Dream Theater

Metropolis 2000: Scenes From New York (Warner)

One constant in Dream Theater’s career is their commitment to giving their legion of fans their money’s worth, whether it’s an album or a live show. This band doesn’t do anything half-assed, going over-the-top more often than not in an attempt to please, although some people might argue about quantity over quality when it comes to albums like Falling Into Infinity or its live follow-up. In the case of Scenes From New York, however, the prog metal kings have out done themselves with style and then some. Using the day’s still infant technology, Dream Theater have assembled a 190 minute (!) DVD featuring the live performance of their last album, Scenes From A Memory, splicing the live footage together with multi-media scenes that were originally projected on screens behind the band to help illustrate the album concept, much in the same vein as Queensrÿche’s Operation: Mindcrime. The band sounds great all round, the look is sharp and in-your-face, and even the occasional cheesy ‘70s porno camera effect works well. Best portion of the whole thing for me is the trio of ‘Home’, ‘Dance Of Eternity’ and ‘Finally Free’. Extras include a behind-the-scenes look at the production – something that might have been improved with band interviews – a photo gallery of the last world tour accompanied by a live medley, an optional running commentary by the band over the course of the show that is insightful and incredibly entertaining (music or food, that is the question...), and “deleted” live footage that proves to be the biggest kick in the ass. Not to dismiss the Scenes material, but after watching it in its entirety, the last thing I expected was finding epic tracks like ‘Voices’, ‘Learning To Live’ and ‘A Change Of Seasons’ tacked onto the end. Missing in action: ‘Pull Me Under’ and ‘Metropolis Part 1’, but after this much high quality audiovisual mayhem there’s absolutely no reason to bitch.

—Carl Begai

Rating: 10 out of 10 (God-like and majestic, basking in brilliance)