LIQUID TENSION EXPERIMENT 2

After the success of the first album (especially because songs like Universal Mind and Paradigm Shift) another album comes up, this time with a better sound production, mixing, new ideas and now this time they are taking it slowly making the songwriting (they took 2 months doing it, they wrote the first album in 1 week, that's a big difference right there). This album keeps the same musical formula as the last album (Progressive Metal) but at the same time it brings a lot of new ideas and fabulous songs for us the listeners.

The first song, Acid Rain, one of the most famous songs of the band, starts without any hesitation, giving us a clear reference of what the song will be. In this song we have melodic but at the same time crazy keyboard, jazzy drums, and heavy guitar and bass riffs. There is a section where the Drums, Guitar and Bass make a incredible power trio, before the keyboard strikes again and does an amazing solo. A very good song, and one of the favorite of the people.

The second song, Biaxident, starts with an epic introduction, letting us know that this will not be a relaxing song. This one would be the more jazzy-like song of the album in my opinion. It has one of the beautiful Keyboard and Guitar duet solos, which instead of going crazy with shredding that they usually do, they both play incredible and melodic solos that goes along with the context of the song, a perfect combination. It's a very beautiful song, very motivating and a upbeat tune.

The third song, 914. This is what i call "The Bass song", Tony Levin does an incredible job in this one. But the other band members don't stay back,. Rudess does an incredible job with the atmosphere of the song and obviously with a crazy synth solo, one of my favorite from him. Meanwhile Portnoy keeps the groove of the song doing an excellent job on the drums. Very cool and underrated song from them.

The next song, Another Dimension, one of my favorite but at the same time one of my least favorite (if that makes any sense). Let's see, the first 7 minutes of this song, they are excellent. A really good and heavy riff, latin drums, and one of the best part of the whole album, the Accordion solo, it makes me feel like i'm in France, and then after that comes up a beautiful Spanish guitar, making this part even better. But after that, is where in my opinion the song goes downhill, it gets repetitive with the same riff playing over and over during 2 minutes straight, ruining what they were building in the first 7 minutes. An excellent song, but repetitive at the end.

The next song, When The Water Breaks. Well, this song is what i call "The Big Boy" of the album, every prog album has at least one "Big Boy". Rush's Farewell to Kings has Xanadu or Cygnus X-1 for example. When The Water Breaks is the Big Boy of this album, an absolute masterpiece. This song starts with a really calm piano and synth, then the drums suddenly comes changing the music style completely, preparing us for what is coming in this song. This song, has everything, it has calm, heavy and crazy parts through all the song, an incredible Rudess and Petrucci duet, an amazing drum solo, an excellent build-up meanwhile Rudess is doing one of his BEST solos ever and a crazy and unexpected end. This song is a masterpiece and one of my favorite songs from them, I absolutely love it!

Chewbacca, this song is loved by some and hated by others. In my opinion, that's because Chewbacca is a drum- based song, that's why some people find it boring, as a drummer myself I love this song and find it "different". This song has a lot of drum breaks and a "latino" (I don't have any other word to describe it) drum mid-section, which gives a different aura to the song, a pretty good song, but not for everyone.

Liquid Dreams, although this song is very relaxing and has interesting ideas, it get repetitive for a lot of people. In my opinion is a decent song, not the best, but not their worst. I love Rudess' keyboard in this song, that's something positive in this song but at the same time i don't like it, the synth tune used in the second half of the song is really annoying, ruining the chill atmosphere that the song had, that's the thing. The first half of the song is very good and relaxing, but the other half is completely annoying and i don't enjoy it, at least the last 2 minutes are very good compared to the mid part of the song. Decent song.

Hourglass, a beautiful melodic song, this is State Of Grace of this album, a simple song but with a strong melogy that can get you some feelings. The acoustic guitar and the piano makes a perfect combination. A very good song.

Liquid Tension Experiment 2 it's a really good adventure to listen to, it has fantastic and motivating moments, although there are some "obstacles" to enjoy this adventure, it's worth it.