A CHANGE OF SEASONS

When I first heard about the concept of prog-metal I was pretty intrigued. After all I loved classic prog as well as some 80s metal bands like Iron Maiden, Mercyful Fate and Queensyche (all of whom had their progressive moments). So it was that I came to Dream Theater with great expectations. But somehow, despite giving the band not one, not two, but three chances I have never fallen under its spell.

I've been told that Images And Words is the album that would most suit my tastes, and in hindsight I realised that it might have been a mistake to start off with A Change Of Seasons. Not because of the 23-minute long title track which is still my favourite DT song, but because the second half of this album sees DT churn out dull live covers of classics by Elton John, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Kansas, Queen, Journey, Dixie Dregs and Genesis. I'm not really a fan of uninventive covers, nor of live recordings, so this segment was never likely to appeal much to me. I found the technically skilled playing to be lifeless and turgid, and it's probably partly to blame for my word association problem when it comes to this band ... Dream Theater = Boring.

Going back to the epic seven part title track, it was pretty much everything I'd hoped for. The Crimson Sunrise was delicate and beautiful, Innocence was melodic powerhouse metal, Carpe Diem had stong acoustic guitar work from Petrucci and powerful vocals from James LaBrie, The Darkest Of Winter saw the whole band at the top of its game, Another World is another really strong melodic section, and while The Inevitable Summer does contain some metal cliches, it ain't half bad and the closing section The Crimson Sunset does a fair job of wrapping things up. The whole epic is one of the greatest bits of prog-metal I've ever heard. If I'd have a complaint it was that keyboardist Derek Sherinan spent too much time in the background, only emerging briefly during The Darkest Of Winter.

This album has always left me with mixed feelings and I've rarely been able to sit through the live portion of it. If everything was as good as the title track, I would have made this a 4-star affair ... as it is, it's seated in the lowly 2-star section. ... 43% on the MPV scale