METROPOLIS PART 2 - SCENES FROM A MEMORY

as a concept album its amazing. the story is a masterpiece. musically its alright. what i like about the album is how it sticks to the vein of the original song from "images and words". i'm thinking it could be better but thats the problem with concept albums. the priority is the concept and the music usually comes second. its still great though just not their best effort. the lyrics are the album's highlights. once you pay attention to the lyrics in its entirety and understand the story your heart just stops for a few seconds. its really breath-taking. to be honest this is an album to actually listen to and by this i mean REALLY listen to it and not just hear it. if you're gonna buy it bare in mind that this is not "we can't dance" or any alan parson's you can expect nice short sticky tunes. this is serious music. as a matter of fact this album is the one that seperates dream theater fans into two groups: metal head-bangers and old prog fans. for the metal fans this is the end of the line. for the rest keep going. the best is still to come.