MASTER OF PUPPETS

The members of Dream Theater are all virtuosos, and each and every one of them are arguably more (at least technically) skilled with their instruments than anyone in Metallica ever was. Making a cover album like this would seem like the easiest thing in the world for such a band as Dream Theater.

So - did they succeed?

No. The only thing they propably managed to succeed with, was killing an evening's worth of time, and propably having a blast while doing it, and I'm sure at least a very select few of the fans present were entertained. You see, this entire disc is filled with below-par covers of superb songs, and the band are as far away from serving Master of Puppets any justice at all with their effort. Just, god forbid, listen to the cd yourselves, and discover how Petrucci manages to sound sloppy and not even play as good as James Hetfield and Kirk Hammet did in 1986 - it seems as though he's not bothered practicing very much before this live performance. The guitar work simply seems quite sloppy. Another thing that messes this recording up horribly is James LaBrie. James was not simply meant to sing these songs. His is so horribly far from fitting this music, I feel sick to my stomach. Don't get me wrong - I'm a huge fan of both Dream Theater and JLB's voice in general, it's just that he was NOT made to pull this off. So far in my life, I've only heard one voice serving justice to these songs - and that was James Hetfield in the 1980s, and perhaps very early '90s. There you go, my two biggest complaints.

Now - don't get me wrong, I don't hate covers at all. As a matter of fact, I love them, and let me add that I love both Metallica's Garage Inc. and Dream Theater's A Change of Seasons. DT's cover version of Perfect Strangers made it one of my very favorite Deep Purple songs, and much of the reason for that was James LaBrie's singing. I dig the rest of the ACoS covers as well.

So - in conclusion, do NOT get this album. At least not for listening.

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