IMAGES AND WORDS

At first i was afraid to get some of DREAM THEATER'S earlier albums because i loved TOT, SIX DEGREES, and CHANGE OF SEASONS. But i decided to get it when my friends told me how awesome it was. They were right this is probably Dream Theater's best ever as IMAGES AND WORDS totally gives out a great blend of many musical influences Dream Theater has come to know and love. To me its a mix of RUSH meets MEtALLICA as you got the great 80's sound of Rush mix with awesome old school metallica metal. It first starts out with PULL ME UNDER which is one of the DT most famous songs worldwide as you feel a huge Metallica influence here it kinda reminds me of a proggy version of SANITARIUM (WELCOME HOME) from the beginning riff but anyway this song is awesome. Then comes a very great DT version of a power ballad called ANOTHER DAY which at first didn't appeal to me but its really not bad. Very great lyrics putting out about JP's dad suffereing through cancer. Then comes one of my favorite DT songs TAKE THE TIME. ILOVE THIS SONG its a great blend of the 80's sound with great prog metal and freakin funk for crying out loud now that's prog plus i love the way the chorus is done with the backup vocals plus james labrie sings really high on some parts of the song. SURROUNDED is another track i had to get used to but now its very catchy. This song to me sounds like a song you could hear on RUSH'S SIGNALS CD but its a little bit heavy for that. NEXT SONG is METROPOLIS PT. 1: THE MIRACLE AND SLEEPER another one of my favorites and another very popular DT song around the world. This song right here is just pure Dream Theater as they bring out all the stops with great drum playing, awesome vocals, great keyboard/guitar teamwork, and of course the legendary bass solo that fans go nuts for at every concert when these rockers play this song. UNDER A GLASS MOON man i didn't know what i was expecting out of this song GAH THIS SONG IS AWESOME so freaking heavy and i love when mike and john M. do that cool rhythm together gah its so tight i really love the guitar and keyboard solo GREAT SONG. Next is WAIT FOR SLEEP which is really cool piano/vocal segue to DT's first 10+ epic LEARNING TO LIVE. This song definitely has a great deal of musicianship playing almost the whole thing is like 15/8 to 6/8 whatever they wanna do plus my favorite section is that cool mellow part kinda like PINK FLOYD with a little bit of latin. Anyway this CD deserves to be in every prog collection so if you don't have it you don't know what your missing. 5 STARS!!!!!!