Dream Theater - Score: 20th Anniversary World Tour - Live With The Octavarium Orchestra
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Free Music Notes for Score: 20th Anniversary World Tour - Live With The Octavarium Orchestra
Free Music Review: Ultimate concert
Hit: 5 Stars
If you like Dream Theater even for a tiny little bit, you most defiately must buy this album. With a real orchestra , which brings out the best in the band and the songs in which this orcchestra performs.Free Music Review: Essential for any DT fan!
Hit: 5 Stars
Having been at this concert, of course I was going to purchase the CD. I am most impressed by the sound quality of this recording. It was the concernt of a lifetime!Free Music Review: Best live recording
Hit: 5 Stars
I have several of their live recordings. This is the best. The recording is very clean. If you are a DT fan, get this one.Free Music Review: Awesome!
Hit: 5 Stars
Awesome! That's all I need to say. I'm sure others will write a long detailed review.Free Music Review: Mixed Bag
Hit: 4 Stars
DT is GREAT live - very tight, very exciting (with the possible detraction of LaBrie's flat vocals on a few albums). Score is no exception and LaBrie's voice is top notch on every track here. The attraction of this album is that it's an anniversary concert, with the addition of an orchestra. I think it fails to inspire on both of those counts however - I'll elaborate:
1)Anniversary Concert: I know DT (especially Portnoy)is rabid about not playing the same songs live every night, and never playing the same set in the same city twice - and for this they are to be commended. Some bands release several live albums over the course of their careers featuring the same hit songs - what's the point? Every DT live album is unique in this sense and that's why there are so many live releases compared to other artists. HOWEVER: On a 20th anniversary CD, you would expect to find some of the more obvious songs such as 'Pull Me Under', or 'Burning My Soul'. Instead, the setlists (particularly the 2nd disc) jumps around a bit too much and isn't very cohesive. Six Degrees is a great choice on Disc 2, and Disc 3 featuring Octavarium and Metropolis make sense, but Disc 1 and the remaining tracks on Disc 2 leave me scratching my head a bit -mainly because:
2) They feature an orchestra. I was worried at the outset of the Six Degrees overture (Disc 2 track 1) which begins the 20 minute song on a shaky leg. They are not tight at all - particularly the string section. Some of the runs here sound like a car wreck, their timing is terrible, and I believe I even hear a few horns that are out of tune. This is remedied however once the band kicks in on 'About to Crash' at which point the orchestra seems to disappear completely. This is probably the most terribly mixed metal band/orchestra combo album I've ever heard. As others have mentioned, the low strings are nonexistent, and the the rest of the symphony is covered up by Rudess' keyboards. The orchestra does shine on the quiet tracks such as 'Goodnight Kiss' and 'Solitary Shell' - but once Petrucci and Portnoy start doing thier thing, the orchestra may as well have left the building. At least it covers up their helter skelter timing and tuning problems. Hopefully for the 30 year anniversary concert DT go with Michael Kasdan (Metallica S&M) and a certifiable symphony like Boston or San Francisco. This was a bit of a waste sonically and financially I'm sure. Why didn't the setlist play to the strengths of a string section? Where is 'Under a Glass Moon', or 'Peruvian Skies'? I've been dying to hear these tracks with a full orchestra. Instead, we get 'Vacant' - why bother?
All that being said - get this album. It is expansive and extremely enjoyable, just don't expect to hear the orchestra much - and don't expect much when you do.
Here's to another 20 years to the greatest prog-metal band in the world!