FALLING INTO INFINITY

Falling Into Infinity is the album where the record company really wanted to score hits with Dream Theater. Here and there, this results in some quite forced attempts at scoring those hits, making for one of the reasons this record is not on par with such classics as Images And Words and Awake. On the other hand, it's not half as bad as many DT-fans would like you to believe it to be.

Cutting of the crap first: You Not Me is quite a blatant attempt at a hit single, Burning My Soul is... well, non-descript, Just Let Me Breathe emphasizes what James LaBrie's voice (not the best one out there anyway) is not suitable for and Trial Of Tears is an unexciting epic.

On the other hand, there's plenty of joy out there as well: Peruvian Skies is a nice building ballad-to-rocker, Hell's Kitchen is a lovely instrumental, Lines In The Sand is an appropriate epic (could have been on I&W) and New Millennium is a very good progressive song, quite experimental on the keyboards side (it's Derek Sherinian's only studio album with Dream Theater). Although similar to other DT-ballads, I've always had a soft spot for Anna Lee.

A bit uneven, but in the end a good record, showing a more inspired band than the collective that would later make records like Octavarium.