DARK SIDE OF THE MOON

So Dark Side of the Moon is one of the most appraised albums from Rock and Prog. But this is the version by Dream Theater, not Pink Floyd... well, it's almost the same album anyway, just about all of it is played the same way as in the original release. And ofcourse it's all great. Still, there are a few differences, the most notable being the voice; for me it's not bad at all, and I think it fits the music very well (giving it a slightly different atmosphere compared to the original). Then the backing vocals, they are performed by Theresa Thomason; now, she does a great performance on Great Gig in the Sky, almost as good and impressive as the original, but the backing vocals on Time and Brain Damage are rather weak and let the songs down. And the last notable difference comes on the songs Any Colour you Like and Brain Damage, where they took a few minor liberties. Any Colour you Like was expanded with more keyboards and guitars, but the song keeps the same identity. Brain Damage has some little bit heavier guitars, but they don't really make the song metal.

And this album also contains a bonus disc with some other performances Dream Theater has done of Pink Floyd songs. This contains a very good and enjoyable selection. The best performances here are Echoes (only the first part), which is even softer and darker than the original, and Hey You sounds cool, but is very similar to the original. One of These Days leaves me a bit disapointed, I think they could have done it better, specially on the Bass. I also think they could have done a bit better with Sheep and Comfortably Numb (I feel this songs could have been arranged to fit Dream Theater's stile and thus make them more interesting covers). This last song is played with Queensryche; however Queensryche's vocalist did Waters vocals, while LaBrie did Gilmour's ones, and I strongly feel it should have been done the other way round.

I wanted to give this album 5 stars, because all of it is very enjoyable, but given that it is all covers and that they don't really offer anything new, and so it is unnecessary for people who already have this songs, I'll give it 4 stars.