IMAGES AND WORDS

Images and Words is an album I've found confounding for a while. Sometimes it just leaves me cold and I can't see how it's the classic many Dream Theater fans rate it as, but sometimes I get in the right mood and it's the only thing which will scratch the itch. It's got some absolutely irresistable hooks, and it's undeniably cheesy, and I've realised that unless I put myself in the mindset for something as hooky and cheesy (the sort of mood I more associate with power metal than typical prog metal) then I'm not going to enjoy it.

But if I am in that mood, boy howdy do I have a good time. When Dream and Day Unite was an excellent tribute to their various influences, but for the band to sustain itself it really needed to develop its own sound, and Images and Words is where it all came together with a diverse smorgasboard of crunching, thrashy riffs, virtuoso and delicate keyboard work and multi-section prog songwriting.

At its best, Images and Words is an exciting, muscular, adrenaline-pumping piece of prog metal which outlined the Dream Theater sound right when they needed to stake out their own identity. At its worst, you can detect all the tendency towards schmaltz and self-indulgence which the band sometimes fall prey to... but if you're in that Dream Theater mood, none of it matters and some of it might be exactly what you wanted to hear.