GREATEST HIT (...AND 21 OTHER PRETTY COOL SONGS)

OK, first off, I AM a Dreamtheater fan and I DO like some compilations. If done well they can be a good thing for fans and newcomers; such a set would be the 'Echoes' compilation by Pink Floyd. However, this Dreamtheater set is hopelessly faulted for many reasons. The first has to be the separation of hard songs and soft songs to each disk. This is beyond silly since the disks sound so uneven and fans of each side of the band will dump one disk instead of being given a steady stream of songs that cover all facets of the bands talent. No band would ever consider playing a concert like this so why make an album like this??

OK, the other reason is the song selection is simply atrocious! To a fan the selections are just plain bad to a newcomer they are missing the best songs! Then realistically using any of 'Six degrees of inner turbulence' out of the whole piece is a waste. Where is 'Voices'?? Where are all the best parts of 'Scenes from a memory'? Isn't the song 'Octavarium' one of the bands best songs?? Yeah I know its long, but the quality is the important thing right?? Then also the obvious fact that edits of the songs are pointless since the fans just say: "its not supposed to do that" and "why does it end here?" etc.

Then the silliest one: the fact that they took it upon themselves to remix several songs. If I had one complaint about Dreamtheater it would be their mixing. They have progressively (hee hee) gotten worse and worse in this area. It started with 'Awake' when I thought the guitar was a bit too loud in places. By the time of 'Scenes from a memory' (even though it is a GREAT album) the bass was totally buried and the keyboards were drowned by the guitars. 'Octavarium' and 'Train of thought' were almost hysterical in their mixes. It was simply drums and guitar crushing everything else. Now, comes a few remixes and I was not surprised in the least at the out come! Let Mr. Portnoy ANYWHERE near a mixing desk and the song sounds like a guitar and drum battle with the odd keyboard whiz and an inaudible rumble for bass. It is so sad that one of the best bass players in rock today is rendered so muddy in every mix by this band.

Sorry to offend any of the 'DT heads' on here but this simply could have been SO much better. Its an astounding waste of a good chance here. 1 ½ stars rounded up to two simply because even with the terrible choices the songs are still excellent.