METROPOLIS PART 2 - SCENES FROM A MEMORY

After the disappointing "Falling into Infinity" album, Dream Theater changed staff once again and replaced Derek Sherenian on keyboards with the masterfully talented Jordan Rudess. Good move? Probably. Rudess is no Kevin Moore and the band has yet to be as good again as they were back in the "Images and Words" and "Awake" days. However he fits in fairly well anyways because he is a technical playing monster like everyone else in the band. However, he lacks the mood creating effects that Moore so effectively put in the earlier music. When he doesn't have a lead or a solo, chances are that he's mimicing either the bass or the guitar. He doesn't do much else. If I had to rate all of the keyboardists in Dream Theater, Kevin Moore would be a 10/10, Derek Sherenian would be a 7.5/10, and Jordan Rudess would be an 8-ish/10.

Anyways, onto the album. It is of course a concept album as I'm sure you know but I'll tell you that anyways in case you missed the 400 reviews previous to this one. It kicks off nicely, with a soothing dialogue to get you sort of up to speed with what the story is. The opening track "Regression" then ends with a soft little diddle of a song which is ok. The next six songs are all great; 5/5 every one of them. The music is an entirely different style with Rudess in the band than with Moore or Sherenian. It is more technically-based than stylistically-based, which has it pluses and minuses. I wouldn't say that any song on the album is better then anything on "Images and Words" or "Awake", but they are definitely good.

LaBrie's vocal range dropped off a bit from the previous albums due to his sad food poisoning bout that ruptured his vocal chords. So overall all of the vocal lines are lower than the previous albums. No amazing screams or gnarly power yells like on "Images and Words" and "Awake." LaBrie pretty much takes it easy and sings smoothly and very controlled throughout the entire album. Not a bad performance but definitely a step below the earlier stuff.

The end of the album is where things get sketchy for me. Some people may like the 12- minute "Home", but for me it's boring as heck. It and "The Spirit Carries On" are the worst two on the album in my opinion. Just repetitive and bland music if you ask me. The others are good though, like "One Last Time", "The Dance of Eternity", and my personal favorite on the album "Finally Free." The last song's name could be victim of mockery for haters of this album, but for me it is one of the high points if not THE high point of the album.

Overall "Scenes from a Memory" is a good album, but nothing legendary like the older Dream Theater albums. Sadly I think Rudess is mainly to blame for that because he just does the same stuff on every song. No variety (and his solos are boring as heck too). The story is also very hard to follow because James LaBrie voices the parts of all the characters so unless you have the liners in front of you, you'll never know who's talking. Other than a few things like that, the album is really good and definitely a necessity for any Dream Theater fans.