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

Score: DT's perfect opportunity to create something great. Dream Theater sounds incredibly tight, and the energy is the best they've ever recorded on a live album. Then why do I rate this album so low? After being a fan of Metallica's S&M album, which has the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra with Michael Kamen as conductor, I expected a same caliber orchestra for Dream Theater. The orchestra sounds like a music school intermediate orchestra (I played in one for several years, and we could have pulled this off) with very little practice. The timing was off in the pizzicatos, in the 16th note runs, and the overall sound was very weak. A band only has one opportunity to do a project like this, and should take the time to create a show of the highest caliber.

If this were a regular concert without the orchestra, I would've given it 4 stars.

With the orchestra: 2 (and I'm being generous, because I was quite upset when I heard this disgrace).