Dream Theater - Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From a Memory (1999)^{Release ID: 1303}

The most popular prog metal band on Earth (that can make up their status) is probably Dream Theater, either that or Tool.  Tool is the more proggy band by nature, but Dream Theater is more accessible.  The Rush influence became much more obvious once their first metal opera, Metropolis, Pt. II, was released.  This album was my entryway into prog metal, and I'm tankful that this album exists.  Dream Theater may have gotten worse overtime, but one thing will never change: their classic era is made up of CLASSICS.

Metropolis, Pt. II follows in the same vein as previous rock operas like Pink Floyd's The Wall, relying on psychological storytelling centering around one man's odd, cerebral experiences.  But this time, it's more akin to TIME TRAVEL, as the story centers around the concept of "past lives."  Not only that, it's a murder mystery.  This gives the album a feeling and approach of a noir film, but still manages to be the same accessible prog that Dream Theater is known for.  LaBrie carries his soft-spoken voice perfectly through this story, effortlessly bringing out every emotion detailed in the story, and the story never gets in the way of the rhythms or progressive melodies.  In fact, they work perfectly together.  And this emotion is carried through the album, bringing out the suspense of solving the mystery while still being catchy.  Both the music and the story are bound by the common factor of cerebral behavior.

This album, thanks to its incredible story, likely deserves to be the most popular Dream Theater album.  The only thing it's missing is that oddball diversity from Images and Words, and the heaviness could be cranked up just a little bit.  But taking the mood of rush and combining it with the surrealism of Pink Floyd, and translating both into metal was exactly what metal needed, and it probably came later than it should've.  Metropolis Pt. II is essential listening for any metal fan, even if the accessibility turns of prog purists.

Re-examining the Metropolitan Mecca

As I return to Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From a Memory, it's apparent that I'm bound to come at it from a more personal rather than analytical angle. I could break down the songwriting and album themes as much as the next person, but this album was such a massive part of my early experience with Metal and, more so, the “full album experience” that it feels like a disservice to myself to not indulge a bit. While I have a lot of fond memories with this release, it's incredible realizing how far I've come when it comes to the breadth of metal I listen to nowadays. Dream Theater used to blow me away with their massive song compositions and technical playing, and while they still kind of do, I'm definitely less enamored than I once was.

Reentering the Dream Theater fray after years of listening to increasingly heavy and technical metal albums has given me a new perspective on what Dream Theater are great at but, more importantly, what they struggle with. Scenes From A Memory is easily Dream Theater's most ambitious project made in their classic style, which has to be said since The Astonishing is something I just can't get behind. Although they were always writing extended pieces by Metal standards, 1995’s Change of Seasons was the beginning of their now expected 20 minute or longer epics. Fast forward to 1999 and Scenes From a Memory ups the ante to be triple that length to attempt to tell a story filled with all sorts of twists and turns. Somewhat confusingly, the album has a similar setting and follows similar characters as "Metropolis – Part I ‘The Miracle and the Sleeper’" off of 1992’s Images and Words, but the characters and their roles are completely different. Despite not entirely being a direct sequel, Scenes From a Memory manages to crank the storytelling, songwriting, and overall theatrics up a few notches.

Said storytelling, though, is a bit rougher around the edges than I remember. I never considered Dream Theater to be particularly lyrically competent, but the attempted plot of the album really sheds some light on how important solid lyrical flow and word usage can be. Most of the exposition and events throughout the album are explained in dry, exact detail to the listener, leading to some seriously awkward deliveries on LaBrie's part. "Fatal Tragedy", "Beyond This Life", and “One Last Time” are especially guilty as the passages where it's being explained precisely what Nicholas is doing are not only clunky but also straight up bewildering sometimes. Interestingly, though, "Deja Vu" and "Finally Free" are much better examples of this storytelling style, so they obviously know how to do it well enough, just not consistently. Despite those two stronger tracks the plot itself is admittedly all over the place, even though the overarching point of the story is fairly concise. In short, the protagonist (Nicholas) is haunted by dreams of himself in a past life (Victoria) and, in figuring out the mystery of her death, is killed by the same murderer in their current life (the hypnotherapist). While this is perplexing in its own right to first time listeners, the many perspective changes and codenames like "The Miracle" and "The Sleeper" make it unreasonably difficult to follow, especially in “Home”. Since the album only has one vocalist with LaBrie, he attempts to shift perspectives by shifting his vocal tone, with Victoria having a higher, more airy tone. It sort of works, but thanks to the middling split between groan-inducing, explicit exposition and randomly confusing plot twists, it can become a mess within the tracks mentioned before.

The songwriting, however, is easily some of Dream Theater's best and most varied, bordering on eccentric at times. "Home" contains one of my favorite opening riffs of theirs and "Overture 1918" plus "The Dance of Eternity" make up two of the most impressive instrumentals of their career. The catchy choruses of "Deja Vu" and "Finally Free" help to round out all the frantic tempo and time signature changes and keep things grounded, but I truly forgot how many ballads there are in this thing. "The Spirit Carries On" is the singalong cult classic, but when you add in "Regression", "Through My Words", "One Last Time", and "Through Her Eyes" it quickly becomes a bigger part of the album than I remember. Revisiting “The Spirit Carries On” garnered more respect for Dream Theater’s songwriting as it’s a fantastic portion of the plot right before the ending twist, but it still feels a bit too on the nose and pandering with its power ballad structure. Despite that, the flow of the album is still unparalleled and remains the highlight of Scenes From a Memory, with the twists and transitions sucking the listener in from the very beginning. I've gone back and forth over the years about LaBrie's vocals, and I have to admit that while I enjoy him less on the schlocky ballads, his skill and delivery still shines through on the album's more Metal highlights. The rest of the band put their best foot forward as always, with everything sounding very tight and inspired; not to mention the incredible bass run on "Dance of Eternity".

I'm not entirely sure what I expected revisiting this childhood album of mine, but I'm definitely more conflicted than I thought I'd be. I still get a ton of enjoyment out of it but, now more than ever, I see the cracks in Dream Theater's armor that slowly but surely pushed me towards other styles and subgenres of Metal. Somehow more than ever in this review I’ve found that it’s easy to criticize something you’re so close to, having spent many hours throughout the years with this album. It’s been a useful exercise to pinpoint attributes in albums I grew up with that may miss the mark here and there, but I still end up coming to the conclusion that this album is still amazing and one of the best concept albums Progressive Metal has ever seen. Scenes From a Memory has a tangible aura of completeness; “Overture 1928” sets up so many melodies that are utilized later in the album and the rapid-fire transitions between these melodies and between songs flow perfectly and keep the story and music pushing forward at a breakneck pace. This flow comes from Dream Theater being adept at morphing main themes into interesting variations and tangents that are complex and jagged but manage to feel smooth and correctly placed. The normally pesky but signature Dream Theater keyboard leads are soaring and integral to some of my favorite transitions, including between “Fatal Tragedy” and “Beyond This Life” and also between “The Dance of Eternity” and “One Last Time”. These seemingly small moments add up to a fulfilling whole, especially since they’re extremely memorable and just as satisfying to me as they were over ten years ago. Despite the occasionally inane way Scenes From a Memory goes about its storytelling, “Finally Free” is one of the best concept album closers I’ve heard with its distinctly eerie atmosphere and numerous callbacks to previous songs. While I don’t think that Scenes From a Memory is Dream Theater at their absolute best through and through, it undeniably showcases them at their most comfortable and creative as each band member is given ample room through the runtime to shine brightly. Regardless of how critical I become towards this album over the years, I still think it stands in a league of its own when it comes to Progressive Metal concept albums, with very few bands being able to capture the same spark and captivation that Scenes From a Memory did for me.

They say an animal is most dangerous when backed into a corner, and that could not be any more evident than Dream Theater recording their magnum opus, 'Scenes from a Memory'.

With record label pressure and the business side of the music industry taking its toll on the band (and most specifically on drummer Mike Portnoy) during the release and touring of previous album 'Falling Into Infinity', it was now a time to go hard or go home. Dream Theater wanted to be left alone to write their own music, that would appeal to their own fan base, without the interjection of any record label executives who didn't understand the band, their fans, or their genre of music. It was do-or-die as the band stood on the brink of self-implosion, but they stood tall and delivered an album that is highly regarded as not only their finest work, but one of the greatest albums progressive metal has to offer.

Based around the story of a man who is a reincarnation of a girl that was murdered, and how he revisits his past life in his dreams (or something like that!), the concept is highly ambitious and complex, especially with all the different characters being voiced by James LaBrie. But it doesn't detract from the quality of the music, and with the usual awe-inspiring prowess you'd come to expect from progressive metals most famous band, this is an album where the band fire on all cylinders.

'Home', 'Fatal Tragedy', 'One Last Time' and 'Strange Déjà Vu' are some of many highlights on this album, although it's hard to pick just a few, as the album from start to finish is one giant highlight reel. And of course, the absolute peak of Dream Theater's technical ability, instrumental track 'The Dance of Eternity', will encourage listeners to throw away whatever instruments they're learning as they slowly realize how they'll never be this good.

A record that belongs in any metal or prog collection, 'Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory' started the upward momentum that truly put Dream Theater's careers and lives in their own hands, and has endured as one of the greatest concept albums of all time.

I was a very big Dream Theater fan when this album was released back in 1999. Albums like "Images & Words" & "Awake" had made a big impact on me in the early 1990s & after being a bit underwhelmed by 1997s "Falling Into Infinity" I was ready for something really special. And I got it to an extent although it has taken many years for me to truly realise it.  

I always considered this album to be a step down from the elite Dream Theater albums for some reason. I think a lot of that has to do with my feelings on concept albums. I've never been a fan of them. I always find that they contain filler tracks whose primary reason for existing is to make the storyline flow nicely. Personally the storylines have never mattered that much to me so I resented having to sit through the filler. And on first impressions "Metropolis Pt. 2" seems like it includes a bit of that filler. Particularly at the back end of the album. But once you give it time you find that those tracks start to make more sense & grab you musically. Listening back to them now I actually really like most of them. I think I also needed to give the album some distance from the earlier DT albums in order to be able to judge it on its own right instead of comparing it all the time. Once I was able to forget my expectations & really listen to what's going on with this album I found that there was some very catchy song-writing mixed with a tonne of complexity which is just what you want from a Dream Theater album. Sure it has it's cheesier moments (as there are on all Dream Theater albums) but "Metropolis Pt. 2" seems to have aged very well in comparison to the older albums.  

John Petrucci is in amazing form here. He's probably my favourite lead guitarist & I generally find that each album has one truly mind-blowing guitar solo & the solo section on "Fatal Tragedy" fits the bill beautifully. He & Mike Portnoy must've put in a staggering amount of work producing this record. The result is an amazingly professional package that deserves to sit alongside "Images & Words" & "Awake" as the bands essential releases in my opinion.