WHEN DREAM AND DAY UNITE

Dream Theater have arguably been the leaders of the progressive music genre for 20 or 30 years now. As the most commercially successful, recognizable, and consistent act to have emerged out of the late 80's and early 90's progressive rock revival and progressive metal birth, their discography has been reviewed and analyzed countless times on countless websites, including this one. However, the majority of people focus their attention on the "successful" era of Dream Theater (generally ignoring this album and The Astonishing, and to a lesser extent Falling Into Infinity). Due to a multitude of factors (including but not limited to a smaller distribution of album, label issues, and no foreseeable availability on platforms like iTunes and Spotify), When Dream And Day Unite is quite generally ignored by the masses. Though it is definitely a far less polished, less consistent, and less grandiose Dream Theater album (and is arguably one of their "worst"), this album still contains the superior songwriting, mesmerizing instrumental passages, and awe- inspiring technical precision that Dream Theater is known for. With this review, I would like to bring more attention to this vastly underrated album.

The most prominent difference between When Dream And Day Unite and all other Dream Theater albums is the person filling the position of vocalist. Of the 14 Dream Theater studio albums (as of February 2021), 13 of them feature current vocalist James LaBrie. This is the sole exception. Charlie Dominici provides vocal duties on this album, and aside from some bootleg material (released through Ytsejam Records), this is Dominici's only appearance on an official Dream Theater release. His range is significantly smaller than LaBrie's, and his natural singing voice falls slightly lower. However, most of the songs on When Dream And Day Unite are written with Dominici's vocal range in mind. Other than a change in vocalists, this album would feature the same lineup that would appear on Images And Words and Awake.

The music on this album is significantly more generic than the music throughout the rest of Dream Theater's discography, showing that they hadn't quite matured as songwriters yet. I find three of the eight tracks quite forgettable (but still quite good), while the other five range from catchy and fun to nearly being progressive metal masterpieces. These five are the ones I will be focusing on in this review. Oddly enough, these five songs are all in the middle of the album, meaning that (in my opinion), the album starts and closes with its weakest moments. This may have contributed to its commercial failure very slightly, but that is unlikely.

The first track of the best five songs on the album is Ytse Jam. The first Dream Theater instrumental (and the only one for five years, up until the release of Awake), it would be surpassed many times in the future by other Dream Theater instrumentals, but its impact cannot be ignored. This track made each listener aware of the technical playing and songwriting that the band is more than capable of, and is actually the only Dream Theater instrumental to feature a distinct solo for each instrument. Portnoy, Petrucci, Moore, and Myung all have a chance to show off their musical chops in this short but sweet instrumental track. Out of all of the tracks off of When Dream And Day Unite, this track is likely the most "returned to" in a live setting, as it has been included in multiple live sets in one form or another over the course of Dream Theater's 35 year career.

The second track of the best five songs on the album (and arguably the best of all five) is The Killing Hand. The first track that could be considered an "epic" by Dream Theater, it was their first display of writing songs of an extended length, and though they would go on to write far longer and far superior songs in the future, The Killing Hand pushed their songwriting, lyricism, and musical proficiency to its limits at the time. The only complaint I have towards this track is the vocals. This is definitely one of the weaker Dominici performances on the album, with it being very evident that he is struggling to hit some of the notes. To listen to this song the way it was intended to be listened to, check out the band's rendition of it on their 1993 live album, Live At The Marquee. This version contains one of the most breathtaking performances of LaBrie's career, and the energy contained within it is likely unmatched. An absolutely stellar song.

The third track of the best five songs on the album is Light The Fuse And Get Away. Arguably the weakest of these five, it is still a very catchy song with great musicianship and a strong vocal performance. The chorus will stick in your head, and just reading the title of the song will have you humming along to it. It isn't quite as boundary-breaking as some of the other tracks here, but it does its intended job well.

The fourth track of the five best songs on the album is Afterlife. Seven words; this should have been the album opener. What an insanely catchy track. It exudes an almost "power metal" sound, while still containing the complexity of progressive metal. This is likely the best Dominici performance on the album, and is another song that has returned to live set-lists several times throughout the course of Dream Theater's career, including its presence on the Score live album released in 2006.

The fifth (and final) track of the five best songs on the album is The Ones Who Help To Set The Son. This song has such a beautiful, atmospheric intro, which is (in some ways) reminiscent to the intro of Octavarium (though with many differences and significantly shorter) . The rest of the song is amazing as well, with a very interesting and exciting structure and some equally catchy vocal lines. However, the intro (within the first two minutes of the song approximately) is quite literally the best and most unique section of the album.

Though this album is far from perfect, it is still an awesome listen, and worth the time of any Dream Theater or progressive meta fan.