When Dream And Day Unite

(MCA Records)

Dream Theater is certainly a new one on me, but it seems they are from Long Island (America again!) and they were once known as Majesty. That’s the brief history I know so let’s get into ‘When Dream And Day Unite’ (the album). To say the least this is a bit different from the norm and and it certainly explores the musical spectrum. Whether it’s juts one off or it’s the direction in which the band inted to go remains to be seen.

I hate comparing one band to another, and anyway this is a difficult task because the influences these guys have drawn on must be large. With four tracks on this album over six minutes in length (two are actually over eight minutes) it’s difficult to know where to start. Personally I like bands that put long tracks out and I tend to go them first as they nearly always show ability of the band. So let’s begin with the lest track on side 1 – ‘The Killing Hand’ which clocks in at nearly nine minutes. This sweeps you up and down like a roller coaster, taking you through quiet thoughtful passages and then up again as the rhytm section drives you along the fast lane of the motorway (not the overtaking lane – no manic speed merchants here).

Then we come to ‘Light Fuse And Get Away’ (first track on side 2) at nearly 7½ minutes long. I have to say that this really does remind me of ELP (Emerson, Lake & Palmer) but it certainly takes nothing away from the track. There’s also the intriguingly titled ‘The Ones Who Help To Set The Sun’, which has enough elements of old Yes in to kep me happy (I said their influences wee big; spot the Rush as well). Another track definetley worth mentioning is the instrumental on the first side called ‘Ytse Jam’.

So now we must come to some conclusions methinks. Years ago this would have been labelled progressive, but it’s a bit more than that so I am going to hang that albatross around their neck. However at the end of the day three things will govern the success (or failure) of this (1) Airplay (and that depends on who has enough hours to listen) (2) what band is like live (interesting) and how soon they play some dates (3) The record buying public.

The only thing that I can say is that the more you listen the more it grows on you (and better than poison ivy) and there is no doubting the bands musical ability. So maybe we should cut out any existing prejudices and look out for the surprised faces.

—Brian Pithers (Radio 210)

Dream Theater

When Dream And Day Unite

(MCA Advance Tape)

Rating 5 out of 5 (Hotter Than Hell)

I’ve been reading with a jaundiced eye ever more enthusiastic press releases from New York’s Mechanic Records concerning their signing Majesty, later renamed Dream Theater, for some months now. Imagine my surprise then, on receiving the advance cassette of band’s first album and finding out that it is not merely very good indeed, but possibly the most original and inventive record I’ve heard in many a long and weary month.

These ex-music college students have ghatered together a rich Time Bandit’s hoard of musical booty ploundered from the last twenty years of rock music, mixed it with their own inventive ideasand moulded the whole into a veritable tresure trove of an album. The band have blended the choppy rhytms of trash with the melodies of Marillion, hard edged guitars with the atmospherics of ‘70s progressive bands – I could go on, but you’d be well advised to buy this diamond of a record and figure it out for yourself!

The band members are excellent musicians, as you might imagine, and producer Terry Datehas done the decent thing and kept the gimmicks down to a minimum, letting the songs speak for themselves. Another nice feature is that it is the tracks that dictate the form of the album, rather than the other way round; of the eight songs, only one is less than five minutes in length. An astonishingly ingenious opus from a new band – music for the ‘90s indeed!

—Valerie Potter