Dream Theater is a band that many say are incredible musicians technically, but in overall ability to write songs, they are quite poor. I’m not one of those people, I in fact enjoy most songs that I hear from this band. Two more criticisms that are often found with this band is that singer James LaBrie is not a good singer and the written lyrics from the band members stink. I like James voice sometimes, but the lyrics from all their records are generally crap. However, there was a time when James LaBrie wasn’t the singer of this band and a man who went by the name of Charles Dominici was in fact this bands lead singer and believe it or not, is a worse singer than. Plus, there was also a time when the lyrics written by the band members were even worse than they are with the more current works. This time I’m speaking of took place in the year of 1989 and was known as
When Dream and Day Unite.**
Musically, this debut album is all you would expect of Dream Theater. John Petrucci’s guitar playing is technical, fast paced, and melodic; everything you would expect from this guitarist. A short solo erupts surprisingly in the song
The Ytse Jam and at first made me wonder, “What the hell, why is that even in the song”? This will still sadly happen throughout the album as it does on so many other Dream Theater album, but not as much as one would usually expect. Probably the best of the guitar work is done on
The Ones Who Help to Set the Sun, that has just great musicianship all around. I really wish that Petrucci wouldn’t write lyrics for this band and just stick to the guitar because on this album he does one of the worst possible jobs at writing lyrics. All I really want to say is that they are cheesy, stupid, and generally I can’t take them seriously. Here’s an excerpt from the song
Only a Matter of Time:
“A suited man said: “It’s just a matter of time, you can have the world at your feet by tomorrow, just sign this line. Hold tight, limelight! Approaching the paramount with the sun in our eyes, fearing family ties, legalies, compromise”.
Mike Portnoy’s drumming skills are a highlight for me on this album, like so many other of the Dream Theater albums. Drum fills are heard throughout the entire album that are all lovely. He keeps everything together and manages to stand out at the same time. I particularly like the job he does on
The Killing Hand, a favorite of mine for this record. Thankfully, Portnoy doesn’t write lyrics for the album because they have never proven much better than that of Petrucci’s ability of writing lyrics. I really wish that bassist John Myung stood out more as he can obviously play, but the truth is he doesn’t stand out at all on the album. It’s sad as a bassist myself that that’s all I have to say about John. Keyboardist Kevin Moore proves a good keyboard player, but does nothing to take extreme note of. Although the job that he does on the intro to
The Ones Who Help to Set the Sun is relaxing. Finally onto the vocals, I’ll just be blatant, Charles Dominici’s singing is rather bland and nasal to me and doesn’t add to the mix of instruments at all. The only time that I like the vocals is during the last song
Only a Matter of Time.**
-The Standout Tracks-
The Ytse Jam-A jamming of the instruments that is just fantastic, what’s more to say?*
The Ones Who Help to Set the Sun-Features a nice keyboard opening and a great guitar solo with generally wonderful music all around, only downside is lyrics and vocals.*
Only a Matter of Time-The only song that I would consider epic. Everything comes together to create an atmospherically relaxing feel that is a great way to close the album.**
I like this album because of the drumming and guitar playing from Mike and John, which manage to make up for most of the negative things I have to say about the album. Those negative things that I speak of are the bad lyrics, poor vocals, and the fact that the bass doesn’t ever stick out. All in all, you would be better off buying most other Dream Theater records, but this is still good, 3 out of 5.
