Dream Theater: Images and Words (1992)

I might get in some trouble for this one.  I have never been the biggest Dream Theater fan.  In fact I can count on one hand the number of albums I have checked out.  Two.  It's this one and Awake.  Truth be told, I actually really like Awake.  It has some excellent songs and even the ballads are generally pretty good.  But my favorite Dream Theater song has always been "Pull Me Under".  So recently I had a chance to pick up this album with my favorite Dream Theater song on it and decided to pull the trigger. 

The album starts off with the great song and it is a little extended from the version I have previously been aware of, which is not really a problem.  It is still a great song.  But from there, things quickly decline.  The very next track is a ballad.  James LaBrie's vocals sound somewhat strained hitting the high notes and there is a saxophone solo that really sounds like something Kenny G. would record.  Sax in metal is not inherently bad, for instance Amorphis has done some tremendous songs featuring sax solos, but this one just sounds laughably cheesy.  Unfortunately, the band never really gets back to the high point they set in the first track.  I kept waiting for another "Pull Me Under", but it never happened.

"Take the Time" is decent, but has something of a clumsy beginning and it kind of goes in a million directions throughout the song, including kind of a weird funk section.  But then the band throws in a second ballad in the first four songs.  That just can not stand.  I do not mind ballads generally, if they are not overused, but Dream Theater does overuse them on this album.  It would be okay if the ballads were better than these were as well.  For instance, "Space-Dye Vest" from Awake is an amazing ballad for a metal band, it is poignant and powerful.  The ones on this album are just boring.

Much of the rest of the album features most of the hallmarks of progressive metal: long, meandering songs ("Learning to Live" is eleven-and-a-half minutes long) with lots of solos, riffs and Rush-like song structures.  There are some good moments, but the band still fails to live up to the excellent first track. 

I can not really envision checking out this band much further.  I still really enjoy Awake, but I found myself very disappointed in this album.  I was hoping that an earlier album and one that featured my favorite song by the band would be even better, but it did not work out that way.  I know this is a landmark album and considered a masterpiece by a lot of metalheads, but it just does not do much for me.