A CHANGE OF SEASONS

A Change Of Seasons is a famous live track that was regularly performed by Dream Theater back in their early years. According to the official story this beast of an epic was initially planned to be released as a part of Images And Words but due to its length was rejected by the label and instead took a form of a concert favorite. These live performances became so famous that the band's fan club demanded Dream Theater to record a professional studio take for everyone to enjoy. Since Dream Theater is generally know for being very close to their fans, their wish got fulfilled with the release of this gigantic EP-release!

Clocking at almost an hour in length, this record is actually longer than the first two studio albums released by the band. Featuring the extended version of the title track and four like cover performances from the band it might explain why the band wanted to separate it from their regular output by putting an EP-tag on it. There's is no denying that the album's title track is a great piece of music and the fact that Dream Theater had the time to polish the performance only adds to the overall experience. Still, I can't oversee my personal preference of an even better take of this composition from their Live Scenes From New York performance a few years later.

The four live covers not only demonstrate some of Dream Theater's biggest influences but also show how versatile the band can be in a live setting. The favorite out of the four has to be Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding for reminding me that Elton John was once one of the best composers of his time before he began resorting to simplistic ballads just to please his mainstream audience. Deep Purple's Perfect Strangers and the Led Zeppelin Medley aren't really all that spectacular mostly because they felt like pretty uninspired choices for cover performances while The Big Medley is where the live setting once again brings out some of Dream Theater's best qualities.

Overall, this was a very generous EP that made the departure of Kevin Moore and the three year wait for the next studio album a lot more bearable for the fans. Although Dream Theater have surpassed the technical levels of this performance on some of their later albums, A Change Of Seasons is definitely a nice little release that should be interesting for most fans of the band.

**** star songs: A Change Of Seasons (23:09) Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding (10:49) The Big Medley (10:34)

*** star songs: Perfect Strangers (5:33) Led Zeppelin Medley (7:29)