MASTER OF PUPPETS

I am a level-headed Dream Theater fan, and I used to be a big Metallica fan as well. I heard this release through a friend recently, and all I can say is that I wonder why these guys have inflated their egos to the point that they think selling covers of other people's material would be a good idea. It has become customary for DT to cover entire albums that many people have all enjoyed on the 2nd night of a 2-night stand in some major city. Whereas this would be a great opportunity for bootlegs and fan trading, the band actually issues statements asking for these to *not* be traded.

As for the music, Portnoy is spot on and driving as are the rest of the band, but the overall sound leaves something to be desired. That...and James Labrie is not James Hetfield. If you ever liked Master of Puppets, this might be interesting for one or two tracks but ultimately is nothing more than a waste of time and something most people would not play routinely anyway when you could listen to Awake or even the original Puppets album.. This is all notwithstanding what I'd consider standards of professional "good taste." I don't care how much someone loves Dream Theater, there is just no sense in a band of this calibur trying to make money off someone else's material (even if Lars gets a huge chunk of change).