LIQUID TENSION EXPERIMENT 2

Opting to call their second album "Liquid Tension Experiment 2" rather than give it a distinctive title was a sound call on the part of Liquid Tension Experiment, because like so many sequels the album is just like its predecessor, only more so.

On the plus side, there's no equivalent here of the extremely long Three Minute Warning improvisation from the first disc; all the music on here seems much more composed and there's little sign of the band just jamming away simply to fill up the CD. So if you wanted to love the first album but found yourself hitting "stop" as Three Minute Warning began you'll probably enjoy this one from beginning to end. For my part, whilst I've warmed to the debut album recently, I still think the composed material on it is better than Three Minute warning, so a follow-up which avoids the unfocused jamming and concentrates on more carefully-constructed material suits me just fine.

What you get here is much the same sort of thing you get in the composed material on the previous album - very technically flashy, to a point where it is easy to overlook the emotional depth and deeper substance involved (as I certainly did until the album ended up growing on me), and distinct enough from Dream Theater's own material but still close enough to that sonic universe that it will appeal to fans of them.

After this, Portnoy and Petrucci's long-term plan to recruit Jordan Rudess as a full-time member of Dream Theater would come to fruition, and the Liquid Tension Experiment would go dormant for a good long while, at least in terms of their studio endeavours. (The related Liquid Trio Experiment studio album, Spontaneous Combustion, consists of improvised jams played during the studio time booked out for Liquid Tension Experiment 2 when John Petrucci had to dash out to assist his wife as she was entering premature labour.) A couple decades and a plague later, and the unit would return, but this was a damn fine note to rest on - albeit one which it took me a good while to fully appreciate.