LIQUID TENSION EXPERIMENT

Possibly, it could be named as debut album of Dream Theatre's side-project, whenever you can find there bigger part of DT musicians ( plus great Tony Levin). But in sense of music it is a bit different.

For sure, it is progressive metal. Full of energy and with long guitar soloing. But without LaBrie vocals (first big plus) and in fact a bit different in structure and construction (second plus). First of all, even being metal rock , the music has strong accent on improvs, what shows it's strong relation with metal fusion. Technically music is more difficult (in comparance with DT music) as well, so for serious listener this work is really more interesting than usual DT albums.

Another thing, that there occurred some similar problems, which can annoy in DT music: huge amount of soloing is reasonable only in it's smaller part. Too often axe-man feels as he is demonstrating his guitar attacking abilities without big connection with musical concept. Loud aggressive playing too often isn't a confirmation of musician's mastership. But I believe it could attract more metalheadz, so let say it is a question of taste.

Generally, interesting in places album, better, than many DT works, but still not good enough to be between genre's masterpieces. Around 3,5.