THE MAKING OF FALLING INTO INFINITY

Dream Theater's Official Bootlegs series has always been a nice touch for collectors, whether it's demos, live recordings, compilations, or reissues of previous fan club CD's (which is actually what this one is), they're usually pretty cool little nuggets of joy for die-hard fans of the band.

And occasionally, there's utter nonsense like this.

'The Making of Falling Into Infinity' is completely and utterly pointless. Not containing any full tracks, the entire album is nothing more than snippets of songs. Guitar riffs, the odd vocal harmony, someone working out a part or someone saying something. It might be interesting for some tech nerd who wants to look into the process of writing and recording an album, but without any commentary or narrative, this CD really is unlistenable.

I can understand with demos that at least it's interesting to listen to how songs were originally intended to sound and how they've evolved to become the finished product, but this is completely useless and doesn't even show us that. Die-hard fans who must own everything will probably resent having to purchase this, and I'd know, because I'm one of them.