martindavey87 ‘Falling Into Infinity Demos 1996-1997’ is the fifth instalment of Dream Theater’s demo series line of official bootlegs. There’re two important factors here that make this arguably one of the better releases of demo albums. Firstly, the wealth of material on hand, including five unreleased tracks that never made it onto the album, as well as a 20-minute instrumental demo that features plenty of moments that would be expanded upon, and eventually become the bands next and most highly revered album, ‘Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From a Memory’.

The second important factor, and certainly an interesting one, is that ‘Falling Into Infinity’ was an album plagued by record label interference, and while the finished product isn’t quite what the band would have desired, this gives fans a chance to hear the songs how they were originally intended to sound.

Of course, by now, I’ve grown accustomed to the ‘Falling Into Infinity’ album (I, for one, really enjoy it), so listening to the demos is cool for a die-hard fan such as myself, but I’m still happy to listen to the finished product instead. The unreleased tracks are all pretty decent, especially ‘Raise the Knife’ and ‘Speak to Me’, but they all sound unfinished. No doubt they’d have been polished up had they made the final cut, but I guess these will have to do.

Overall however, this isn’t something I’d feel inclined to listen to. I’d much rather stick with the original studio album. There’re plenty of differences and nuances to pick up upon though, and it’s intriguing to see how many changes were made to these tracks over time. But that’s about it. Perhaps sometimes record label interference isn’t such a bad thing afterall?

Dellinger Falling into Infinity is one of the weakest Dream Theater albums for me, so when I found out about this demos official bootleg version of the same album I just thought there was absolutley no reason to get it. I mean, why would I want the demos of some of DT's weakest songs? Well, then I read some reviews about it and it was praised by many people, so I got kind of curious and ended up getting it, and indeed, it was so much better. The reason, when DT were making this album, they didn't pretend to release it as it was actually released, that came about because of the pressures of the record company, so some songs ended up with some edits and mixes and changes that wouldn't benefit them.

Now, about the songs I actually liked from the official release, most of them are as a matter of fact a tiny bit better on that one, because here they are just a bit rougher on the edges; not a big change really, and I enjoy either versions anyway. This songs for are "New Millenium", which is one of the few songs that deserves to be called "prog metal" in this album, and "Trial of Tears", which is a great progressive song, but has just about no metal in it. I also like very much "Peruvian Skies", which is mostly a metal song with very little progressive element in it (and I believe the inteded "metal single" or "metal hit" for this album, which I would find a little bit weak compared to other such songs in their discography), now, I must say this song I liked just a bit better on this demo version, because that roughness actually works better for me than the way it was fianally released (perhaps because it is a heavier song). Another song that I liked on the original album was "Hell's Kitchen", wich I'm afraid to say is missing from this demos album... though I must say this actually worked for the better, which I'll explain later. Now, the reason I find the demos album so much better than the official one are a few of the weaker songs which happen to be really brilliant on this previous versions. This would be mainly "You or me", which was the original version for "You not me" and which happens to be so much better... which might be a bit odd, for it is basically the same song, but it is just kind of heavier and rougher and that makes all the difference. The other song is "Burning my Soul", which I found rather annoying on the original album, and here it is really enjoyable; once again, mainly because it is kind of heavier, and doesn't have such overpocessed vocals that ruined the final version. Plus the original version of this song was longer, and it has the instrumental segment "Hell's Kitchen" as part of it, which makes it much more prgressive and kind of completes the song (and this is the reason I said that this demos album was actually better for not having that song, because I find it better here as part of this other song, as it was originally intended before the record company butchered it).

And, besides this songs that were "fixed" with the release of this version of the album, there are a few other songs that didn't make it to the final album which I find rather pleasing. Mainly "The Way it used to be", which is a rather pop song with some prog elements and just about no metal at all, but is still very nice. "Cover My Eyes", which is just a short metal song with no prog elements whatsoever, but which might just as well worked as a single for the album (and just don't understand why it didn't make it). And last "Speak to me", which is a ballad which I found so much better than any of the ballads that actually made it to the final album.

However, not all of the album is fixed with this versions, and there are still many songs which I just don't find interesting, such as "Just let me Breath" (being a metal song), or some ballads like "Hollow Years", "Take Away my Pain", and "Anna Lee"... and on this new release I may actually add "Where are you now".

Unfortunatley, theres a pair of purely Prog Metal songs on this album that I just don't get, even though they are among the favourites of some other reviewers. One is "Raise the Knife", which just doesn't make much for me, and which is another of the songs that had been left out on the final album, the other is "Lines in the Sand", which I find to be the most annoying song in this album, and one of the most annoying ones on their discography, mainly because the vocals are very hard to bear, specially the chourus parts which I just can't stand.

In the end anyone who might not have liked the official album very much may do well giving this demos version a chance, and for people who haven't bought either yet, it might just as well be a better option to get this one instead, and get what the band actually wanted to release. For me, this album is a 4 stars instead of 2.5 I gave the final one.