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Rating: 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.
Tracklist and Lyrics
01 Battery (05:15)
ashing out the action, returning the reaction
Weak are ripped and torn away
Hypnotizing power, crushing all that cower
Battery is here to stay
Smashing through the boundaries
lunacy has found me
cannot stop the Battery
Pounding out aggression
turns into obsession
cannot kill the Battery
Cannot kill the family
Battery is found in me
Battery
Crushing all deceivers, mashing non-believers
never ending potency
Hungry violence seeker, feeding off the weaker
Breeding on insanity
Smashing through the boundaries
lunacy has found me
cannot stop the Battery
Pounding out aggression
turns into obsession
cannot kill the Battery
Cannot kill the family
Battery is found in me
Battery
Circle of Destruction, Hammer comes crushing
Powerhouse of energy
Whipping up a fury, Dominating flurry
We create the Battery
Smashing through the boundaries
lunacy has found me
cannot stop the Battery
Pounding out aggression
turns into obsession
cannot kill the Battery
Cannot kill the family
Battery is found in me
Battery
02 Master of Puppets (08:45)
End of passion play, crumbling away
Im your source of self-destruction
Veins that pump with fear, sucking darkest clear
Leading on your deaths construction
[chorus:]
Taste me you will see
More is all you need
Youre dedicated to
How Im killing you
Come crawling faster
Obey your master
Your life burns faster
Obey your master
Master
Master of puppets Im pulling your strings
Twisting your mind and smashing your dreams
Blinded by me, you cant see a thing
Just call my name, `cause Ill hear you scream
Master
Master
Just call my name, `cause Ill hear you scream
Master
Master
[end chorus]
Needlework the way, never you betray
Life of death becoming clearer
Pain monopoly, ritual misery
Chop your breakfast on a mirror
[chorus]
Master, master, wheres the dreams that Ive been after?
Master, master, you promised only lies
Laughter, laughter, all I hear and see is laughter
Laughter, laughter, laughing at my cries
SPEAK TO ME!!
Hell is worth all that, natural habitat
Just a rhyme without a reason
Neverending maze, drift on numbered days
Now your life is out of season
[chorus]
[fade out with evil laughter].
05 Disposable Heroes (08:11)
Bodies fill the fields I see, hungry heroes end
No one to play soldier now, no one to pretend
running blind through killing fields, bred to kill them all
Victim of what said should be
a servant `til I fall
Soldier boy, made of clay
now an empty shell
twenty one, only son
but he served us well
Bred to kill, not to care
just do as we say
finished here, Greeting Death
he's yours to take away
Back to the front
you will do what I say, when I say
Back to the front
you will die when I say, you must die
Back to the front
you coward
you servant
you blindman
Barking of machinegun fire, does nothing to me now
sounding of the clock that ticks, get used to it somehow
More a man, more stripes you wear, glory seeker trends
bodies fill the fields I see
the slaughter never ends
Soldier boy, made of clay
now an empty shell
twenty one, only son
but he served us well
Bred to kill, not to care
just do as we say
finished here, Greeting Death
he's yours to take away
Back to the front
you will do what I say, when I say
Back to the front
you will die when I say, you must die
Back to the front
you coward
you servant
you blindman
Why, Am I dying?
Kill, have no fear
Lie, live off lying
Hell, Hell is here
I was born for dying
Life planned out before my birth, nothing could I say
had no chance to see myself, molded day by day
Looking back I realize, nothing have I done
left to die with only friend
Alone I clench my gun
Soldier boy, made of clay
now an empty shell
twenty one, only son
but he served us well
Bred to kill, not to care
just do as we say
finished here, Greeting Death
he's yours to take away
Back to the front
you will do what I say, when I say
Back to the front
you will die when I say, you must die
Back to the front
you coward
you servant
you blindman
Back to the front.
06 Leper Messiah (05:58)
Spineless from the start, sucked into the part
circus comes to town, you play the lead clown
Please, please
spreading his disease, living by his story
Knees, knees
falling to your knees, suffer for his glory
You will
Time for lust, time for lie
time to kiss your life goodbye
Send me money, send me green
Heaven you will meet
Make a contribution
and you'll get a better seat
Bow to Leper Messiah
Marvel at his tricks, need your Sunday fix
blind devotion came, rotting your brain
Chain, chain
Join the endless chain
Taken by his glamour
Fame, Fame
Infection is the game, stinking drunk with power
We see
Time for lust, time for lie
time to kiss your life goodbye
Send me money, send me green
Heaven you will meet
Make a contribution
and you'll get a better seat
Bow to Leper Messiah
Bow to Leper Messiah
Witchery, weakening
Sees the sheep are gathering
set the trap, hypnotize
now you follow
Time for lust, time for lie
time to kiss your life goodbye
Send me money, send me green
Heaven you will meet
Make a contribution
and you'll get a better seat
Bow to Leper Messiah
Lie.
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