DREAM THEATER — When Dream and Day Unite (review)

DREAM THEATER — When Dream and Day Unite album cover

Album · 1989 · Progressive Metal

4/5 · 2016-09-06
siLLy puPPy

The debut album WHEN DREAM AND DAY UNITE seems to have been a much hated album since the beginning by the now much worshipped progressive metal band DREAM THEATER that emerged from the primeval metal ooze all the way back in 1985 when the three long term members John Petrucci, John Myung and Mike Portney were all students at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA and formed a band under the name Majesty. Under that moniker they managed to release one demo before being sued by another band of the same name and ultimately changed it to the name of a movie THEATER in Portney’s hometown. The three founding members started out covering Rush and Iron Maiden songs and it’s no surprise when you hear this debut album. The title WHEN DREAM AND DAY UNITE actually was lifted from the song “Bastille Day” from Rush. After many auditions for lead singers, the band settled on Charlie Dominici who at times nails the Geddy Lee vocal thing which IMHO is no easy feat and certainly uncommon.

Fast forward to 1989 and the band known as DREAM THEATER released their debut album. It’s pretty amazing but after only a few years of throwing all the musical ingredients into their magic musical cauldron, this band actually started sounding like a distinct entity within the musical universe although there is certainly no hiding where all the influences came from. Rush and Iron Maiden are the biggies, but there are many traces of the progressive metal bands emerging from the 80s including Fates Warning and Queensryche but what really separates DREAM THEATER from the pack is their inclusion of symphonic prog keyboards that add a whole new dimension to the big bang of progressive metal of the era. Not so much Rick Wakeman inspired but actually more like a neo-prog band like Arena or IQ where the keys add a background atmospheric development to the mix with occasional outbursts of virtuosic wankery. Portney and Petrucci also display total mastery of their respective instruments on this one as well.

I really don’t understand why this album gets the flack that it does. Yeah it’s a raw and somewhat archetypal for the band’s future sound that would admittedly only gain power and focus to create albums much more magnificent and magnanimous than this one but nevertheless is filled to the brim with all kinds of metal rawness and hard driving energy that make debut albums of top notch bands like DREAM THEATER so much fun! Already on board this release are signs of completely distilled musical masterpieces such as on the all instrumental mind bleep “The Ytse Jam” where not only do the members display full command of their technical chops but we also hear the songwriting brilliance on tracks like “The Killing Hand” which deftly blends technicality and songwriting prowess and “Afterlife” which already blends addictive melodies with the top notch progressive metal chops of the day. True that Dominici might cop too much of a Geddy Lee worship complex and the other influences hadn’t quite simmered down into the proper cohesiveness of the future albums but i am constantly amazed at how well the band pulled things off on this album and find it more than a thrilling album to revisit time and time again. The music on this one is a lot more aggressive and rooted in heavy metal but it still displays amazing progressive time sig workouts in full regalia.

Yeah, i know. It’s that horrific album cover right? It’s one of those WTF were they thinking moments in metal history. Nothing against pretty dude on the cover but all i know is that if i was about to be branded like a bovine in a stable i’d probably have a more emotional response on my face. DREAM THEATER really should offer an alternative album cover for re-releases of this album but don’t let the horrible album cover scare you away. This music offers a complex array of many musical styles perfectly blended together in a very listenable way. The production may not be as good as it should have been considering there were like four guys in on it and in the end this album has a lot of prototype elements that were much better done on “Images And Words” as well as albums beyond, but damn if i don’t find this a brilliant blueprint or rough draft of what would fully ferment in the next few years to become one of the progressive music’s knights in shining armor to rescue the genre from the ever stagnating glam metal scene. Woefully underrated. Close your eyes, ignore the album cover, listen to the music! It’s excellent!

more than 2 years ago
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siLLy puPPy wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I avoided it for the longest time just because i assumed i wouldn't like it. You're right that it does have a neo-prog thing going on in the keyboards. I think everyone agrees about the album cover!

Unitron wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Great review, although I've never been able to get into this one. Sounds too Marillion-esque for my tastes. That cover is up there with Court of the Crimson King in ugliest album covers.