Dream Theater - Awake
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Free Music Notes for Awake
Free Music Review: "She Can Turn A Drop Of Water Into An Ocean..."
Hit: 5 Stars
I don't see why many DT fans don't really like this album. I sure do. It's signature DT, with a darker tone to it. The album cover is a somewhat drastic change from that of Images and Words. The abstract collage look is there, but shades of red and gold are replaced with blue and silver. A subtle difference, but the music has been impacted. For better or for worse, it's the listeners' call. Before I do a track-by-track synapsis, I can say that the music DT make on here is a mix of Metallica, Rush, Faith No More, U2, and Depeche Mode.1. 6:00- 8/10 The opening drum fill by Mike Portnoy is a hook grabbing the listener, but the full ensemble's sound is a little keyboard-heavy and cheesy as a result. James LaBrie tries to snarl like Dave Mustaine, and it doesn't really work. An okay opener(lyrics are pretty good).
2. Caught In A Web- 10/10 The first superb track on the album, with a nice bang of a beginning(keyboards much better this time). The lyrics are thought-provoking, and the chorus is brilliantly done. The bridge/middle-section is very technical and the pounding riffs are really catchy. Who says this music is emotionless?
3. Innocence Faded- 9/10 Done somewhat like the tracks on I&W. Much lighter than the 80's styled metallic riffs on the last two numbers. I like the 'mood' given off by the song. Nice chorus.
--A Mind Beside Itself--
***This concept song takes up the next 3 tracks***
4. Erotomania- 7/10 A challenging instrumental that, in my book, really goes nowhere. Nice keys in here, though. Kevin Moore definitely had something Jordan Rudess doesn't.
5. Voices- 6/10 A 10-minute song that also goes nowhere. The solos by John Petrucci are flashy as usual(not that it's a bad thing), but the song drags way too long.
6. The Silent Man- 10/10 The last part of the trio is like a hammer pulling the last few nails OUT of the coffin. It is an excellent ballad-esque song, with great acoustic guitar, and a sing-a-long chorus. LaBrie gives a rather emotional performance.
7. The Mirror- 9/10 A potential rocker that could've worked better, but I like it for what it is. The classic vocal trade-off thing betwen Mike and James(where Mike growls a word and James then sings a line) is present, later to be seen in "The Glass Prison" off Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence. The keyboards add a menacing atmosphere to the song, and the last minute or so is pure genius.
8. Lie- 10/10 A nice metal song, complete with shortened video version(nice video, btw). DT prove that they can pull off Metallica-styled metal. TWO awesome solos by Petrucci.
9. Lifting Shadows Off A Dream- 11/10 Juvenile, I know, but the song is unbelievable. John Myung wrote the amazing lyrics, and the whole song has a U2-with-keyboards feel that is amazing. LaBrie shows a lot of vocal control here, and it really shows. My favorite tune off here.
10. Scarred- 8/10 A better epic than "Voices". It starts off nice and funky, with Myung taking the spotlight. The song later gets a rock/orchestra feel as it progresses.
11. Space-Dye Vest- 8/10 Kevin's piano lines at the beginning are nice and classical-sounding, and James's singing is captivating(Depeche Mode-styled, though). However, the 'samples' or whatever, really detract from the song, and it can't compare with the beauty of "The Silent Man" or the brilliance of "Lifting Shadows..."
So there. Dream Theater's 1994 epic album, Awake. Not to be confused with the Godsmack opus of the same name. It's a shame the follow-up album, Falling Into Infinity, wasn't nearly as good(not nearly as heavy). The other albums are up to par, and surpass it slightly in one way or another. To the newcomer, get I&W first, or Six Degrees. LaBrie, well you love him or hate him, and on this album newbies might head for the latter.
Free Music Review: Far Surpassed What I Expected
Hit: 5 Stars
Dream Theater is a band that knows how to make a good album. All of the songs here flow perfectly into each other, each song is exactly what the album needs. When "6:00" starts, its exactly how you want an album to start - its a fast paced heavy metal song with some very intricate guitar and keyboard playing. This is basically done once again in the only slightly-heavier "Caught in a Web." The band does an amazing job at balancing out song structures and pure self-indulgence, and never lets their talent out do the songwriting.
After the two very tight, well made introductory songs, we're confronted with a new style of Dream Theater magic - the slower, almost ballad-like, and quite catchy "Innocence Faded." The song is very Queensryche reminiscent, an almost prog-metal-pop song. Then the band gets to one of the greatest songs on here - Eratomania. Considering the name, plus the fact that its a nearly 7-minute instrumental made me expect it to be very self indulgent and masturbatory. However, its actually quite restrained and the band relies much more on moving the song along with melody and structure rather than Steve Vai-like endless soloing.
After that we are treated to a quite long but pleasant song, "Voices". As with the previous song, I'm impressed with the band's ability to hold back their egotistical desires in favor of the listenability of the song. Definitely one of my favorites off the album. After the long, heavy and complexness of "Voices," the band plays the perfect song to precede it - the (comparatively) simple, quiet, acoustic song "The Silent Man." It really makes a good breather, the eye of the storm, if you will, sandwiched between two of the heaviest songs on the album. After the calm, comes "The Mirror," probably the heaviest song on the album. In the early parts of the song, there is some quite interesting rhythms happenening, with the guitar repeating the heavy chug-a-chug-a-chug while the drums experiment playing some very sincopated beats. Very fun to listen to. Then they play "Lie," another very heavy song which features some of the coolest guitar riffs you'll ever hear.
Then the band goes into yet another shift in styles. "Lifting Shadows Off a Dream" is for the most part a somewhat lighter song, with a beautiful chorus that sort of reminds me of something that U2 would do (only, you know, not crappy). After the 3:30 mark, the song gets a little heavier, but never loses its omnipresent delicacy that makes it such an interesting number. "Scarred" is a another very long track, and thank god for that, because its brilliant. The mood in the song is constantly changing, and you never really know what's coming next. Plus, towards the later half of the song, there is some really awesome soloing between the guitar and keyboards, and the guitarist really shows his diversity - between Van Halen-like speed and a talent for picking very melodic notes, he does a little bit of everything on this song.
"Space-Dye Vest" is probably the most different sounding song on here. Its mostly driven by a gorgeous piano and vocals. There is also some strange quotes from TV shows and movies, I'm not really sure the point to this, but its sort of interesting.
I wasn't really sure what to expect when I listened to this cd. It was my first introduction to Dream Theater, and it looks like I picked a great album to start with. Overall, it far surpassed what I was expecting it to be, great job guys. This one is very highly recommended.
Free Music Review: The Peak of Perfection
Hit: 5 Stars
If I could take one album with me to the afterlife, this one would be it. The musicanmanship is intricate, yet not exceedingly technical, the lyrics thoughtful and superb, and the vocals are top notch for LaBrie. It is more in synch than Images & Words, but looser than Scenes From a Memory, possibly the best piece of work Dream Theaters released.The album begins with the upbeat drum of 6:00, a song about how you need to sieze your dreams before you end up trapped in a mundane lifestyle. Caught in A Web is a groovy piece, with again great drum work by Protonoy accompanied by Petrucci's awesome 7-String. Innocence Faded could have come right out of I&W, with LaBrie's vocals hitting the higher notes, as opposed to his deeper growls throughout the album.
Now we delve into the Second part of the album, the trilogy "A Mind Beside Itself". It opens with chaotic Erotomania featuring a myriad of riffs comprised from past and present albums. Kevin Moores keyboard work is more subtle and less direct than Rudess keys on in later albums. This dims down into the eerie Voices, an almost 10 minute song. While it's an excellent song lyrically, it tends to drag on at points, and doesn't maintain the elegance of the epics found on I&W. The dark Voices transitions to The Silent Man, an accoustic piece that has wonderful melody, and a soothing vocals.
The simple and melodic Silent Man is offset by The Mirror, which begins with a bombarding barrage of guitar cruches, killer bass, and haunting keys. This is one of my favorite songs, as it deals with how people place judgement on people without looking at themselves first. It's become my second favorite DT song(the first being Learning to Live). Without even a pause the song flows right into Lie, featuring more awesome riffs, and even more deep vocals from LaBrie.
With the next three songs we're given some reprieve, as Lie fades into Lifting Shadows off a Dream, openning with lamenting bass line of John, with some supporting keys from Kevin. The song is beautiful and mellow, and another of my favorites. Next is Scarred, the second Epic on the album, better orchestrated than Voices. It's reminscent of I&W but with a darker tone, as it begins with a funky bass, and enters somehwat of the spooky ambience that made up Voices. LaBrie's vocals are almost perfect, very soft at first, but becoming much ore menacing as the song kciks up into a heavy mode. Drumming is phenomenal, and Petrucci's riffs are awesome, with Moore's key's being percise and not overdone. The song then dims down to the mellow whispers of LaBrie,and then to his soaring cries. The solo is awesome, featuring fast paced guitar work and apprpiate keys in combination, much like The Mirror. Finally the album closes on the melancholy Space-Dye Vest, an almost polar opposite to the technical and heavy driven opening. This is possibly LaBrie's greatest vocal performance on any CD, it's simply stunning and powerful. The album leaves you dazed and introspective, as opposed to I&W which left you with a feeling of hope and contentment.
Simply put, I think every single person should buy this CD. It's beautiful, rough, complex, and simple all at the same time. This album is the definiton of Harmony because it takes all these elemtns and belnds them to create an utter masterpiece. Everyone should expiernce this CD, it's worth far more then the mere 11 bucks, and is worth more than a 1000 listens.
Free Music Review: Dark, Heavy, Powerful, Beautiful
Hit: 5 Stars
Those are four words to describe Dream Theater's 1994 masterpiece "Awake". Not a single word can describe how much I love this album. It's so dark, heavy, powerful, and beautiful beyond words. Every song on here have a lot of imagery and will put pictures in your head. Even the awesome album cover will also put a picture in your head as well, it's so awesome. The lyrics on this album are very dark, optimistic, emotional, and very mysterious. They also deal with various topics such as love, hate, betrayal, addiction, and human emotions. James LaBrie's epic vocals are awesome and powerful beyond words. John Petrucci's guitarwork is simply amazing. Plenty of heavy riffs and breathtaking solos, and speaking of riffs, this album has some of John's heaviest riffs ever. John Myung has great bass lines that you can hear, Kevin Moore's keyboard effects are great (this would be the last DT album he would be on), and Mike Portnoy's drumming is just fantastic and perfectly well timed throughout. The album kicks off with "6:00", and it's no doubt one of the heaviest and best songs on here, and it's a great way to start this masterpiece. The next song "Caught in a Web" is another dark and heavy song, and it's my personal favorite song on here. Track three "Innocence Faded" another favorite song of mine is somewhat of a power ballad has some more of those optimistic yet powerful and mysterious lyrics, and the musicianship on this song is just outstanding. "Erotomania" which is part one of the "A Mind Beside Itself" trilogy is a fantastic instumental with more great solid musicianship as always. "Voices" is very epic and beautiful, and "The Silent Man" is a nice accoustic balllad, and another favorite of mine. "The Mirror (track seven) and "Lie" (track eight) are awesome heavy songs with more fantastic guitar riffs, and more great vocals to boot. Track nine "Lifting Shadows off a Dream" with beautiful atmosphere added and more powerful musicianship. Track ten "Scarred" which is the longest song on this album clocking in at just below the 11 minute mark is very well complexed, and very dramatic throughout. Then we finally reach the closing piano/keyboard driven "Space-Dye Vest" This song just brings tears to my eyes, it's so sad, haunting, ominous, and most of all depressing. There's also some samples of various TV shows and movies on this song as well. Keep in mind this song was written by Kevin Moore himself, kudos to Kevin on the piano/keyboard effects BTW.
The songs and the ratings:
1. 6:00 (5:31) - 5/5
2. Caught in a Web (5:28) - 5/5
3. Innocence Faded (5:42) - 5/5
4. Erotomania (6:44) - 5/5
5. Voices (9:53) - 5/5
6. The Silent Man (3:47) - 5/5
7. The Mirror (6:45) - 5/5
8. Lie (6:33) - 5/5
9. Lifting Shadows off a Dream (6:05) - 5/5
10. Scarred (10:59) - 5/5
11. Space-Dye Vest (7:29) - 5/5
See every song gets a 5 out of 5
Total Score: 100/100
Gets an hard earned A+ all the way.
I normally don't write long reviews, but since this album is soooooo good, I say it deserves a long well thought out written review. Bottom Line: This is an incredible album, and it's also one of Dream Theater's best as well, heavier than "Images and Words BTW. Do yourself a favor, buy this album now!
LONG LIVE DREAM THEATER!!
Free Music Review: gave it 5 stars bcs I totally love DT, but...
Hit: 5 Stars
It seems that there are 2 kind of DT fans. The ones that love the earlier, more musical, more easy listening, works. The ones that love the totally weird, totally progressive, totally insane LTE kind of music. My first DT album was Scenes from a Memory. It was an instantaneous shocker. Love at first sight. Such an amaizing combination of prog rock and some softer music. I bought several other DT/LTE albums afterwards. Luckily my first album DT was not Awake. I think this is not one of their greatest albums (well, I am the LTE kind of fan :) ) You can find lots of non-DT music in this album. I dare you to find Bon Jovi, Pink Floyd, Metallica, Korn, and some other bands of the 70's, 80's and 90's throughout this album. It's not hard, it's actually pretty obvious. What the heck is The Silent Man? The kind of music I was composing in early high school when I was learning to play accoustic guitar. Whenever James LaBrie sings, we get some pretty corny and mainstream sounds. He imitates other singers and their music a lot. Sorry James, I consider you have an amaizing voice, and sometimes you are a great singer as well (well, when you are not pissed off or sour and you give a lousy showing and you sing like bored to death), but hey man, where is your own personality?. I think that from the musical perspective James drags the band back to the dark ages of sugary ballads and commercial sounds. Whenever Petrucci plays his solos without any (or with minimal) voice intervention , we have something amaizing going on. He's a (damn! I am out of appropriate words here!), well, a hell of an amaizing of a shocking guitaris and musician. He comes up to save many of the songs on this album. For example Lie, it's pretty much boredom and mediocre music until Petrucci's solo, and even during his intervention pretty much all the other guys are dazed and confused and lost in space and out of synch in the background. Sometimes he gets out of line improvising too much and aimless and loosing the train of song, but most of the time he comes up with such totally amaizing masterpieces. I like Kevin Moore on this album, although many other people don't. Thing is, he doesn't show up too much, but listen carefully his work in the background. It's discreet and of good quality. Myung is pretty much the same one, seldom heard and seldom out of ordinary. Petrucci and Portnoy are THE ones, and Moore at times. Luckily, Jordan Rudess joined them and they came up with such masterpieces like Scenes from a Memory and LTE work (no coincidence: LTE was without James LaBrie). To conclude, the only songs really interesting on this album are Erotomania, and (surprise! as I keep ranting against James) maybe Space Dye-Vest. Erotomania is really an amaizing piece of instrumental work, a Petrucci/Moore/Portnoi masterpiece. Petrucci is totally top notch and totally stunning. Also, he got excellent help from Kevin Moore. Space-Dye Vest is a nice slow song although at times cheesy and at times sounding like Pink Floyd The Wall. All the other songs are fairly mediocre and already heard. If you like Bon Jovi or Korn, keep this album althought you should buy more Bon Jovi or Korn. If you like real progressive music, buy LTE and Scenes from a Memory. Well, and all the Genesis before 1975 :)