despite a few very minor flaws. It's most beautiful moments are very beautiful and it's most headbangingly metal moments are very headbangingly metal! An awe-inspiring mix of beautiful melodies, thick compositions and metal sensibilities.

4.7 out of 5

***** songs; "Pull Me Under", "Take the Time", "Metropolis, Pt. 1: The Miracle and the Sleeper", "Wait for Sleep", "Learning to Live"

**** songs; "Another Day", "Surrounded"

*** songs; "Under a Glass Moon"