Dream Theater
Master Of Puppets

THE REVIEW

Dream Theater: a guarantee. Great in the studio, great live. I could praise my idols forever, but when they go overboard and make a big mistake, it must be admitted. And this cover of the famous "Master Of Puppets" is a real uselessness if it weren't for a few positive aspects.

The positive aspects? The original members of Dream Theater. That is: Mike Portnoy, John Petrucci, and John Myung. They are the ones who hold firm during the concert and the only ones who make it enjoyable.
Portnoy doesn't miss a beat, it seems he doesn't even exert himself. After all, the drum parts of this masterpiece, compared to his, are just simple exercises. Myung does his usual job, silently and steadily abuses his bass. Petrucci, as always, is superb: he performs the solos perfectly, with some variation, and alone he could cover the two Metallica guitarists, with his powerful sound and his superhuman technique.
But the other painful aspects are the ones that weigh more: a LaBrie that has nothing to do with Metallica. His voice, as wonderful as it is in the Dream Theater environment, besides being really out of place and not aggressive enough for such a record, also struggles profoundly, sometimes going off-key, sometimes not reaching the notes, sometimes stopping. And then Rudess. Great keyboardist, but his keyboard parts seem out of place to me and ruin what those three monsters are doing extraordinarily.

"Battery" bland, "Master Of Puppets" just decent, "The Thing That Should Not Be" ruined by LaBrie, who sings terribly. The real gem is perhaps "Orion", given its instrumental nature it is perhaps the best suited for the Theater of Dreams. And it comes out well also because LaBrie isn't singing. "Damage Inc." instead continues the bad streak.

I don't understand it, it's perfectly fine to cover the historic albums of metal and rock. But they don't realize they have the capability but not the right means. Without Rudess and with a more aggressive singer, it would have been a memorable performance, as it stands, it's unlistenable.