FALLING INTO INFINITY

Well, Dream Theater is my favourite band of all time, but i feel that this is their weakest album, as do many fans. The band was going through a lot of trouble at the time, and the label was pushing them to do something commercial, which doesn't really work for a band like Dream Theater. They still wrote some good songs, especially the epics "Lines in the Sand" and "Trial of Tears". The former features Doug Pinnick of King's X on vocals. Other good songs are "New Millenium", the instrumental "Hell's Kitchen", which was originally the instrumental section for "Burning My Soul", and Peruvian Skies. None of the songs are awful, however "You Not Me" and "Take Away My Pain" are somewhat weak. However, the versions of those two on the demos are much better. As Mike Portnoy said about "Take Away My Pain", the producer for that album "took some of John's most heart wrenching lyrics and put them on a Disneyland Ride in the Caribbean." Anyway, I recommend the demos for this album over the album, as they include a few songs which didn't make it on (it was originally supposed to be a double album). Not a bad album, but it doesn't stand up to the rest of DT's discography.