WHEN DREAM AND DAY UNITE

The debut of our beloved Dream Theater is a glimpse of what was to come, but on its own it is nothing groundbreaking. Time for that came already with the next album, Images & Words. But I'm going too much ahead now.

In many ways this is the oddball of all DT albums, as it's the only one not featuring James LaBrie on the vocals, and also the production is the worst of the DT albums. The sound is thin and it sounds like they played in a tin box of some kind. No real dynamics here.

Charlie Dominici is a good vocalist, but was not really a good fit for DT. The problem with this album is that he sings way too high for his register. When he sings in his natural register he sounds so much better. This is proven by the three Dominici albums, released only a few years ago. At times his voice gets a bit grating on WDADU, but in general he is acceptable. Not on the same level with LaBrie though.

The instrumentation is superb throughout, only dragged down by the abysmal production values. Portnoy, Petrucci, Moore and Myung really shine already at this early stage, and in general I would say that Petrucci is the brightest star. He gets the most solos here, and every single one of them is a joy to hear. Moore stays a bit in the background, but his keys are always floating in there, creating atmosphere while guitar, bass and drums are driving the songs, intertwined and woven together.

The song material is strong throughout, with some now classic songs like A Fortune In Lies, Ytse Jam, Killing Hand or Afterlife. No weak songs whatsoever, my personal favourites being the aforementioned songs plus Only a Matter of Time.

All in all, a strong debut dragged down by the misplaced vocals of Dominici and the production. Solid 3 stars.