Alphabetical Order - Daily Music Recommendations #30 (D) Dream Theater (Progressive Metal/Progressive Rock)
Balanced all the while
On a gleaming razor's edge
A perfect sphere
Colliding with our fate
This story ends where it began|~
Today we will check out some music from a band that changed my perception of music from the first track I heard by them. They've been active and pioneered the prog metal scene since 1985 under the name "Majesty", before changing it a year later. This is Dream Theater.
They've got a fairly vast discography, and a massive following in the prog metal scene. In the decades they've been active they've released 13 albums, most of which being concept albums. Concept albums used to be very common in Prog Rock, but has become increasingly elusive as bands start churning out albums full of singles that they can promote, rather than telling a cohesive story. To start us off we're gonna check out their 5th album, "Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory".
Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory
This albums title and concept is based on the themes from an earlier track. They released "Metropolis—Part I: 'The Miracle and the Sleeper' " on their second record, and 7 years later it became the base for an entire album. The story features the protagonist going through regression therapy to visit past lives and explore his memories. The album opens up with an overture that visits the different movements on the album, or "scenes" as they are referred to.
Scene 3(Strange Deja Vu) is our first real lyrical exposition of what is happening, and it gives us a glimpse into the psyche of a man lost in his own shell. The writing on this album is very theatrical, and the music helps to raise or alleviate the tension created by these stories of murder and intrigue. Tracks like "Beyond This Life" and "Dance Of Eternity" show off the proficiency of the musicians, with long drawn out jam sessions with multiple time signatures and polyrythms. This is especially noticable on "Dance Of Eternity" featuring a whopping 108 time signature changes through the song.
The first track we'll check out today is the one that introduced me to the band, this is "Beyond This Life"
Beyond This Life
They've got a fairly vast discography, and a massive following in the prog metal scene. In the decades they've been active they've released 13 albums, most of which being concept albums. Concept albums used to be very common in Prog Rock, but has become increasingly elusive as bands start churning out albums full of singles that they can promote, rather than telling a cohesive story. To start us off we're gonna check out their 5th album, "Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory".
Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory
This albums title and concept is based on the themes from an earlier track. They released "Metropolis—Part I: 'The Miracle and the Sleeper' " on their second record, and 7 years later it became the base for an entire album. The story features the protagonist going through regression therapy to visit past lives and explore his memories. The album opens up with an overture that visits the different movements on the album, or "scenes" as they are referred to.
Scene 3(Strange Deja Vu) is our first real lyrical exposition of what is happening, and it gives us a glimpse into the psyche of a man lost in his own shell. The writing on this album is very theatrical, and the music helps to raise or alleviate the tension created by these stories of murder and intrigue. Tracks like "Beyond This Life" and "Dance Of Eternity" show off the proficiency of the musicians, with long drawn out jam sessions with multiple time signatures and polyrythms. This is especially noticable on "Dance Of Eternity" featuring a whopping 108 time signature changes through the song.
The first track we'll check out today is the one that introduced me to the band, this is "Beyond This Life"
Beyond This Life
Six Degrees Of Innter Turbulence
Coming out in 2002, this record holds a somber tone from the beginning. Divided into two discs, this record is split as one collection of separate tracks with a common theme of internal struggle. And a collection of tracks that tell a singular story over several different movements.
The album opens with the track "Glass Prison", which is the first of many tracks in a suite written by the drummer Mike Portnoy. He wrote the "Shattered Fortress" suite(a 4 track long piece) as a way to cope with his problems with substance abuse and his journey through the 12 step programme. The opening track also begins with the noise you hear as the final sound on the previous record(Metropolis pt 2) during the last track "Finally Free", this is an example of something Dream Theater started doing a lot of, easter eggs.
Following "Glass Prison" we have tracks like "Blind Faith" and "The Great Debate", two tracks with a common theme of global conflicts that stem from human problems. The two other tracks on this disc "Misunderstood" and "Dissapear" are more solemn tracks of melancholic nostalgia, to a childhood that shouldn't have been.
The next disc opens with once again an Overture. This one even more orchestral than last time, and more tied to the motifs you hear later in the piece. The story goes into a young mind struggling to find something in the world to hold on to. This record shows off the bands vast knowledge in the realms of writing music, with a mixture of theatricality with metal riffs.
Since this record is kind of split, it makes it difficult for me to justify choosing just one track. So today you will get a bonus! First off we'll check out "Glass Prison" a great prog piece, and probably my favorite part of the 4 song suite.
Glass Prison
Secondly we'll check out a track from the 2nd disc that showcases the bands softer side, with a maybe not so subtle nod to peter gabriel from Genesis
Solitary Shell
Octavarium
Octavarium, the bands 8th album is the epitome of the easter egg hun I was describing earlier. As you may know octa means 8, there are also 8 steps in an octave and a scale usually spans an octave. This goes even further with each track Starting out with the a note that is 1 step up in the scale that spans the album.
Opening with the final tone from the previous record and the Root note pun "Root Of All Evil", the band goes from F to F over, you guessed it, 8 tracks. This continuous movement in key gives the listener a real feeling urgency, since you never really get that final resolution.
The opening track is like stepping into a mysterious laboratory before being shocked by a flashing light and a prog metal Jam out. This is the 3rd part of the "shattered fortress suite", and it sets the tone for the record as dark and symphonic. Once again you have on this record tracks that combine the heavier metal aspects with the more melodic and technical Prog sensibilities.
Going on to tracks like "Panic Attack" and "Never Enough". Two tracks that feel like they stem from the same place, a desire for peace and solitude in place of demands from the public to be what they want you to be.
The final track I wanna show you today is the final track on this record, a huge collage of homages and references to both musical theory, and history. Standing at 24 minutes(hey that's divisible by 8 = 3) it's quite the undertaking to get through, but it's a great story and a joy to listen to, especially if you're like me and love hunting for references in lyrics and the riffs. If you listen carefully towards the end of the track you will hear it go another full circle, sampling a snippet from each of the previous tracks and playing it simultaneously as the original track.
Octavarium