WHEN DREAM AND DAY UNITE

A solid start for the biggest band in the prog metal scene today

I figured I would start my reviews with Dream Theater, the band that introduced me to the wonderful world of prog. They were my all-time favorite for a few years, but I have discovered better acts (off of this site especially!), but they still are way up there. Anyhow, this is only band where I can name any song of theirs within seconds and have a great deal of knowledge about their history.so I hope I can help people check out, or avoid, some of their output.

This album is formed from the Majesty line-up with the exception of Chris Collins, their first singer. The line-up consists of John Petrucci (guitar), John Myung (bass,) Mike Portnoy (drums,) Kevin Moore (keyboard) and the new singer Charlie Dominici. The name Majesty had to be changed because there was another Majesty group that threatened legal action.good riddance. The name came from Portnoy's father that suggested Dream Theater after a movie theater in California. Now, with the music.

This album was not bad instrumentally.but you can hear a great sense of immaturity. Petrucci had some decent solos, but they were not tasteful or sophisticated like any of his solos that followed the debut album. Portnoy falls under the rag too, the drums are not as sophisticated on the later albums.they are very bland and un-tasteful. The singing wasn't terrible, but seemed just very cliché hair metal vocals. The bass and synth work were very decent.but what can you expect from Myung and Moore?

'A Fortune in Lies' starts the album off. This song sounds great on some parts.but extremely cheesy at others. The beginning of the song builds up epically.only to turn into a decent guitar solo, followed by Maiden inspired riffs and a cheesy keyboard solo. Apart from that the rest of the song has a pretty decent structure and flow to it. Not bad.

'Status Seeker' takes a lot of Rush influence. Catchy lyrics, the arpeggiated guitar chords fit nicely along with the 80's Rush trademark synths by Moore. A very good track.

'The Ytse Jam' is an instrumental track. A very good one and considered the best on the album by many. Features great guitar and synth work.very hard to describe an instrumental, but this is well worth checking out.

'The Killing Hand' is another great track. The track opens up with nice acoustic guitar work. Unlike 'A Fortune in Lies' this track's epic build-up is completed. Everything seemed to have clicked on this song. My favorite.

'Light Fuse and Get Away' is my least favorite on this album. This song seems extremely directionless and thrown together. The only thing good about it is a great keyboard solo followed by a decent guitar solo. Otherwise, a very crappy track.

'Afterlife' stuck with Dream Theater for a while, some of my friends consider this one of their best. I can somewhat agree.it is very good. A very nice Maiden inspired tune and the most sophisticated solo on the album by Petrucci. Very nice song.

'The Ones Who Help to Set the Sun' presents an extremely unusual start for a Dream Theater song. Haunting keyboard work for almost 2 minutes.followed by some bass harmonic accompaniment. Unfortunately, at around the three-minute mark, the song completely changes. The song to me seems to really recycled from the tracks prior.

The album closes with a beauty, 'Only a Matter of Time'. The vocals seem to fit this song nicely. They stand out the most on this piece for me. Very catchy song.the band seems to really come together on this song.a pre-cursor for what's to come perhaps?

Overall.it's a good album. None of the songs are absolutely terrible.and a few are really good. People seem to be divided in which songs they like better.so don't take my opinion on the tracks too seriously. Regardless, this was a decent debut, a decent collection of songs for a promising band.

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