Metropolis 2: Scenes From A Memory Part 2

sbrushfan wrote: Manunkind wrote: It's VERY uneven, IMO. Most of the mellow sections are simply dreadful. Some not-so-mellow ones as well. Still, it can be mindboggling in places and usually retains the characteristic DT wit and elegance. 3.5-3.75/5 for me.  And props to King Volta - I like Train of Thought more too, and woe to the many that don't.   Well, Manunkind...what does ToT possess that Metropolis may lack?

SFAM is the more varied album,  but as I said, this doesn't seem to be an asset here, since long sections are IMO very bad. There are bad moments on ToT, too, but they're few and far between. This is simply something I have with DT - some of their ballads simply make me cringe. There are exceptions - "Wait for Sleep", "Space Dye Vest", "Disappear" and "Vacant" (off ToT) I find excellent. The ones on "Falling into Infinity" arent half bad, either. The ones on SFAM, however... ugh (apart from "One Last Time" and the solo on "The Spirit Carries On".) It's mostly (but not exclusively) due to LaBrie's vocals - he simply pours layers of sugar and fake tears on every line, or gets realy overblown. Now I love overblown music... when I can hear a certain tongue-in-cheek aspect to it. This isn't the case here. Apart from that, certain sections on "Beyond This Life" sound very hackneyed to these ears and the whole song fails to deliver on its potential. One more major flaw here is the pacing, especially in the first half of the album. Although ToT is a slightly harder and more intense album, it doesn't suffer from this problem IMO.