METROPOLIS PART 2 - SCENES FROM A MEMORY

Scenes From A Memory is Dream Theater fifth studio album and it is based on a concept album idea. Just a little information for you who don't really sure about what is a concept album. A concept album is an album whose recording are unified by some theme whether is an instrumental or lyrical or narrative or compositional. So the key point here is the theme of the album, which then can generates the whole album.

Actually, if we look back at the previous Dream Theater album, Images And Words which released in 1992, there is a song called Metropolis Pt.1 (The Miracle and The Sleeper). After I researched on many sites, I found out that the name (the part 1 thing) is just a joke, or in other words, they didn't intend to make the second part of Metropolis, but regarding the starved fans who ask for Metropolis Pt.2, a great album was made.

In Scenes From A Memory, the concept or the story is about a tragedy, involving a young girl, named Victoria, whose in love with two other casts, The Miracle and The Sleeper. The main cast in this album or story is Nicholas, whose then will solve the tragedy. On the other hand, The Hypnotherapist is just a background cast.

Next, I will discuss about the story behind each song briefly (cause you will probably could find it everywhere) and the musical side of the song itself.

Regression A simple song which was made just for the introduction of the whole album or story. The song is consists of pure acoustic clean section and LaBrie's great vocal. The song is describing about Nicholas who fell into Hypnotic state, and he began to hallucinating. "And as I draw near, the scene becomes clear, like watching my life on a screen."

Overture 1928 This is one of the two instrumental songs in this album. Personally I think this song was made to introduce the next song, Strange Déjà Vu. For me, the best part of the song is the mid-slow John Petrucci's solo, which has deep feeling in it just by listening to the licks.

Strange Déjà vu The continued song from Overture 1928, Strange Déjà Vu has pretty much progressive elements in the song, but we cannot recognize it from the beginning of the song, because its more progressive rock than progressive metal. The "metal" part appears just after the sudden change of the time signature, and the artificial harmonics on guitar section. The best part of the song is the lyrics, "tonight I've been searching for, a feeling that wont go away." This song tells us about how and when Nicholas encounters Victoria for the first time.

Through My Words This is a very short song if we look at every other Dream Theater songs, just 1 minute long. The musical side of the song is pretty much the same with "Regression", clean guitar rhythm and pure beautiful lyric. The story behind this song is that Nicholas is now have known that he holds the responsibility to cover the tragedy behind Victoria's murder.

Fatal Tragedy After some pretty not-so-metal songs, Scenes From A Memory presents a progressive metal song. The best part of this song is the guitar-keyboard solo, which covered with truly amazing progressive elements and virtuosity. The story is about the process of revealing the truth, and Nicholas cannot live peaceful as he did before. "without faith, without hope, there can be no turning back."

Beyond This Life Another metal song by Dream Theater which is also very progressive. Just by listening at the beginning of the song, we can know that it is a true metal song, the heavy rhythm section throughout the song. But nevertheless, Dream Theater always adds some deep nice feeling into every single one of their song, presented in some section of the song. The guitar and keyboard solos are simply amazing, probably the best keyboard solo in other Dream Theater songs. After the keyboard solo finish, there is a very nice, unique, funny tune which is very identical with "Beyond This Life". The song tells us about how Victoria is being murdered in details and about what has happened in the night she was murdered.

Through Her Eyes John Petrucci's typical lyric style, deep feeling and amazing meaning with just using simple-not-very-sophisticated words. The song starts with Theresa Thomason and John Petrucci's vocal guitar solo. Well its just "oh hooh, ohhh" thing, and the guitar section is just some sliding simple notes, but then again, simple yet profound. For me, its one of the most beautiful songs I have ever listened to. Notice how the mood changes when the seventh paragraph of the lyric was sung. "And as her image wandered through my head, I wept just like a baby as I lay awake in bed." And when I play this song (I play guitar), I always wait for this part. Truly a beautiful song. The story is about Nicholas who now can see what has happened behind this dreadful tragedy, through Victoria's eyes

Home After a short break with a clean, cool song, Scenes From A Memory presents Home, a great progressive metal song. The intro of the song is very unique that I read on another website, Home's intro is one of the most recognizable and easy-to-remember intro. As for you who haven't listen to this song, the intro is a guitar wah-wah thing. In my opinion, this is the heaviest and darkest song in this album, looking at a certain part of the song, but once again, I will never tired of saying this, Dream Theater always adds some deep feeling elements into their songs. The story is about Victoria and her love affair.

The Dance Of Eternity This is Scenes From A Memory's another instrumental song, and for me, is the most technical, strange (positive), complex Dream Theater song, with strange and odd time signature. One Last Time One Last Time is pretty much the same with Regression and Through Her Eyes, simple but beautiful song. The story is about the last stage of Victoria's love affair which then leads her to be murdered.

The Spirit Carries On WOW,, there are no other words or sentence that could describe this song, BEAUTIFUL, PROFOUND, AMAZING with deep meaning and great technical composition. Simply amazing, there is no word to describe it, you should listen it yourself. The song is about Nick who feels that the reason all of this happened, the ultimate message, is that death is not the end, but only a transition, as the Hypnotherapist has already pointed out.

Finally Free This song is the closing or the conclusion of the whole story, which as far as I concern, contains One Last Time lyric. Great song with progressive elements which shown by different style and song types in just a song.

In the end, I give 5 stars to this album, if there are 10 stars, I would give 10. And just remember, this album is actually a single song, they just divided it into 12 tracks, notice how each song connected with the song before and after the song itself. Truly Amazing. Timur Imam Nugroho - Indonesia

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