Dream Theater
Images And Words

THE REVIEW

After the debut with the excellent "When Day And Dream Unite" (1989), in the year 1992, the absolute masterpiece (until now) by Dream Theater is released, "Images And Words".

Every time I listen to it, my heart fills with indescribable sensations just like the first time I heard it. This album presents some novelties compared to the previous one: one above all, is the arrival of singer James Labrie who sings excellently on the album (romantic and moving in the slow songs, decided and aggressive in the others). In this album, the New York quintet (for those who don't know: John Petrucci on guitars, John Myung on bass, James Labrie singer, Mike Portnoy on drums, and Kevin Moore on keyboards) gives us a full demonstration of their technical and compositional skills, with songs in full Progressive style (notable influences with Pink Floyd, Yes, Genesis etc...), with classical touches and, obviously, metal (in my opinion, more prog than metal), gifting us a historical masterpiece. But let's move on to the tracks: the first song, "Pull Me Under", starts with an arpeggio by Petrucci's guitar, which changes to the most energetic track on the album, so that the lyrics (talk about death) are in harmony with the music.

The second song is "Another Day", a poignant ballad with melancholic tones, in which a great keyboardist (Kevin Moore) and the sublime James Labrie shine (Petrucci's solo is beautiful, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful): here too the lyrics (talk about John Petrucci's father's battle against cancer) are in harmony with the melodies, made even more beautiful by the various sax solos. The third track is "Take The Time", a long track characterized by the excellent harmonies of the Theater, proving varied in its structure (initially, a metal style intro, then prog sections and finally, an instrumental piece with a great solo). Fun fact: as you may have heard, at a certain point in the piece, you can hear a phrase in Italian, "ora che ho perso la vista, ci vedo di più," addressed to a family member of the band who lost sight.

"Surrounded", the fourth track of the album, opens with an intense melody of piano, synth, and voice, then transforms more energetically, but still maintaining sunny and melancholic tones (beautiful Petrucci's solo). The fifth track, "Metropolis Pt.1, The Miracle And The Sleeper", is perhaps the band's most famous song and, certainly, one of the most beautiful on the album (it is fantastic live): instrumental keyboard intro, becomes intense in the central part to make room for excellent Prog melodies, where they give a demonstration of their great technical and compositional ability. "Under A Glass Moon", the sixth track, is a mix of Prog and metal, modeled with their usual skill, and constitutes one of the hardest pieces on the album, with fast and technical parts, but with the usual Moore who forges unique harmonies and instrumental frameworks. After the storm, comes the calm, with "Wait For Sleep", a beautiful track for piano and voice only: emotional, melancholic, poignant, are the many adjectives attributable to this song, one of the most beautiful written by Moore (along with "Space Dye-Vest"). We are now at the final track, "Learning To Live", perhaps the most varied track of the album: very rock in the first part, then prog, classical, jazz hints and again rock and prog together, until reaching the final part, characterized by many similarities with "Wait For Sleep".

In conclusion, the five New Yorkers have given us a great album, certainly one of the best in history from the Progressive-Metal perspective (they are the progenitors of this genre, together with a few other bands), showing us demonstration of technique, accuracy, precision, taste, and how good they are at moving us.