SCORE: 20TH ANNIVERSARY WORLD TOUR LIVE WITH THE OCTAVARIUM ORCHESTRA

Dream Theater live albums are a dime a dozen. Most of them pale in comparison to their triple-disc 'live opus' Live Scenes from New York. Score is their first live album since that can really hold a candle to it. The first disc features some band-only performances, mostly deeper cuts from the older reaches of their discography but featuring two new pieces. Unfortunately, the only place this album is at all flawed is in the beginning--the two cuts off of Octavarium, while solid, are a bit inferior to their studio versions. Nonetheless, the deep cuts ("Another Won?" Who the hell had even remembered that piece?) are played tremendously, and Petrucci's solo on "Under a Glass Moon" is to die for. The second disc introduces the so-called Octavarium Ocrhestra. Their introduction, the overture to "Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence," is a bit rocky, admittedly. But when the band starts coming in on "About to Crash," you KNOW why they have a symphony backing them. This piece sounds AMAZING with orchestral backing. I do not think there are enough capital letters to emphasize this enough. "Solitary Shell," "War Inside My Head" and both sections of "About to Crash" are all vastly improved with orchestral backing. After that huge rush of musical perfection, "Vacant" is a bit of a let-down in comparison, but still gives LaBrie a chance to have a near-solo vocal performance that is, frankly, great. "The Answer Lies Within" strikes me as a mistake to have been written in the first place, let alone be graced with an orchestral performance, but it is still passable to listen to. The rest of the tracks are all amazingly done, on par with the gripping and tear-jerking performance of "Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence." Rudess' solo opening "Octavarium" is amazing, to say the least, and the encore "Metropolis" is a satisfying end to the set. Though this album has its hiccups (seriously, I freaking hate "The Answer Lies Within,") they are mostly chalked up mostly to very specific dislikes of mine that shouldn't translate into my rating. This album is amazing, and never for a second have I regretted buying it.