A CHANGE OF SEASONS

First up is the title track, a 23 minute epic that is for me just about as good as anything this band has done. In terms of composition, this is supreme prog metal. It's a wonderful piece that flows seamlessly throughout it's seven sections, and just seems so natural. You'll find no gratuitous over-the-top soloing here (not that that's a bad thing!!), but the quality is in the terms of the composition of this epic. The production is much less dynamic than on later albums and for me that just emphasises the quality of the piece. The production does not affect this one bit.

LaBrie's vocals are outstanding here, he has never sounded better. The band are superb throughout, but understated, allowing the quality of the composition to stand out. Truly a superb piece of music from Dream Theater.

The rest of the album consists of three medleys recorded live at The Marquee club in London. I initially really had no desire to hear these, and indeed to me they are much less important to me than the title track. The first two are medleys of Elton John and Led Zeppelin songs, and whilst well played they don't really excite me too much. The last one, a big prog medley is much more fun as the boys take on Floyd, Genesis, Journey et al. To me the medleys are nothing more than a bonus that I only listen to very occasionally. Others may feel differently, and I'm sure in the live environment it would have been more entertaining.

As to rating the album, the title track is a clear 5 star epic, no doubt about that. The live stuff I'd rate as 3 stars at best. I'm tempted to give 5 stars given the quality of A Change Of Seasons, but as this is less than half the length of the entire disc, 4 stars is fairer.

This is a prog metal essential, even if only for the title track

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