A CHANGE OF SEASONS

"A Change Of Seasons" is an EP of Dream Theater and was released in 1995. It comprises their great epic suite track "A Change Of Seasons", with about twenty-three minutes long. It was recorded at the Bear Tracks Studios in New York. "A Change Of Seasons" has also two live covers and two medleys of some other bands. They were performed at a fan club concert, Ronnie's Scott's Jazz Club in London, England. "A Change Of Seasons" was the first Dream Theater's release featuring their new keyboardist Derek Sherinian who substituted their previous and former keyboardist Kevin Moore.

So, the line up on the EP is James LaBrie (lead vocals), John Petrucci (guitars), Derek Sherinian (keyboards), John Myung (bass) and Mike Portnoy (drums).

"A Change Of Seasons" has five tracks. The first track is the title track "A Change Of Seasons", with music by Dream Theater and lyrics by Portnoy. "A Change Of Seasons" is divided into seven parts: "The Crimson Sunrise", "Innocence", "Carpe Diem", "The Darkest Of Winters", "Another World", "The Inevitable Summer" and "The Crimson Sunset". It includes samples from the 1989 film "Dead Poets Society" and from 1648 Robert Herrick's poem, "To The Virgins, To Make Much Of Time". The lyrics, written by Portnoy, weren't properly inspired by the film but rather by the death of his mother. "A Change Of Seasons" was meant to be in the track list of their second studio album "Images And Words" released in 1992. So, during the gap between 1991 and 1995 it was deeply modified. It's a huge evolution of an old piece written in 1989 together with "Metropolis-Part I". "A Change Of Seasons" is a wonderful suite with excellent lyrics, a metaphor representing the human life in all his length. The production is impeccable and the whole sound is clean and delicate. So, we can just relax and let this song carry us through great and wonderful musical atmospheres, deep melodies accurate vocals and expressive guitar sections. In conclusion, "A Change Of Seasons" can be considered as one of Dream Theater's greatest songs. It's full of emotions, high and caim musical points, great and diverse solos performed with great virtuosity. This is, without any doubt, one of the best tracks ever made by the band.

As I said before, the EP has four more tracks, two covers and two medleys. "Funeral For A Fiend/Love Lies Bleeding" is a live version of a song originally recorded on the double studio album "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" by Elton John and released in 1973. The real differences between the original and the cover aren't much different. Only LaBrie voice brings it back to life in a whole different being and Sherinian improves the introduction of the synthesizer and the piano on "Funeral For A Friend". Dream Theater covered and made it their tune with the stamp of Elton John on it. It remains with its very own 70's sound. "Perfect Strangers" is a live version of a song originally recorded on the studio album "Perfect Strangers" of Deep Purple and released in 1984. This version is very faithful to the original. The only negative thing was that LaBrie tried to imitate Gillan's voice, but his voice wasn't made for imitating Gillan. Anyway, and besides that, this version is very well done. "Led Zeppelin Medley" is divided into three parts "The Rover", "Achilles Last Stand" and "The Song Remains The Same". "The Rover" is a song of the "Physical Graffiti" album released in 1975, and has a real groovy tune with a good groovy opening riff. Only the intro was used. "Achilles Last Stand" is a song of "Presence", an album released in 1976. Unfortunately, only a mid section of the song was used. "The Song Remains The Same" is a song of "Houses Of The Holy", an album released in 1973. On this medley LaBrie proves that he can sounds like Robert Plant without losing his properly vocal chords. "The Big Medley" is divided into six cover parts, "In The Flesh" of Pink Floyd, "Carry On Wayward Son" of Kansas, "Bohemian Rhapsody" of Queen, "Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'" of Journey, "Cruise Control" of Dixie Drags and "Turn It On Again" of Genesis". Most of these songs are from bands that are amongst Dream Theater's prime influences. All these covers generally do flow together with every member of the group doing their best, to keep up a very melodic and progressive tone throughout this entire medley.

Conclusion: "A Change Of Seasons" is a great EP. The title track is the pinnacle of this EP. It's a wonderful suite, a metaphor representing the human life. It features excellent lyrics, an encouragement to enjoy our lives. The rest of this EP is filled up with excellent live covers of great songs. The best example of it is the cover of "Funeral For A Fiend/Love Lies Bleeding" which is a wonderful version of a great song, Elton John's best and most progressive composition ever. "Perfect Strangers", which is one of my favourite Deep Purple's songs, despite the vocal work of LaBrie, it's also an excellent version. Led Zeppelin's medley is excellent with extracts of two of my favourite songs from the band "Achilles Last Stand" and "The Song Remains The Same". The closing medley with extracts from many varied bands is the less interesting. "In The Flesh" of Pink Floyd is the best part. Still, it has the usual Dream Theater's trademark and quality.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

Share this DREAM THEATER review

Social review comments () BETA

---

---

Review related links

• Send comments to VianaProghead
• Report this review (#2775363)
• Buy DREAM THEATER music online with PA partners
• Show all DREAM THEATER MP3/Stream
• Go to DREAM THEATER page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to A Change of Seasons page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for DREAM THEATER related discussions