Dream Theater Releases Top-Notch Concept Album

Dream Theater

Scenes From A Memory (EastWest)

Rating: 5 out of 5

I can’t recommend this album enough.

Mix two parts The Wall, two parts Savatage, a heavy dose of progressive rock a la early Genesis and throw in dashes of Toto and Queen for pop appeal, and you have a hint of the taste of Scenes From A Memory.

This is perhaps the most masterful concept album of the decade.

Taking its jump-off point from a song on their first album, ‘Metropolis Part 1 (The Miracle and the Sleeper),’ Dream Theater’s fifth album is a grandiose outing filled with strains of mystery and mayhem that’s bookended by the soothing voice of a therapist.

The album centers on Nicholas, a character plagued by disturbing dreams.

When a psychotherapist uses regression therapy to hypnotize him and find out the source of his psychic disturbance, it turns out that Nicholas is the reincarnated soul of Victoria, a woman murdered earlier in the century while in the midst of a love triangle with two brothers.

The album’s 12 tracks (divided into nine “scenes”) follow Nicholas as he “goes under” and relives the events surrounding Victoria’s death.

While Dream Theater has always crafted deeply layered albums, the sound of Scenes From A Memory has extra depth thanks to the addition of keyboardist Jordan Rudess to the band.

The piano and synthesizer strains he adds to the band’s always-inventive guitar jam sequences turns these songs from strong exercises to works of near-symphonic brilliance. The band’s instrumental acumen is spotlighted in the album’s second track, ‘Overture 1928’, a 3½ minute trip through some of the major themes of the disc.

‘Through My Words’ and ‘Fatal Tragedy’ are an electric song combination that lead up to a “newspaper” recounting of the actual events of Victoria’s murder in ‘Beyond This Life’.

The album’s masterstroke however, comes near the end in ‘The Spirit Carries On’, a beautiful, grand anthem led by a melancholy piano line where the spirit of Victoria asks “move on, be brave don’t weep at my grave/because I am no longer here/but please never let your memory of me disappear.”

Nicholas finds his peace, noting “If I die tomorrow/I’d be all right because I believe/that after we’re gone/the spirit carries on.”

The choir backdrop and organ strains rival the power of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon.

Because the parts of Victoria and Nicholas are both sung by James LaBrie, the division in characters in Scenes From A Memory is foggy if you don’t follow along with the CD booklet lyrics. But whether you follow the story and characters clearly or not, the strength of the music and emotion in this album are wildly moving.

This is one of the best albums of the year.