STARGAZER

Dream Theater's cover of Rainbow's classic 1976 track Stargazer is the first of five covers the band would release in the build up to their tenth album 'Black Clouds & Silver Linings'. What a track to cover! This symphonic rock masterpiece is faithfully and diligently performed by the prog metal masterminds, albeit in a lower key (perhaps to suit LaBrie's voice). Due to modern technology, the sound is much clearer and less dry than that on the original. Being a metal group, Dream Theater give the song a harder edge, and Petrucci replaces the original guitar solo with something a bit more technical, though still in the spirit of the song. Perhaps the only thing that the original has over this cover is Ronnie James Dio's beautiful powerful voice which, try as he might, LaBrie cannot quite match. All in all, this is a wonderful cover, and a fitting tribute to one of the classic hard rock bands of the 70s.