July 7, 1992 - Images And Words

Two months after my last release and over three years since their debut "When Dream And Day Unite", Dream Theater released their second album "Images And Words" on July 7, 1992. Original singer Charlie Dominici quit the band and Dream Theater auditioned over 200 singers before choosing James LaBrie as their new lead singer. They also signed to a major record label and with that came tensions during recording as they did not like their producer David Prater. How will they sound with a new producer and a new singer? Let's check it out!

The album begins with "Pull Me Under" and despite being over eight minutes long this would end up being the most succesful single of Dream Theater's whole career! They do a great job of slowly building up the riff with John Petrucci starting things off with a catchy and cool guitar riff before Mike Portnoy joins in with a pretty cool drum beat. Kevin Moore is next to join in with some offbeat keyboards that fit the mood very nicely and finally John Myung completes this long opening riff with a sinole but solid bass line. Everyone shifts nicely into a similar but slightly heavier riff led by some nice guitar by Petrucci and then we finally hear LaBrie's voice for the first time as he begins the first verse. His voice isn't as operatic or nearly as 80s-sounding as Dominici's, but he has a pretty clear voice and sounds solid here. He raises his voice as the verse goes on and like Charlie, James can hit some pretty high notes when he wants to. After the verse things speed up as Petrucci plays some cool faster guitar and it carries into the next verse as James sings nicely overtop the faster music. They finally come to a chorus as James sings the name of the song a few times before closing out this pretty commercial but still solid short chorus. They nicely jam through another long verse and chorus and then the drums and bass fall away and we hear just the guitar and keyboards briefly and they sound pretty epic. The rhythm section returns and this aets the stage for the album's first solo. For Petrucci it's fairly tame, but it's still pretty sweet compared to your average guitarist and it fits the mood nicely. The keyboards and drums sound pretty good as well and Portnoy does a nice fill at the end of the solo that takes us to a final chorus. The song isn't over yet though as they shidt into an epic new riff with Moore playing some cool keyboards and Portnoy continuing to play some sweet drums. They jam out this new riff for about a minute until this long single comes to an abrupt end. A pretty sweet album opener I thought: it wasn't a very fast song, but it sounded epic and cool the whole way through. Up next is "Another Day" and Moore leads the way with some sad-sounding piano while Petrucci adds some light guitar at first, then John switches to some louder guitar that actually sounds like it's trying too hard to be sad and epic and I think it sounds a little cheesy.  Moore's piano continues to lead the way as LaBrie begins to sing a pretty sappy verse overtop and while the piano and vocals certainly are not terrible, they both sound very sad and sappy and already this is shaping up to be what I would call some lesser Dream Theater. Things lead right into a similarly sappy chorus and that's followed up by the same cheesy riff as earlier, only this time played by guest musician Jay Beckenstein on soprano saxophone! It somehow became even cheesier than before and while I usually love me some sax, this soprano sax is not my favourite. The saxophone spices up the next verse and after another chorus they play a short bridge riff with LaBrie yelling quite high and not sounding the greatest doing it. I normally love when a singer pours it all out, but when LaBrie is really giving it everything he's got it's almost too much. Petrucci plays a sappy guitar solo that fits the sad mood of this song perfectly and after a final verse and chorus the saxophone is back to play us out. I like this ending sax part much better as Beckenstein doesn't sound cheesy at all and contributes some cool stuff as this song winds down to its end. Track 3 is "Take The Time" and Moore plays some trippy keyboards to start things off before the guitar, bass and drums all seem to sync up for a heavy and nice riff. Moore plays his more usual keyboard sound and he adds some nice offbeat and cool stuff to go with the heavy music. Petrucci and Myung both play some cool guitar and bass but it's the keyboards by Moore that really go off and he sounds pretty awesome. This all sets the stage for the verse as Labrie sounds much better singing in a more charged voice without the sappiness to it and the great contributions from everyone else continue as there's some solid guitar, bass, drums and keyboards throughout this verse. It eventually reaches the chorus which is solid and then LaBrie sings a pretty high verse but he keeps things in a nice range,  not going too high, and sounds pretty good. After another chorus they segue nicely into a new verse with Moore playing some nice piano and then Petrucci and Myung lead a new instrumental section with each of them playing their own stuff, but the guitar and bass riffs sound great together. Solo time is up next and it's a keyboard solo as Moore plays some pretty fast and awesome stuff that sounds crazy Petrucci plays a brief new guitar riff and then it's time for keyboard solo #2 as Moore gives us another pretty sweet run of fast and crazy-sounding stuff. This great instrumental part finally comes to an end as they return to the chorus and LaBrie does one of his really high yells for the final "miiiiiiiiind" and they segue nicely again, into a guitar solo this time. Petrucci plays an amazing solo that has several absolutely insane parts to it, but the song slowly fades out and he was most certainly not finished wherever that producer cut the song off! Boo! Shame! Let me hear the rest of the shredding! The next song is "Surrounded" and Moore leads the way with some sappy synths and he also plays some slow, sad piano that fits the mood nicely. LaBrie begins to sing a slow and sad verse to match and while the piano sounds okay the sappy synths and vocals are not my favourite. After a long verse the rest of the band finally joins in as Petrucci plays some light but epic sounding guitar and Portnoy plays some solid drums in the background. The next couple verses are much louder and more rockin' and then Petrucci fires off for a short but pretty fast-paced guitar solo. LaBrie yells a final verse and he doesn't sound great when he's yelling at full blast and then they close the song as it began with just LaBrie singing a sad verse and Moore playing the sappy synths and piano. Not their strongest work, but track 5 is the nine and a half minute epic "Metropolis Part 1: The Miracle And The Sleeper" and Portnoy plays some light cymbals to keep the beat as Moore leads the way with some much cooler sounding synths. Petrucci eventually joins with some offbeat guitar and Portnoy adds in some more pieces of the drum kit as they do an excellent job of slowly building up this riff. Once complete the drums and bass are pretty loud and Petrucci is leading the way with some nice guitar. Moore treats us to an early keyboard solo that sounds pretty cool and it leads right into a heavy new riff as LaBrie finally joins in and begins the first verse. I think he sounds solid in this one, not sappy at all as he sings overtop a pretty sweet main riff with great contributions from everyone. LaBrie raises his voice to sing the chorus and he holds a pretty long note nicely at the end of it as they segue nicely into another cool riff with more great guitar and keyboards. After this latest verse we hit a lengthy instrumental section and Petrucci sets the stage nicely for himself and proceeds to lay down  pretty awesome guitar solo. Just like in "The Ytse Jam" on their last album, each person gets a chance to solo and Portnoy is up next with a great little drum solo and his excellent drumming continues in the background of the other solos. Myung takes the spotlight briefly with some super fast bass that sounds pretty awesome and then it's Moore's turn to shine as he delivers a lengthy and very cool keyboard solo. What makes this song is even better is that after everyone has soloed, they somehow take things to another level! The end of this long instrumental section is unbelievably awesome and words do not properly do justice to all the great music that these guys squeeze into the end of this amazing part. They finally break out of the awesomeness and return to a cool softer riff as LaBrie rejoins the fray for a closing verse. He sounds pretty good and they do a great job of wrapping up this epic song with a neat little bow and a one final sweet drum fill from Portnoy. Spectacular song! Up next is "Under A Glass Moon" and Petrucci leads the way with a slow and epic guitar riff before Myung and Portnoy come in with a cool rhythm section. Moore is playing soke background synths at first but he syncs up with Petrucci for a cool little riff and from there John plays a new  much faster guitar part that sounds pretty sweet. They slow things a bit down as we finally reach the verse and LaBrie sings a solid high verse. It leads right into a similarly solid chorus with Petrucci playing some cool guitar and then they quiet things down a bit for the next verse. After another regular chorus Petrucci and Moore each play different riffs that combine for a pretty cool part and this sets the stage nicely for a guitar solo. Petrucci delivers a lengthy solo with multiple sections and all of them sound pretty amazing as he shows off his skills. Portnoy plays some epic drums towards the end of the solo and they carry into the following keyboard solo by Moore which is shorter in length, but definitely not lacking in awesomeness as Kevin plays some pretty sweet stuff. After this solo Petrucci plays a short bridge riff that nicely brings things back for a final chorus and then they end the song as it began with the cool fast opening part. Track 7 is "Wait For Sleep" and it's the shortest song by far at just two and a half minutes long. Moore leads the way on piano with a lighter but still cool riff and LaBrie sings a light verse to match the mood. This whole song is just the two guys as Moore plays some droning synths in the background that go pretty well with his lead piano. This is certainly less metal than most of the songs on this album, bit I think James and Kevin do a really good job on this one actually. LaBrie's voice fits this style very well and Moore plays some pretty cool piano throughout this short song. The final song on the album is also the longest, the eleven and a half minute "Learning To Live". Moore starts us off once again, this time on a synthesizer of some sort playing an interesting driving riff that Myung, Portnoy and Petrucci nicely build around to form a nice and heavy main riff. Moore goes off for an early keyboard solo and he slowly but nicely plays some cool stuff and then things shift nicely into a space-y new riff driven by a great bass riff from Myung. Moore adds some epic synths to the background and LaBrie finally begins the first verse and he sounds solid singing along to the epic music. Things slow down when they hit the chorus and Petrucci plays some cool guitar inbetween LaBrie's singing. They segue suddenly into a cool new riff led by some heavy guitar and James sings a new verse that also sounds solid and we also hear some cool keyboards. Next is a lengthy instrumental part that begins with a synth solo that is in a really cheesy tone I'm not a big fan of, but there are some cool drums in the background. Petrucci then plays a lengthy guitar "solo" that is alright but it's nothing wild. It culminates in an actual solo that sounds pretty sweet and then Moore plays a new keyboard solo that sounds very computer-y but still solid. Moore is briefly on piano, and sounds pretty good, but then it's quickly back to synths and another short guitar solo that is predictably cool. After a short segue we hear a sweet keyboard solo from Moore and then after almost five minutes, LaBrie is finally back for a loudly sung final chorus. Everyone but Myung stops playing and alone John plays a cool bass part that drives the new riff as everyone else joins in and Petrucci takes the lead with some epic guitar. LaBrie does some lame "ohhhhhh" ing in the background as things slowly fade to an end.

That is the end of "Images And Words" and I thought for the most part it was a pretty awesome album, but it did have some lesser stuff, but keep in mind lesser for Dream Theater is still good. James LaBrie seems like a decent lead singer, as long as he is not forcing it and trying too hard. He may not have a typical heavy metal voice, but he does a solid job on most of the tracks and I don't miss Charlie Dominici at all. The other four members continue to display some amazing stuff with my easily favourite song being "Metropolis Part I", though "Pull Me Under" and "Under A Glass Moon" were both pretty sweet as well! "Another Day" is an easy pick for least favourite but most of this album was pretty awesome and I think it's better than their debut "When Dream And Day Unite". I'm excited to see where Dream Theater goes from here!