WHEN DREAM AND DAY UNITE

Three stars don't mean it's a bad album. For me, it's a really great album if looked from "debut album" point of view. However, when I compare with the standard of others progressive metal albums or other Dream Theater albums, When Dream And Day Unite is not the best album.

The album was recorded in 1988 and released in 1989, I wasn't born yet at that time : ) . In my opinion, the biggest flaw is Charlie Dominici's vocal style, which like Geddy Lee wannabe also, doesn't fit with Dream Theater progressive metal style. Another not-so- good issue is for me, the recording sounds very bad, the guitar sound is not so good. Maybe its just me, that this is the sound style at that era, but its just don't fit my ears. This is the first and last album with Charlie Dominici, who left the band shortly after the album was released. According to Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy, "It was like having Billy Joel singing in Queensryche." A good singer in the wrong band, the band amicably parted ways shortly thereafter. Moreover, Charlie Dominici was the oldest with quite far older than the rest of the band, this issue was considered by some fans why he left the band. Well, actually, he wasn't "left" the band, it was more like an agreement between him and the band.

A Fortune In Lies - Great first track, very heavy metal with progressive elements, which is very important because most people will look at the first track in the first album to decide what the genre of the band is. However, all of the metal progressive heavy elements gone when Charlie started to sing, its [b]not bad[/b], mark my words, its not bad, just not fit with the intro and the rest of the song. Also, John Myung bass line is very heavy, so cool, just like the guitar solo!!

Status Seeker The intro of the song is nothing like metal, and more like pop, but then when the guitar starts, the energy of the song increased, the metal element can be felt. Once again, the guitar solo is very amazing, great solo.

Ytse Jam The best song in the album, which is an instrumental song and is still famous until now that Dream Theater always play this song in every concert. The song is very unique with a kinda strange melodic line, but that's progressive, being different. For those of you who don't know, Ytse Jam is actually Majesty read inversely, maJ estY. This is really a jam song actually, where four of them played as best as they can.

The Killing Hand - Mellow acoustic guitar intro, real nice, so relaxing after the jamming song. When the drum line begins, the energy of the song rose, somewhat metal but for me its more like typical rock song. In this world, there is always "but", this time, the "but" is Charlie Dominici's vocal style, very cheesy, "an angle's kiss." Besides that, everything is just OK. This is the first song where Dream Theater started to divide songs into parts, The Killing Hand was divided into five parts.

Light Fuse And Get Away - Very nice intro, heavy and metal guitar riffs followed by Moore's unique keyboard line. Overall, the song is great, very progressive metal, one thing missing is, nah, you know, I don't have to explain it again.

After Life - Very heavy guitar intro and nice guitar line in the first verse, combined with energetic bass and drum section and I think this is the most metal song in the album. In the minute 3:40, the tempo slows down, which is pretty good, before a sick ((positive sick!!) solo from John Petrucci. After that, Petrucci and Moore did the solo together, GREAT!!!

The Ones Who Help To Set The Sun - The most progressive song in the album, started with keyboard and bass lines, pretty much like Octavarium. The instrumental part then continued until the third minute, before Dominici started to sing. The chord progression is good, just like the solos, similar to other songs.

Only A Matter Of Time - The second most famous song after Ytse Jam. Despite the unfit vocal, the song is very good, in terms of lyric and the music composition. As a proof, Dream Theater played this song in Live At Budokan concert, which is very surprising because it's a very old song and with different singer. The feeling is at the fourth minute, the music is very nice with beautiful chords, and again, very cheesy!! "even when plans fall to pieces." then followed with beautiful solos.

Well, three stars. Once again, I don't review this album with "debut album" predicate, but just as an album, an album in progressive metal world. Great job from Dream Theater, if I review this album based on "debut album", I'll give five stars. Despite everything, you should still buy this album, which is a history in progressive metal world.

Timur Imam Nugroho - Indonesia

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