LIVE AT BUDOKAN

Live at Budokan was the third album that I got from Dream Theater (after Images and Words and Scenes From a Memory) and at the time I knew very few of the songs on here. In fact I was very new to prog as a whole so this had no trouble in surprising me at the level of musicianship that these guys displayed. But as my knowledge of Prog has grown (along with my CD collection) this has remained as one of my favourite live albums.

The show kicks of with the rousing As I Am and holds that feeling through the following song This Dying Soul and Beyond This Life. You notice pretty quick that each song flows from one to the next superbly, regardless of which album the song came from. I find that this gives the whole album an organic feel that works very well.

Extended instrumental's and improvisations seem to be the order of the day here, Beyond This Life has been fleshed out with 8 minutes of instrumental madness, Hollow Years has been transformed from a slow and boring song to something quite amazing, with one of Petrucci's most emotional solos set in the middle. On the second disc you get the awe inspiring Instrumedly (as you can guess its a medley of DT and Liquid Tension Experiment instrumental's) that contains one of the most impressive solos Myung has ever performed. Musicianship is something that isn't a problem for these guys throughout the album and they give a stunning performance.

There are a few bad points though, I'm not a huge fan of the added keyboard solos from Rudess in Beyond This Life and Keyboard Solo on the second disc, but that's only a few minutes of rhythmles showing off in nearly a 3 hour show. I would also have preferred it if they replaced This Dying Soul (my least favourite song from Train of Thought) with a couple of songs from Awake, an album that seems to have been overlooked on this performance and The Mirror/Lie could have fit in perfectly on this album.

Overall though, this was an amazing experience for me when I bought it and it remains one of my favourites, and most played, live albums. A must for fans of DT and Prog-metal in general, 4 stars.