martindavey87 They say an animal is most dangerous when backed into a corner, and that could not be any more evident than Dream Theater recording their magnum opus, 'Scenes from a Memory'.

With record label pressure and the business side of the music industry taking its toll on the band (and most specifically on drummer Mike Portnoy) during the release and touring of previous album 'Falling Into Infinity', it was now a time to go hard or go home. Dream Theater wanted to be left alone to write their own music, that would appeal to their own fan base, without the interjection of any record label executives who didn't understand the band, their fans, or their genre of music. It was do-or-die as the band stood on the brink of self-implosion, but they stood tall and delivered an album that is highly regarded as not only their finest work, but one of the greatest albums progressive metal has to offer.

Based around the story of a man who is a reincarnation of a girl that was murdered, and how he revisits his past life in his dreams (or something like that!), the concept is highly ambitious and complex, especially with all the different characters being voiced by James LaBrie. But it doesn't detract from the quality of the music, and with the usual awe-inspiring prowess you'd come to expect from progressive metals most famous band, this is an album where the band fire on all cylinders.

'Home', 'Fatal Tragedy', 'One Last Time' and 'Strange Déjà Vu' are some of many highlights on this album, although it's hard to pick just a few, as the album from start to finish is one giant highlight reel. And of course, the absolute peak of Dream Theater's technical ability, instrumental track 'The Dance of Eternity', will encourage listeners to throw away whatever instruments they're learning as they slowly realize how they'll never be this good.

A record that belongs in any metal or prog collection, 'Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory' started the upward momentum that truly put Dream Theater's careers and lives in their own hands, and has endured as one of the greatest concept albums of all time.

Modrigue THE concept album of the 90's

After the commercial failure of "Falling into Infinity", DREAM THEATER had to to pull off a major coup to keep their progressive metal crown. Furthermore, the band was lacking a genuine concept album to their discography to enter the prog hall of fame. Finally, fans were requesting a sequel to "Metropolis Part 1: The Miracle and The Sleeper", the most ambitious title from "Images and Words".

All these goals will fully be reached with the sublime "Metropolis Part 2 - Scenes from a memory". This fifth studio opus also marks the arrival of keyboardist Jordan Rudess from LIQUID TENSION EXPERIMENT. Based on an instrumental demo recorded in 1996, the musicians extended the lyrics of "Metropolis Part 1" to narrate the story of a man though his anterior life, in two acts.

Influenced by the greatest concept records of all time, such as RUSH's, ZAPPA's, YES', GENESIS' "The Lamb...", and especially QUEENSRŸCHE's "Operation Mindcrime" and PINK FLOYD's "The Wall", "Metropolis Part 2" literally redefines modern progressive metal and simply stands as THE major concept album of the 90's. The quintet's musical elements such as multiple time signatures, raging riffs, breathtaking soli and typical gimmicks are of course present, however this time with more harmony, balance, richer instrumentation and better flow. Gorgeous!

Act 1 is nearly perfect. The hypnotic countdown of "Regression" and its "The Wall-esque" acoustic guitar introduces "Overture 1928", an instrumental patchwork of the disc's main themes. The nightmarish and aggressive "Strange Deja Vu" is freaking good. Its rhythm changes are energetic and even a little groovy at times. The sad piano interlude "Through My Words" unveils another impressive composition, the powerful and beautiful "Fatal Tragedy". Its horrific atmosphere and multiple instruments create a tragic and thrilling sensation, carried away by magnificent soli. Wow! Great! Also featuring various musicians' interventions, "Beyond This Life" alternates raging darker, floating and funky sections. Unfortunately, the act finishes with the black sheep of the album, which is... a soapy ballad, "Through Her Eyes", the only weak track. Guess we cannot avoid this type of cheesy song in a DREAM THEATER release... At least, its "The Final Cut"-esque introduction is pretty charming.

Act 2 starts with the longest and most progressive title of the record, "Home". Let's go straight to the point: this is simply one of the best prog Middle-Eastern-ish metal piece of its kind, bombastic and epic! This composition represents the style and quality of music you would expect by looking at the cover art of, say, you-know-who's "Powerslave". The theme from "Metroplis Part 1" makes a short incursion. The instrumental "The Dance Of Eternity" possesses a terrifying and haunting overture, as well as surprising moments, such as rag-time, while borrowing some parts from "Metroplis Part 1". We even got a bass solo from John Myung! Yes! After its beautiful piano opening, the enchanting "One Last Time" reuses the theme from "Strange Deja Vu", whereas "The Spirit Carries On" is quite "The Wall"-esque with its Roger Waters-ian whispered vocals and female choirs. "Finally Free" concludes the disc by alternating peaceful and tragic passages. Enjoyable but a bit too long.

Anyway, this was a genuine mesmerizing journey, both nightmarish and dreamy. "Metropolis Part 2 - Scenes from a memory" is DREAM THEATER's magnum opus, transporting you into another - inner - world. Mindblowing, breathtaking, magic, epic, borrowing from numerous influences and various musical genres, this fifth studio album is simply a milestone in the prog metal genre. In the 90's, there are hardly no concept albums that could compete with such musicality, aggressiveness and virtuosity.

The success will be comparable to "Images And Words"'s and will launch the musicians for a massive tour. The quintet's reign can safely continue... Unfortunately their further albums won't be able to recreate a mixture of such balance and quality...

Simply one of DREAM THEATER's and progressive metal in general's best offerings! An ESSENTIAL listen...

Wilytank Has anyone here, like me, ever liked a band a whole lot in the past and over time acquired a lot of the CDs in their discography, listened to them really enthusiastically at first but gradually less and less choosing other music over them almost not wanting yet still somehow thinking they're better than certain other bands until finally you stop listening to them altogether and your CDs just sit on a shelf collecting dust? Then, you come across them again a while later, give them a refreshing listening, and say to yourself "Wait a second! I don't like this!" That is exactly my experience with Dream Theater, and Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory was the first album by them that I acquired. As it turns out, I think it's their worst.

All the alarms that went off that started to get me think this album isn't as good as I thought it was all went off one at a time over time. I believe the earliest was for the lyrical themes; and to be frank, the story this album follows fucking sucks. Some dude undergoes hypnotherapy for reasons that never are really explained. All I can gather is that he's wondering what his own life is about, which I don't believe should warrant the hiring of a hypnotherapist. Just realize that life has no meaning and nobody is going to miss us when we're all dead; a philosophy like that makes for a happy life. But, he goes through with this anyway and he experiences a past life as a woman who's stuck in a love triangle dilemma with two assholes who happen to be brothers. This story goes nowhere interesting and only ends with two of the three characters dead; a happy ending would have all of them dead, probably from suicide from realize that they're living inside a soap opera. I also don't understand why the dude in the present just had to go back to relive a stupid drama like this. Surely if he had traveled back further in his reincarnation history, he would have come across a Spartan, pirate, viking, or even a prostitute. If this soap opera is the most exciting past life he could get, his other lives must have been filled with Arabian carpet merchants, Irish sheep herders, and Indian garbage men.

Alarm number two came from James LaBrie. I really cannot stand the guy's voice; he sounds like a woman even when he's not trying to be the voice of the woman character in which case such as in the first "Tonight I've been searching for it" part in "Strange Deja Vu" in which he sounds really, really bad. But you know what? LaBrie's voice goes pretty well with the cheesy shitty lyrics, and these two together go well with the crappy music on this album. Crap goes really well with crap and crap, and this leads me to the third alarm that went off which took longer to be heard than before, but after a while I finally realized how poor the music is. Regression is a useless intro that plays into another intro track, "Overture 1928", which contains music that sounds like it was stolen from the opening theme of a show on Home and Garden Television. It's this soft, shitty rock garbage that plays into the first song with lyrics "Strange Deja Vu". From there, the band makes a couple of attempts at a darker sound with two lame results: "Fatal Tragedy" and the horribly bloated, chug laced "Home". "Through Her Eyes", "One Last Time", "Through My Words", and "The Spirit Carries On" are the worst of the worst here where the album is at its softest and most flowery.

And you know what? I feel bad for John Petrucci. The guy can obviously play a couple of good solos. The catch is that they're surrounded by this HGTV themed nonsense so he'd might as well be the guitarist from Men Without Hats. This feeling is not mutual for Mike Portnoy. I have no idea why this blue-goateed twelve stepper is praised so much when there is so little about his drumming performance that is at all special. Nothing he does here stands out.

After a bloated soft rock piece and some sounds of the modern guy walking into his home, you hear this "WAKE UP!" announcement, convenient for those of you who fell asleep listening to this album.

Now, it would be a bit of a far shot, but I believe that this train wreck could have been avoided if they made some of the following improvements during production. First, the lyrics would have to be completely rewritten. This precursor to Twilight is a lost cause, might as well scrap the whole story and begin anew. I'm sure if Dream Theater still wanted to make an album about a guy going back to a past life, they could write up a story about one of his ancestors discovering an elaborate plot concocted by the Knights Templar to take over everyone's minds, so he assassinates key members of this order to deconstruct their plans. You know, a story that actually had meaning instead of something that only spineless support group wankers can appreciate. This would be a key change in the album's turn out considering they'd definitely make the music more interesting instead of matching up with a shitty story. Second, James LaBrie would need to be dumped from the line-up. Bring in Russel Allen or someone else who actually sounds like his gender; I just say Russel Allen because he's had a history of singing about epic tales. Third, you bring in a second guitarist to play rhythm guitar. With the added depth of sound, maybe they can ditch a lot of this soft rock sound and actually write a few interesting riffs. It couldn't be Michael Romeo or anyone else who would greatly overshadow John Petrucci though. Wouldn't want to demoralize him even further. These changes would help pave the way to a more acceptable album.

As it stands now though, Scenes From a Memory is a boring album that should be avoided. This is an album that I used to really like, so you can't say that I didn't try to like this. But that just goes to show how pathetic I was in early high school before growing up and getting myself a booster shot of pride and self-esteem. Now, this album doesn't mean anything to me but bad music that is unfortunately considered to be good by a large number of people.

(21/100)

Sinkadotentree DREAM THEATER's fifth studio album is their best one up to that point in my opinion. I would only rate "Train Of Thought" higher when it comes to their studio recordings. Enter Jordan Rudess who had been playing with Portnoy and Pertucci in LIQUID TENSION EXPERIMENT. This is a long album at around 77 minutes and it does lose some steam for me near the end. In fact i could do without the final two tracks, but overall i still have to give this a solid 4 star rating. Cool to see they recorded some of this at Metal Works Studios in Toronto which is owned by TRIUMPH's drummer Gil Moore. The Toronto theme continues with Terry Brown helping out as well. This is a concept album with a fairly complicated story-line. "Home" is my favourite track as Portnoy and Pertucci really shine. Without question this is one of DREAM THEATER's best.

dtguitarfan What can I say about a true masterpiece? If I were to list the top 10 Progressive Rock albums EVER...this would be in the top 5. I would want to put it at #1 myself, though in the end historical perspective would win over. However, this is perhaps the most important album in the history of Dream Theater, as it was the point in which they finally made some headway in their careers. This is a brilliant masterpiece of musical storytelling, with musical themes being reused and expounded on. On top of this, the complexity is amazing. I actually bought a book of Dream Theater scores, to see if it would help me figure out the time signatures in The Dance of Eternity. Even with the book in front of me, I just can't count it. And I LOVE this piece for that very reason! Absolutely, without a shadow of a doubt, 5 stars.

Warthur Dream Theater make something of a comeback on Metropolis Part II: Scenes From a Memory, which also sees Jordan Rudess join the band on keyboards. With three quarters of Liquid Tension Experiment onboard, you expect a certain level of technical flashiness, and this used to turn me off of the album, since I thought they took their technicality a little too far and indulged in showing off for the sake of showing off.

However, on relistening to and gaining a new appreciation of Dream Theater's back catalogue, I'm happy to admit I was wrong: in fact, Dream Theater have a fantastic knack for making sure their technical playing always serves a purpose in reinforcing the tone of the story or the individual songs and conveying emotion through them.

Another thing which had previously annoyed me was some of the religious perspectives explored through the lyrics and overall plot, with The Spirit Carries On typically annoying me. I freely admit that this might be a side effect of the darker side of this multi-incarnational cosmic murder mystery evading me on previous listens, which lends a certain irony to that song which counterbalances some of its sappier implications.

Possibly I have simply gained more appreciation of the theatrical in music, because this is very much a narrative concept album with all that implies - but whilst many such albums end up compromising the music in order to serve the needs of the narrative, here Dream Theater do a fantastic job of allowing the narrative and music to mutually support each other without either needing to compromise. Given how many other narrative concept albums have struggled with this in the past, that's a major achievement.

Metalbaswee Well, whats there to say about this album? Way to much actually. It's a story, an experience, it's the music, and the words. It's a perfect combination of all of the things metioned. The album has without doubt the best production out of all the DT albums ever made.

The music itself on the album is like i said before amazing. It's a great combination of story, and incredible musical highlights, as can be heard with Regression and Overture 1928, which is a smooth transition between story and incredible musicianship. And so the story carries on, and after a few tracks we get to the "nightmare" MP once called it, called Dance Of Eternity, which is one of the best and most interesting pieces DT has ever written. After that we move into The Spirit Carries On, which proves DT can write and record awesome, simple ballads. The song is without the highlight on the album, after this we close the album, leaving a great feeling, and the feeling that you just need to listen to it again. 5 stars, without doubt.

Time Signature The spirit carries on...

Genre: progressive metal

"Metropolis, part 2: Scenes from a Memory" is a concept album telling a complex story of love, life, death, the psyche, rebirth and cosmic connections between people. "Typical progressive pretentious lyrical bullsh*t", you might say. Well, if you do not like that, then that is fair enough. Personally, I think that the lofty concept suits Dream Theater's complex music very well.

"Metropolis, part 2: Scenes from a Memory" is one of Dream Theater's very best albums for my money, and it is teeming with music which is pretty much epitomic of progressive metal, blending progressive technicality and comlexity with recognizable melody. Some of the stringer tracks on this album are "Fatal Tragedy" with its (in)famous shrink-n-grow section, the heavier "Beyond this Life" with its catchy choruses, "Home" and "The Dance of Eternity".

Any progressive metal collection that lacks this album is an incomplete one.

Conor Fynes 'Scenes From A Memory' - Dream Theater (10/10)

The best progressive metal album of all time...Or maybe the best metal album of all time period? For a good 70 minutes, these masters of heavy progressive music unfold a tale of murder and mystery, and some of the greatest music I have ever heard. Almost everything is flawless and perfect with this album. Theres nothing I've ever heard that's of quite this quality and inspiration.

What we have here is artwork on two layers. The first (and most apparent) is the music itself. Dream Theater pulls every trick in the book on this album. When they were first conceiving of this album, they opted to in essence make 'the most prog album they possibly could.' In this attempt, they created a masterpiece that perfectly blends complexity with memorability, melody with progression and emotion with intensity. From gut-wrenching piano ballads to incredibly progressive instrumental sections typical of the band's repetoire, this album has it all, and as it result, it enjoys great cohesion and a feeling of completion.

The second layer is that of the lyrics. While alot of lyrics of Dream Theater (especially the ones on the later releases) are incredibly cheesy and detract from the music, the words sung by LaBrie on 'Scenes From A Memory' actually serve a purpose, and are done incredibly well. The music tells a story that -considering it is only told through lyrics- is incredibly complex, and each character is relatively well rounded, and intriguing. (The summary of the concept is a bit hard to go through on a review, but believe me when I say it has it's merits!) By the end of the album, theres a feeling as if the listener has just watched a film; as if the album was merely the soundtrack to a grand tale.

From the brilliantly composed tech-pieces, to the gut wrenching Floydian ballads, this album is one of the most complete pieces of music ever written for the metal genre. While the album is certainly as good (even better) than the band's classic masterwork 'Images And Words,' this album requires a much more focused listener to appreciate to the fullest.

I bought this album on the last day of elementary school, and years later, after hundreds of listens, I still enjoy it greatly, and find my love of the album constantly renewed with each fresh, exhilerating listen.

'Scenes From A Memory' is about as essential as you can get, and a favourite of mine for years.

AtomicCrimsonRush Scenes From a Memory is the Magnum Opus of Prog metal legends Dream Theater and I must admit I first heard this on the brilliant live Scenes from New York 3 CD epic. I had become quite used to the way it was played live so it was quite a surprise to hear the variations on this studio recording. The first thing I noticed was the incredible production and how clear the audio is in comparison to the live version. The transitions between songs works exceptionally well and the copncept is stronger with the spoken narrative. The way the CD ends with the 'wake up' call is chilling and is an excellent denouement to the overall story.

Highlights are the wonderful Learning to Live and the last 5 tracks that blend together in a masterful symphonic multisuite movement.

It is definitely one of the best the band has to offer along with Images and Words, Octavarium and the amazing classic 6 Degrees of inner Turbulence. One of the best prog metal CDs you will ever hear. Deep lyrics, complex time signatures and an encapsulating concept - this is pure bliss and a must if you love progressive metal

Isaac Peretz An absolute masterpiece, and the definition of essential. Quite possibly even the best Prog Metal album ever made! Metropolis Pt. II is an incredibly strong conceptual album that works as the follow up for the first part "The Miracle And The Sleeper" from Images And Words. The overture bangs you with these wonderful melodies that tell you "This isn't an average album!" which gets closely followed by Strange Deja Vu, a groovy and proggy track. Things eventually get spicy with the complex Fatal Tragedy, and Beyond This Life features amazing solo-ing that will definitely keep you entertained. After all that wanking, Through Her Eyes provides a nice rest, only to build up tension for the heavyweight Home, an all-around strong track that has everything you could ask for in a prog metal song, transitioning into one of the most complex prog instrumentals ever made: The Dance Of Eternity! After all that craziness, One Last Time provides a purpose similar to Through Her Eyes', while reprising previous tracks. Near the end, The Spirit Carries On, a Pink Floydish track lifts up your spirit with good vibes, an amazing chorus and a beautiful guitar solo. Finally, the closer Finally Free solves the mystery of the murder in the story, while reprising previous tracks and bringing the album to a perfect ending.

Five stars without a doubt!

ProgMetaller2112 Guitar wankery at its worst. First off,the guitar player, Mr. Petrucci is a very skilled player but he just makes it seem like a joke on this album. I wish he had the balls to really dig deep to make something truly innovative and worthwhile. Second, The song writing is terrible. The storyline is not engaging at all as it is too repetitive(we get it, someone died and its a tragedy, geesh how many times do you have to repeat that).I happen to think that it is one of the most overrated albums that there is Metal and Prog.The music on here is obviously played by very capable and competent musicians but they turn this into a pure cheesefest. What in the world is Ruddess doing on Beyond This Life(wtf???).That song alone really makes me really not like this album.I couldn't really finish it all without wanting to stop it already. Guitar and instrument wankery at its worst

Dellinger Coming back to this album in order to write a review, I must say I ended up enjoying it much more than I remember. Of course, it's full of great prog metal songs, with "Overture 1928 / Strange Deja Vu" and "Fatal Tragedy" being excellent songs, and "Home" and "Finally Free" being among the best songs the band has to offer (the later offering a big climax ending to the album, full of emotional shifts and all). There is also "Beyond this Life", wich has been the song that has taken me longer to apreciate and the one I have been enjoying more this time around (though I still think it's a step lower than the previous songs). However, "The Dance of Eternity" is one song I still can't get into, just a bit too messy and full of fast and technical playing just for the sake of it. On the other hand, what for me dragged down the album mostly were the ballads, which I must admit still are the lower point on the album, but they are better than I remember... well, at least they are not annoying as other DT ballads, still nothing particularly special (except for "One Last Time", which I really do enjoy a lot, with the "Metropolis" musical theme and all). A really enjoyable album, specially if listened to as a whole piece of music instead of isolated songs.

kluseba Dream Theater's label destroyed their plans and made out of a promising record a mostly cheesy and commercial trash called "Falling Into Infinity". Now, with a new label and a new record the band put a lot of ideas they had for the last record and had to dismiss into this album. Instead of just completing and rerecording their brilliant second part of Metropolis, they decided to create a whole record around this topic and simply called the album "Metropolis part II: Scenes from a memory".

I think that the whole album doesn't entirely have the magic of the first part of "Metropolis". I must also admit that I really enjoyed the promising demo version of "Metropolis 2" and would have prefered this one to a whole album about the topic. There are a few weaker tracks on this record, especially the ballads and more quiet songs like "Through Her Eyes" in the beginning of the album. But this album is still in my ranking of the five best Dream Theater records and even in my top three albums of the band.

Now, let me explain you why. First of all, I think that the whole concept is interesting, well elaborated and sounds somewhat like a modern progressive conceptual album in the key of a "Operation: Mindcrime" by Queensryche. The lyrics and the story are really addicting and easily create images or ideas in my head. Second, this album is quite diversified and contains somehow the quintessence of what Dream Theater is able to achieve. Soft ballads with dreamy keyboard sounds and soft and smooth vocals ("Fatal Tragedy"), epic progressive tunes with many surprising changes like spoken word passages, epic solos or jazz interludes ("Finally Free") and fast and yet very well developed rockers ("Beyond This Life") can be found on this record but because of the cinematic story line, all those songs are well and logically connected and create something consistent. That's why this album has a flow that the last two records before this one didn't have. Third, I really admired the first part of "Metropolis" which is probably my favourite Dream Theater song of all times and I was particulary happy to hear some elements of that classic in songs such as the atmospheric instrumental introduction "Overture 1928", the very progressive instrumental "The Dance Of Eternity" that even has some jazz influences or the amazing "Home" that is the best song Mike Portnoy has ever written for the band and that surprises with a strong riff and some exotic Asian folklore influences. This track is one of my favourite Dream Theater tracks of all time along with "Metropolis Part I" and "A Nightmare To Remember". This epic and inspiring masterpiece "Home" is an important turning point on the record because there are only amazingly strong songs after this one in the second act while there were a couple of a little bit overlong and uninspired tracks in the first act. The track "Home" can be described as the core or the heart of this record as the band put all its energy and creativity into this song that is able to be interesting and diversified over ten minutes long.

If Dream Theater ever had a weak point, than it would be the singer James LaBrie that is delivering "only" a good job on this record while the musicians create magic moments and show all of their talent throughout the whole record. That's maybe why especially the instrumental tracks are amazing and memorable on this record while the quiet ballads that focus more on James LaBrie only seem like some rather boring breaks between brilliant instrumental sections to me to elaborate the story and background of this opus magnum. The story plays a very important role on this record and it is really a well elaborated, addicting and intellectual story that the band worked out but all of this is nothing in comparison to the brilliantly shining musical performances on the record. That's why this record is as well brilliant for more intellectual listeners that attentively read the booklet as well as for the typical fans of progressive music that just close their eyes and listen to minute long guitar solos, vibrating bass lines, tribal drum loops or exotic and folkish keyboard sounds. This album is clearly nothing for a metalhead that awaits some straight, heavy and easily addicting tracks like the band created later on the heavier and darker "Train Of Thoughts".

It is a very entertaining and stunning experience to listen to this album which I consider as a modern progressive metal masterpiece. Anyone that liked the first part of "Metropolis" will admire and must have this record. The first part was like a brilliant preview and this new album is now like the complete movie and this is a blockbuster of modern progressive metal. It begins rather slow paced after a bombastic introduction with some soft fillers before the tension rises and leads us towards a stunning finish. That's why I can really recommand this album to anyone that likes conceptual albums or progressive rock or metal music but not blindly to the masses.

Beekeeper When you suck the soul out of music and inject pure liquid cheese this is what you get. I gave this band and this album a chance, against every fibre of my being I had to battle to force myself to listen objectively and form an unbiased opinion.

I couldn't do it, I couldn't make it through they are my musical kryptonite. In my holy church of music they are satan himself rampaging, killing, raping - they are the one band above all others I love to hate.

Where to begin, James LaBrie's vocals sounds like a piece of wilted lettuce. The keyboards sound like early 90's MIDI sounds straight out of an old PC game (not in the good way either). I mean these guys have sold millions of albums so they MUST have enough money to afford some decent synths and keyboards but instead they CHOOSE to use awful tacky ones. And then there is the loathsome John Petrucci who when he's not doing some awful thug chug riffing is doing some ultra-lame lightspeed sweep picking solo. On the plus side the other guys aren't so offensive. Mike Portnoy is alright I guess, just a boring Neil Peart wannabe and then there's that bassist guy who doesn't do a lot.

The instrumental track 'dances of eternity' is a great example of why I think this band are awful. Sure technical and progressive can be great but this is just forced and completely misguided. I mean pianee breakdowns followed by a shred solo, followed by a bass solo followed by 2 dozen riffs that don't flow into each other and make no sense? - seriously, did they teach you that at Berklee? All it needed was LaBrie to come in with some girly man vocals and it would probably be my most hated track of all time.

I am entirely unapologetic about hating this band and this release. Every good music fan needs one band they can truly loathe and sit back and laugh at every now and again.

If you don't love cheesy music then avoid this at all costs.

l33tp1e Unprecedented Excellence

Arguably my favorite album of all time, Dream Theater presents their only concept album, SFAM, and it is truly amazing. Regression kicks off the album the way an epic concept album should start. Overture 1928 can pretty much sum up the entire album in itself with a great feel to it, having insane solos and really flows well from Regression into Strange Deja-Vu, another awesome song. Through My Words, Fatal Tragedy, and Beyond This Life also seem to just stream right through, revealing more of the story with a very dark feel. Through Her Eyes is really emotional and the music in it is simply amazing. Home starts off rather dark and becomes quite heavy. It has an amazing solo and the chorus parts are extraordinary. The Dance of Eternity may very well be my favorite instrumental of all time, with so many time changes and wonderful solos, this song rocks. One Last Time and The Spirit Carries on are truly beautiful, with such a breathtakingly beautiful atmosphere to it, the songs have so much heart. If Regression was the best way to start off this concept album, then Finally Free is even a better way to end it. The story comes full circle in this song, which ranges from really emotional and dark to hopeful and optimistic for the future. There is no other way to describe this album other then saying that it rocks as much as something could rock, and then some. The story is amazing, the music is unexplainably skilled, and the vocals fit in perfectly with all the different tones of the CD. Highly recommended to anyone who has any taste in music.