METROPOLIS PART 2 - SCENES FROM A MEMORY

"Scenes from a Memory" is the first taste of prog metal I had (aside from the horrible live album "Once in a Live Time" which my brother, a hard core metal fan, really liked), and is a great starter. DREAM THEATER is PINK FLOYD and RUSH meets METALLICA, if you really want to so simply define this band, and they are great.

"Regression" begins with the ticking of a clock in a hypnotherapist's office. Nicholas is getting hypnotherapy because the dreams he has been having concern a girl who lived in the 1920s named Victoria. As the hypnotherapist counts down from 10, a soft acoustic tune fades in and Nicholas begins to dig into his subconscious...

"Overture 1928" is an excellent instrumental track with keyboards and guitars working together very nicely. It goes into "Strange Deja Vu," one of my favorite song on here with lyrics. It describes Nicholas' dreams and how he and Victoria seem to have a strange conncection. But it ends with nothing solved.

"Through my Words/Fatal Tradgedy" is another winner, with a soft piano opener and a heavy metal finish. It reveals that Nicholas is in fact the reincarnation of Victoria! Nicholas sets out to figure out why the memory of her has been plaguing him in his sleep, and discovers that she was murdered by a jilted lover. A short instrumental follows, with a breathtaking conclusion as the hypnotherapist opens the next track...

"Beyond this Life" is yet another wonderous song, describing in excruciating detail the murder by effectively singing the words printed in a (fictional) 1928 newspaper. It seems that murderer killed Victoria, then committed suicide. A witness came to find them both, and called for assistance. This song has the most awkward lyrics of the album, and fails to rhyme or even make sense at times. A good part of this song is instrumental, and a great one at that. Nest is "Looking through her eyes" is a good ballad-type song which looks at Nicholas mourning Victoria's death.

The second act opens with "Home," a fairly good but somewhat overlong song about the Miracle and the Sleeper. As far as I can tell, the Miracle is Victoria's jilted lover and the Sleeper is her admirer (and eventually her boyfriend, I think).

"The Dance of Eternity" is an amazing instrumental song. It is able to switch from heavy metal guitar to classic piano in an instant, and if you listened to "Metropolis Part One," the "dance of eternity" is love. "One Last Time" is a fairly cryptic ballad-type song, I'm not sure what it is about. Maybe about the Sleeper and Victoria's love, or the death of Victoria, but then again, I'm not exactly sure.

Next we have "The Spirit Carries On." It is the sort of song you could play in church, with its faith-full lyrics and soft metal ballad feel. The vocals on here are very Roger WATERS, with sighs and a sort of older feel to them. It sounds like WATERS on "Amused to Death," mainly. This song is about Nicholas coming to terms with the death of Victoria.

Finally there is "Finally Free." It is VERY cryptic, but I think it goes like this as far as I can tell: the Miracle framed the Sleeper for the murder of Victoria, then shot the Sleeper as well and said it was suicide. This means he is the "witness" in "Beyond this Life." Nicholas then supposedly wakes up, and goes home. He turns on the TV, then listens to some music, then the hypnotherapist wakes him up again? I have no clue. Very, very strange ending. I cannot make heads or tails of it.

Pretty cool progressive metal overall.