THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST

It was a statement not everyone was equally happy about: Mike Portnoy announcing that Dream Theater would cover five (in their opinion) classic albums. Well, as a so called 'fanboy' of this band, I admire a lot of the stuff they do. And today I can say that the covering-part also gets to enjoy my appreciation. Nowadays, Dream Theater is at the point where they've got only one classic left. They've done Metallica's 'Master of Puppets', Iron Maiden's 'The Number of the Beast', Pink Floyd's 'Dark Side of the Moon' and Deep Purple's 'Made in Japan'. People who are familiar with one of the aforementioned bootlegs, know that LaBrie, Rudess, Portnoy, Myung & Petrucci aren't trying to give the classics a Dream Theater-esque sound. They want the audience to experience (very) familiar music by their favourite band. Nonetheless there's one bootleg of which I think Dream Theater could've done a better job at playing: 'The Number of the Beast'.

The album begins with the well-known 'Invaders' and it shows quite fast that James LaBrie just didn't have the vocal range that Bruce Dickinson has. The music is not a problem for the rest of the band, and the guitar solo's for instance sound awesome. I find LaBrie's voice to have really improved over the last couple of years, but while recording this bootleg (2000), he wasn't as good as he is now. '22 Acacia Avenue' is the best cover. The vocal range of James is pushed to the limits, but he nails it. It still shows that this album wasn't written for a singer like him, but he absolutely gives it all that he can. And that's something to admire. The audience and production absolutely make up for my criticism, that's one thing for sure. It sounds like they're having a great time, which can clearly be heard on songs like 'The Prisoner' & 'The Number of the Beast'. The production is of a rather good quality, which goes for most of the 'official' bootlegs I own by Dream Theater. This album is only for the die-hard fans of Dream Theater & the album 'The Number of The Beast' in my opinion. If you don't like Dream Theater, you won't get to like them by buying this, and they've simply done better. Just listen to DT's 'Dark Side of the Moon'.