METROPOLIS PART 2 - SCENES FROM A MEMORY

Here's a strong album from one of my favourite ever bands. This is one of those bands that consists of a group of extremely talented musicians, gathered together to make amazing music, and not do what everyone expects, while still taking their fans into consideration a lot. This last point is important, as the idea for this album was inspireed by fans wishes for them to follow up the song Metropolis part 1. And they did... by writing Metropolis Part 2 as a whole album!!! And a very decent one as well.

So, lets take a look at the musicians. Personally I think Mike Portnoy is the most talented of the five. His drumming is truly amazing on this album. Petrucci is as always better than most, worse than few. Myung doesn't stand out much, but when he does he's brilliant. LaBrie's voice occassioanlly borders on annoying, but is mostly listenable, and sometime's has a chance to be excellent. And then there's the new addition to the team: Jordan Rudess. He's equally as capable as Moore, but I prefer the latter.

The songs are of a very good quality throughout, starting with the intro, 'regression', before the rush-esque instrumental, 'Overture 1928'. Not amazing, but good. We then have three more merely good songs: the hard rocking 'Strange Deja Vu', the soft interlude 'Through my Words', and the dark 'Fatal Tragedy'. Then we have the first truly great song of the album with 'Beyond this Life'. This is a pretty epic song, with some cool singing parts and some good vocals. Act 1 ends with 'Through Her Eyes' an excellent ballad, with an interesting rhyming pattern in the first few verses.

And so begins Act 2 which starts with one of my top three DT songs. 'Home' is amazing. Very epic. Some great riffs and solos. And those sound effects in the middle (you know the ones i mean ;-). Next up is the amazing 'Dance of Eternity' with some great performances by all musicians involved. 'One Last Time' is a bit dull. 'The Spirit Carries On' can be alright, but it's very cheesy. The closer 'Finally Free' is another excellent song with some amazing drumming, and a great twist at the end of the story.

All in all this album contains some great songs although many of them only work in the context of the album and can't stand alone. The concept's good. The musicianship's amazing. I think I'd rate this 3.5 stars, as my opinion varies greatly depending on my mood. Sometimes I could see this being 4.5 stars, but sometimes only about 3. So I'll round 3.5 up, since my general consideration is that it is, after all excellent.