For any familiar with Dream Theater’s extensive history as the most influential force in the 1990s progressive metal scene, this album is always seen as the turning point towards the high period that the genre enjoyed throughout the decade. I’ve always likened this scene’s activity as a sort of aristocrat’s revolution against the tyranny of mainstream music at the time. It contrasts from the minority populist revolution concurrent in the extreme metal scenes of black and death metal in that instead of decrying a lack of legitimate aggression and discord in the general music scene, it was appalled by the utter idiocy that was passing for art, wishing instead to explore the possibilities yet untapped in both lyrical and instrumental composition work. Thus instead of grabbing the torches and household weapons to have a good old glam/grunge rocker lynching, bands like this one elected simply to treat mainstream sentiments with a quiet aura of apathy.



This apathy is expressed through a simple concept, and that is writing songs based on what the song requires rather than what fits into a 3 minute, 45 second block of time on the radio waves. Songs are both long and short for the sake of painting an elaborate musical picture and articulating thoughtfulness through whatever subject fit’s the sounds it accompanies, hence the name “Images And Words”. The lyrics have both a keen sense of descriptiveness, particularly when dealing with the details of the song’s setting and the interaction of the subject’s character. The vocal melodies and performance play off the mathematical precision of the accompanying rhythmic figures as raw emotion does with logical discourse, resulting in an all too human sound (apologies to Nietzsche for the partial paraphrase).



The reason why the non-conformity that this album comes across as more of an indifference towards convention rather than outright hatred for this is that despite being unapologetically unsuited for universal accessibility, it does not openly seek to make itself inaccessible. Many of the themes presented in here are quite catchy, though they do take some effort to get into. The production is clean and polished enough to pass for a more elaborate version of Rush’s “Grace Under Pressure” or Queensryche’s “Rage For Order”. Likewise, the instrumental work on here is quite involved, but never crossed into being overbearing or pretentious. But most of all, despite often clocking in at over 8 minutes half of the time, there is a clear effort at maintaining an actual song oriented composition style, rather than an attempt to outright shun a larger audience with too much music to follow.



The most difficult music to really get into on here is when the band really stretches the genre boundaries and tries to compress about 3 or 4 stylistic fusions into 9 or 10 minutes of music. This is particularly the case with “Metropolis - Part 1 “The Miracle And The Sleeper”, where ambient keyboard work, jazzy interludes, off beat and quasi-tribal sounding drumming, and a rather large collection of memorable riffs all find a happy home. Things remain relatively easy to follow until about halfway into the song where things just completely change feel and we’re introduced to a Rush interlude on steroids. This approach to a contrasting instrumental section after a series of discernable verse and chorus themes is as old as the earliest of Baroque era compositions, although when presented in an extremely complex manner, is usually lost on most who have less than a regular interest in instrumental music. This same fact holds true for the even longer “Learning To Live”, only at a slightly longer duration with a less chaotic sense of rhythm.



Where the band really shines yet also maintains a stronger sense of accessibility is on the shorter and simpler epics. “Pull Me Under” is the catchiest and the most remembered of this album’s 8 parts, but is really no less complex than any of the others on here. It works a little easier than the others in that it concentrates on a more gradual development of ideas and avoids too much stylistic variance. The principle theme that kicks off the song is heavily reminiscent of Queensryche, droning on a simple clean guitar line as everything around it develops into a fast paced, heavy edged riff monster. The chorus just saturates itself in catchiness, anchoring the song in a sense of balance that is utterly undisturbed by Mike Portnoy’s perpetually developing beats. This same approach holds true on my personal favorite song on here “Under A Glass Moon”, but with a more abstract sounding principle melody that likely inspired a couple of Symphony X songs, most particularly “The Relic” and “Through The Looking Glass” off the “Twilight In Olympus” release. The chorus is basically an elaborate variant on speed metal, cruising along with the double bass drums and palm muted guitars blazing as LaBrie’s vocals soar like a triumphant golden eagle. But the finest moment on here, and in my own humble opinion the finest Dream Theater has ever had, is Petrucci’s guitar solo. It’s one of the most technically and stylistically multifaceted works of expressive lead playing ever conceived, and knows when it’s time to go and leave its final impression rather than continuing to linger in hopes of outdoing itself.



Although I’ve become a bit guarded about the concept of ascribing legendary status to a singular album by a band with a pretty solid total body of work, this is one of those cases where it is unavoidable. Although this is often seen as an inferior work to “Awake”, this is where the band truly found their niche and exploited it to its fullest, right smack in the twilight of the glory days of 80s metal. It is widely imitated by a large host of progressive and power metal bands, with varying degrees of success, and enjoys a wide audience among even those who don’t care much for the bands that influenced this album. It’s popularity is less a manner of the band catering to any particular collective sentiment, but more a credit to it’s ability to transcend all preconceived notions of greatness.



Originally submitted to (www.metal-observer.com) on April 22, 2009