WHEN DREAM AND DAY UNITE

There were the days when no one had ever heard of Dream Theater. Way before they got James Labrie on vocals, and Jordan Rudess on keyboards. A time when most of these gentlemen had just came out of Berklee School of Music and had layed down some rough tracks to become "When Dream And Day Unite".

I'll be the first to admit, nowadays I am totally lost at how many live and collaborative albums Dream Theater have put out. Everytime I turn around, I see DSOTM here and now Larks Tongues in Aspic. It just seems to me Dream Theater are becoming a little overindulgent with the whole idea of playing someone else's material.

Anyway, back to WDADU. When I first heard this album I gave it a lot of praise, Not because it was refined and the production could of really used some work. One thing is for sure it was fresh, it was raw, and it also exploited the talents of these very fine musicians. They were a bit sloppy but I found the songwriting to be really creative. I was blown away at songs like Light Fuse and Get Away, A Fortune In Lies, and espescially Only A Matter Of Time. It wasn't just the musicianship it was the structure of the songs. We definetely realize at this point that Kevin Moore was not only their best keyboard player,but also a clever songwriter. It's too bad he moved on to do different thingss. Portnoy, Pettrucci, and Myung showed off their technical prowess to great effect, and Charlie Dominici never has got the praise he deserves as their debut lead vocalist. There is definitely the inevitable Rush influence of this record. When you hear the drum fills on The Ytse Jam you'll say, God that really sounded like Peart. But that's what makes sitting down and listening to this album so enjoyable. And for years I always tried to get these guys out in the limelight. A Bit Rough and Sloppy at times, but memorable and fun.

After playing this album repeatedly in the old school casette player for a couple of years, those of us that were now fans chomped at the bit for 3 years to wait for "Images and Words" to debut. That's how much influence this album had on me as a young man still learning about the world of Prog Rock.