METROPOLIS PART 2 - SCENES FROM A MEMORY

I have a love hate relationship with Dream Theater. I love the outstanding musicianship on all their albums. I hate Labrie's voice on all the albums before this one. To me it is just too much high pitched screaming and not enough emotion and character, far too much like 80's big hair metal for my taste. Getting back to their actual music, it often strikes me as cold and emotionless, also "overcomposed". Still, this is not always a bad thing as I sometimes want to hear insane musical complexity and don't really care about emotional impact. Dream Theater is usually quite good for those moods.

So what do I think about this particular album? Well, my descriptions of my feelings about Dream Theater pretty much apply to this album. Though, as I said, it is the first one where I can actually tolerate Labries voice (I love his singing on 6 degrees, as well as on the last Ayreon album, Human Equation). The album as a whole flows really well, being a cohesive concept that works fairly well. The playing is flawless and technically impressive for the most part. But much of the album bores me. I find it difficult most of the time to get through the whole thing in one sitting. Too much of the same style of music I think. In this regard it reminds me of the majority of neo prog bands in that there is almost no variation in sound and style throughout the whole album. This is not something I am used to with so-called "prog" bands (though it is all too common with modern prog).

So I'd have to say roughly 2.5 stars for my personal feeling about this album. But for the sheer quality of musician ship, I will give it the extra half star.

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