WHEN DREAM AND DAY UNITE

Subject of discussion is Dream Theater's debut, their sole record without infamous singer James LaBrie, but with Charlie Dominici instead. With keyboard player Kevin Moore, longtime drummer Mike Portnoy, longtime bassist John Myung and longtime guitar player John Petrucci already aboard, most typical elements were already there.

Still, the results are mixed at best. The record contains several interesting ideas, which pop up in songs like Status seeker, The killing hand and The ones who helped to set the sun, but none of them makes into complete greatness, just because most of the songs stay too messy and unfocused. Dominici sounds a bit like Queensrÿche singer Geoff Tate, but just less good... doesn't really help. A probable exception is the instrumental The Ytse Jam, which is more or less a classic DT track, paving the way for later instrumentals.

This record is interesting for DT fans, to see where it all began. For regular listeners this record hardly has any relevance.