METROPOLIS PART 2 - SCENES FROM A MEMORY

When recording 1997's Falling Into Infinity, rumours abounded that Dream Theater were preparing a 20-minute track entitled "Metropolis, Pt. 2", fans all over were ecstatic. "Metropolis, Pt. 1", above every other song in the Dream Theater catalog, defines what the band is all about. However, much like a more recent sequel (Queensrÿche's Operation: Mindcrime II), the concept and execution cannot overcome the hype.

If I could sum up Scenes From A Memory in one word, it would be uneven. While the album boasts some of the band's best instrumental passages ("Home", "The Dance Of Eternity", "Beyond This Life"), it also includes perhaps the band's worst material (the cloying ballads "Through Her Eyes" and "The Spirit Carries On", the plodding finale "Finally Free"). But despite the weakness of some of the material, it is quite possibly the band's shining moment as far as production goes - it is perhaps the best sounding Dream Theater album to date (Octavarium a close second).

It would seem that the band would have been better off sticking to their original 20-minute time limit. Trimming away the fat (of which there is plenty) could have resulted in the band's finest epic. Instead, we are left with a bloated mass of material, with highlights buried somewhere in the middle.