The first disc opens with As I Am, which segues into This Dying Soul. Both of thesetracks are played note for note and have no real invention to them, but that doesn'tmean they aren't fun songs. Petrucci shreds again and again while Myung and Portnoylay a solid foundation and Rudess provides some solid work underneath (with hiskeyboard tone acting as another guitar). LaBrie's vocal performance here, while notas good as in the studio, is solid for him because he's often a hit/miss vocalist inlive aspects. Beyond This Life is the first song that gets a major extension to it.In the middle, a nice instrumental jam proceeds, beginning with a nice guitar solofrom Petrucci, and then a keyboard/drum duel between Portnoy and Rudess, who'skeyboard tone on this section is remnicent of something Tommy Mars would play forZappa. In fact, an excerpt from Baby Snakes is played during the instrumental sectionof this album. Hollow Years follows with some more extensions thanks to a lengthy guitarintroduction from Petrucci as well as a lengthy guitar solo towards the middle of thesong. The next songs played are War Inside My Head/The Test That Stumped Them All,both played wonderfully and without any faults or mistakes. Disc two opens withEndless Sacrifice which is played the same as the studio counterpart, but I'm quitefond of the instrumental middle section in which everyone gets a chance to shine.Next is the Instrumedley, a 12 minute instrumental comprised of all the instrumentalsDream Theater has composed (minus Overture 1928 and Stream of Consciousness) allworked within the framework of The Dance of Eternity (which acts as a bridge betweendifferent sections). Trial of Tears is next. I've always been fond of this songbecause of the great playing on Myung and Petrucci's part, they are mesh welltogether on this song, especially during the instrumental middle section.The second set of the show opens with New Millenium, which is played wonderfully.Kudos to Portnoy on this track, who offers a great backing vocal to LaBrie's lead.Only a Matter of Time follows, and I find this track to be better than the studioversion (same goes with Hollow Years on disc one). Rudess's keyboard solo here ismore dynamic than Moore's solo on When Dream and Day Unite and the song really soundsa lot better here than in the studio version. Following that is Rudess's keyboardsolo, which ends the second disc. It's the only song I truly don't care for on thislive set, all it is is him fiddling with the guitar type sound on his keyboard with awah effect and then into a synthesizer ditty that goes nowhere. Disc three opens withtwo more songs from the Six Degrees suite, Goodnight Kiss and Solitary Shell. Theyare both played quite well and they don't really stray far from the studio version.Stream of Consciousness follows with a 10 minute instrumental that goes through manymotions, but is guided by a cool 5/4 motif. Petrucci's solo on this song isincredible and Myung's performance here is quite nice as well. Disappear follows withsome heartfelt vocals from LaBrie, who sounds more solemn here than on the studiocounterpart. It's cut short from the studio song though, because Petrucci's guitaroutro doesn't last as long. It's a quite nice rendition. Pull Me Under is next, andyou can expect this version to be no different than any other live version of Pull MeUnder. The encore is In the Name of God, which gets the benefit of an extended guitarsolo in the end from Petrucci. It's wonderfully played by all members and ends theshow well.In the end, Live at Budokan is a great live album, but not Dream Theater's best.There are some problems in my opinion with the songs being relatively unchanged fromthe studio counterparts and the lack of songs from Awake (The Mirror or Voices wouldhave been nice). But all in all, this is a great sounding live set that fans of DreamTheater should love. 4/5. social review comments Review Permalink
Posted Monday, July 10, 2006 Review this album Report (Review #83289)
Live At Budokan is the second triple live release from Dream Theater, following up the excellent Live Scenes In New York. To their credit, they don't overstuff it to the extent they could have, with the total running time coming in at under 3 hours. There's also a lot of solid material on here, much of which hadn't been on a major Dream Theater live release before (ie, setting aside fan club releases and official bootlegs and things of that nature): you get a good helping of Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, plus most of Train of Thought, plus good selections from the rest (including the remarkable Instrumedley of various Dream Theater and Liquid Tension Experiment instrumental snippets and a take on Beyond This Life which works in a Frank Zappa cover/tribute).The main reason I don't think it quite measures up to Live Scenes From New York is that that had the play-through of the entire Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From a Memory concept album to really give that a solid reason for being as long as it was - main album, plus some shorter songs not on that album, plus a clutch of epics added up to three hours which went by in a breeze. Here, the length seems a tad excessive.The reason I don't think it's more than half a star below Live Scenes From New York is that the material here is damn strong, and Dream Theater are at the height of their powers here. If you are interested in exploring Dream Theater's many live releases, I'd still give Live Scenes From New York the top prize, but I'd say this should be close after it on your checklist. social review comments Review Permalink
Posted Wednesday, March 30, 2022 Review this album Report (Review #2714402)
"Metropolis Part 2: Scenes From A Memory" was recorded at Bear Track Studios in New York, the same place where the band had previously recorded their second studio album "Images And Words" in 1992 and their EP "A Change Of Seasons" in 1995. It was the first album to feature their new keyboardist Jordan Rudess. After participating in Liquid Tension Experiment project with Rudess, Petrucci and Portnoy found themselves writing music and working together actually quite easily. So, it was easy to convince LaBrie and Myung to offer Rudess the position of full time keyboardist on band's next studio album. As they accepted, the current keyboardist of the band at time, Derek Sherinian, was fired.So, the line up on "Metropolis Part 2: Scenes From A Memory" is James LaBrie (lead vocals), John Petrucci (backing vocals and guitars), Jordan Rudess (keyboards), John Myung (bass) and Mike Portnoy (backing vocals and drums). The album has also the participation of Theresa Thomason (vocals and backing vocals) and Mary Canty, Sheila Slappy, Mary Smith, Jeanette Smith, Clarence Burke Jr., Carol Cyrus and Dale Scott (backing vocals), as guest artists."Metropolis Part 2: Scenes From A Memory" is a sequel to "Metropolis Part I: The Miracle And The Sleeper", a song previously featured on the band's album "Images And Words". Fans had previously requested the band to make a sequel of the first part of the song. With the recording sessions for "Falling Into Infinity", their fourth studio album released in 1997, the band recorded a twenty-one minute instrumental demo of "Metropolis Part 2", but they didn't make it into that album. The demo, which included several citations from "Metropolis Part I" and many motifs that would later appear on "Metropolis Part 2", was however significantly different from the finished album version in the most part of it."Metropolis Part 2: Scenes From A Memory" is a conceptual album with twelve songs divided into two acts, and which are each also divided in five and four scenes respectively. Shortening, the story is about a man, Nicholas, which begins to have visions about the life of a girl Victoria. Determined to understand those visions, he eventually discovers that the young girl was murdered in 1928 trapped in a love trio. Thanks to his search, he finds his own self and thinks that someone else will live his life in the future, in the same way he has lived that of the poor Victoria now resting in heaven."Metropolis Part 2: Scenes From A Memory" is, in my humble opinion, the highest point of their entire career and one of the highest points of music, as a whole. It's true that the band had already proved to be composed by a group of tremendous musicians, but with this album the band plays in loud and heavy songs. On this album they have found the perfect balance between the heavy metal parts, with top speed keyboards and guitar solos, and the quieter parts like the two ballads "Trough The Eyes" and "The Spirit Carries On". All over the album the music follows the rules of a true classic conceptual album, with numerous sound effects and many recurring themes. "Metropolis Part 2: Scenes From A Memory" does have its heavier and more metallic moments, involving very fast double-bass drumming, courtesy of Portnoy, and some good heavy, but still very catchy guitar riffs delivered by Petrucci. The tempo is generally mid-to-slow paced and airs more on the prog rock side, as opposed to metal. The writing here is superb in every area, with elements of classical, jazz, blues, psychedelic rock, "Home", ragtime "The Dance Of Eternity" and gospel "Through Her Eyes" and "The Spirit Carries On" all being used and used brilliantly. Since this is Dream Theater, no real explanation is needed on the proficiency of the actual playing. Every member here is a virtuoso, as is usual. LaBrie is brilliant here as well, hitting some absolutely terrific high notes and putting a tremendous amount of feeling and soul into his singing.Curiously and according to the "Making Of Scenes From A Memory" video, Mike Portnoy explains that some of the influences for "Metropolis Part 2" are some conceptual albums such as "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" of The Beatles, "Tommy" of The Who, "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway" of Genesis, "The Wall" and "The Final Cut" of Pink Floyd, "Amused To Death" of Roger Waters, "Misplaced Childhood" of Marillion and "OK, Computer" of Radiohead.Conclusion: "Metropolis Part 2: Scenes From A Memory" is an exceptional album. It's my favourite Dream Theater's album and one of my favourite albums ever. This is truly a classic progressive rock album that fits perfectly well among the greatest progressive masterpieces ever. The concept is a little bit hard to explain but I personally like it. The music is just amazing, beautiful, difficult to play, moving and perfect. The thing I like better on this album is the perfect fusion sounds. Every instrument can always be heard perfectly clear but, if you hear all them together, you can perfectly understand what I call the perfection. "Metropolis Part 2: Scenes From A Memory" belongs to the very rare classic prog albums that we can classify as one of the masterpieces of the masterpieces. If we had the possibility of rate an album with 6 stars, it would belong certainly to those rare albums. Everyone interested in prog rock music must check it.Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*) social review comments Review Permalink
Posted Thursday, December 15, 2022 Review this album Report (Review #2858200)
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