DREAM THEATER — Score: 20th Anniversary World Tour Live with the Octavarium Orchestra (review)

DREAM THEATER — Score: 20th Anniversary World Tour Live with the Octavarium Orchestra album cover

Movie · 2006 · Progressive Metal

5/5 · 2010-10-31
Metalbaswee

This is possibly one of the best concert dvd's/cd's ever made. And one of the few i can actually watch/listen to entirely without stopping.

Directing: To start of, it is a Mike Portnoy directed dvd, which means quality. The right shots at the right time, so you can see al the good and cool musical moments, and there are quite a few. 5/5

Setlist:

Again, a great choice on the songs, from their whole career. They start of with The Root Of All Evil from Octavarium. Great opener, and way better then the album version.

Then they smoothly flow into antoher track off Octavarium, I Walk Beside You. Although this track has been highly critized for sounding to poppy and U2 like, I personally think it is a great song, and deserves a place on the setlist.

Then we dive into Dream Theater/Majesty history with a track that was previously unreleased, and could only be found on the original Majesty Demos, named Another Won. This being the first song they ever wrote and recorded, i just think this is great, it is one of my favourite tracks on the album, because here you can really hear and see how good they always were, especially Mike Portnoy and John Myung do an outstanding job on this track.

Up next is Afterlife, a track of When Dream And Day Unite, which i absolutely never listen to, because of the other singer on that record (Charlie Dominici) and the bad recording quality. But god, this version is amazing. Labrie does an amazing job with his vocals, especially with some of the higher notes/screams. The best part of this is the ending solo/unison played by John Petrucci and Jordan Rudess, which they play flawless.

After a small talk from James LaBrie we go Under A Glass Moon, of Images And Words. Just generally awesome. The middle section with the drum solo and guitar solo gives me the chills everytime i hear it.

Innocene Faded, a track of the album Awake, i played. Not my personal favourite of the album, but i guess they didn't want to play an instrumental like Erotomania. But after Erotomania, this is the best track they could have chosen of this record. Sounds great, especially the guitar solo in the end.

Then we move on to a rather obscure track, called Raise The Knife. This track comes of the original Falling Into Infity demo's, and is considered to be the dong they play from that time period. And i don't like it. It doesn't feel all that DT to me, and is way to long in my opinion, i would have prefered Peruvian Skies or Trail Of Tears over this.

And then, of Scenes From A Memory, The Spirit Carries On is played. A great intro piece by John Petrucci and Jordan Rudess, following into a flawless version of this song. It all sounds great, especially the guitar solo and LaBrie's vocals

After a short break the orchestra is revealed to the audience, and starts to play the Overture of Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence. This 40+ Min. epic is performed great, both the band and the orchestra do an outstanding jobs, and keep mistakes to a minimum. This track, on this dvd, got me hooked on Dream Theater, which whas a life changing moment for me. Highlights are Goodnight Kiss and Solitary Shell.

Next up is a song of Train Of Thought, Vacant. Although not a bad song, or a bad choice, this song does not represent what the album stand for, which is balls to the wall metal, and Vacant is a simple balad, but a very beautiful one.

Then we once again return to Octavarium for the next three songs, starting off with The Answer Lies Within. Absolutely epic track and recording, one of the most beautiful songs ever created, i get the chills every time i hear the orchestra play that middle section.

Up next is Sacrified Sons, my least favourite Score and Octavarium track. I'm not going to talk about this song, as i usually skip it.

Then, a giant epic song is waiting to be played in front of thousands of people, named Octavarium. After and almost 8 minute intro solo by Jordan Rudess, the song really kicks in, and from that moment, the band blows their load on every possible level. The musicianship is great, the orchestra doe an amazing job, everything goes very smooth, and the animation video is very entertaining as well. Highlights in this song are the synth solo the middle, the intrumental section after the middle, and the ending solo by John Petrucci, which is the perfect ending for any song.

After a small break the band and orchestra come back for an encore, Metropolis Pt.1. This is a very epic ending to a very epic dvd experience, performed great.

Just to say, it isn't perfect, i'll give it a 4.8.

Video & Sound Quality: The usual Dream Theater quality. Which is outstanding. 5/5

Extras: The documentary is fun to watch, but there is not much on there that is unknown to the die hard fans. The Extra tracks are fun, but nothing really outstanding. 4/5

It is safe to say that this is a masterpiece, that anyone with only the slightest intrest in dream theater should own.

5 stars.