Moving into their new album, and two major events occurred to set the direction that their next LP would take. Firstly had been the insistence from their fans to produce a sequel of sorts to their song “Metropolis - Part 1” from their “Images and Words” album, though the band had no intention to do so, as the Part 1 had been added as a joke by guitarist John Petrucci. Despite this the band recorded a 21 minute instrumental demo called “Metropolis - Part 2” for the “Falling into Infinity” album which subsequently didn’t make the cut. However, there were musical pieces within this demo that would eventually become parts of the following album, one that the record company had given the band free reign on, and which they then decided to create as a concept album on the basis of the demo and the story that became entwined with it.
During this process, the band also made another change. Derek Sherinian, who had been a part of the band as the keyboardist since Kevin Moore had quit after the “Awake” album, had found his own differences of opinion over the direction and music that the band was headed in, in the same way Moore had previously. At the same time, both Mike Portnoy and John Petrucci had been in a side project called Liquid Tension Experiment with keyboardist Jordan Rudess, and once this was completed, they convinced both John Myung and James LaBrie that they needed to make a change, and Sherinian was sacked by phone hookup not long after, with Rudess his replacement.
It was from this that Dream Theater then entered the studio to record the album that firmly established their credentials as one of the leading progressive metal bands in the world, with “Metropolis Part 2: Scenes from a Memory”.
As it turns out, the storyline of this concept album does not truly follow the path as a sequel to the original track “Metropolis - Part 1”, but more closely mirrors the story told in the 1991 film “Dead Again” that starred Kenneth Brannagh and Emma Thompson, the plot of which deals with past life regression through hypnosis, and of a tragedy in one lifetime occurring once again in the future. That is how the story of “Scenes from a Memory” plays out.
The basis of the story is as follows: Nicholas, going through regression, discovers that he was a woman named Victoria in a past life who was murdered, and she is trying to show him who that murderer was. The story of the album shows that Victoria was pulling away from her lover Julian, and began an affair with his brother Edward. According to a newspaper article and eyewitness Julian murdered Victoria and then himself, but Nicholas begins to doubt this. He also realises he must solve this or never be able to move on with his own life. Nicholas believes he has solved the mystery, where Julian begged Victoria to forgive him, and when she didn’t, he killed both her and Edward and acted as the eyewitness. Nicholas, believing he is now free, bids farewell to Victoria’s memory, even as she tries to call him back.
The story then cuts to Edward’s perspective, which sees Victoria looking to reconcile with Julian, and Edward instead killing them both, and becoming the eyewitness. Back in the present, Nicholas is followed home by the hypnotherapist who it turns out is the reincarnation of Edward, and Nicholas is startled by a request to ‘open his eyes’, before he is murdered, thus closing the circle once again.
Sounds confusing? Perhaps. As it turns out, there is a book being released in time for this 25th anniversary of the album’s release that relates the tale, so perhaps you could read that and see if it does the story more justice than me.
To create the story and lyrics is one thing. Putting it to music is another, and that task is masterfully done here. In saying that, the length of some tracks, extended by long winded solo breaks of keyboard and guitar, may not be to some people’s liking. The plateaus of rising and falling moods in music, and of the softly spoken emotional periods of the music to express the change in the story, and then the more expression energised pieces of songs where the story is on the crux of discovery, makes for a journey in itself.
Dream Theater is another band that was introduced to me by my heavy metal music dealer, who had discovered them on this album (I think... I’m sure he will correct me if I am mistaken). And what I remembered most about that time was him saying to me almost every time we got together for a three month period “Have you heard Dream Theater?! You have to. They are amazing!” Which of course I eventually did. The album that actually grabbed me the most though was “Awake”, an episode on which you can catch on this season of this podcast if you are so inclined.
But when it came to this album, something didn’t always click. The fact that it is a concept album didn’t phase me, and the opening tracks are just amazing, the musicianship and the music, and the vocals from James LaBrie, are wonderful. And that stretches throughout the entire performance. But I don’t deny that when I first got this album, a number of the songs didn’t grab, didn’t find what I wanted from the music. Progressive metal does sometimes do that to me. Often, I love it all, but there are certainly albums and/or band of this genre that I find are not for me. And when I first got the album, it is how it felt to me then. I even bought the DVD where they performed this in full, along with “A Change of Seasons”, and it is just terrific... but it didn’t make me feel any more enamoured about the WHOLE album. To me, it didn’t compare to another concept album, Queensryche’s “Operation: Mindcrime”. And it is probably an unfair comparison because that is one of the finest metal albums and concept albums of all time. But on that album the story flowed easily, and the music from song to song offered the perfect mood and music to create the atmosphere required to tell the story. And on this album, I don’t think that is quite the case. And it is quite possible this has always played in my head when it comes to this album. Like I said, not a fair comparison.
So here we are, some 25 years after this album’s released, and I am sure there is a great deal of fawning going about its 25th anniversary, and so there should be, because it is a landmark album in the band’s discography. And I have had this album going around again over the last two weeks. And you know what? Nothing much has changed for me. Those songs and parts of songs that I have always loved, I still love. And those other songs and parts of songs that left me slightly ambivalent in the past? I guess I feel the same way about them now as I did then. It is not a bad album, and it contains no bad songs. To listen to the musicianship of the entire album is to appreciate just how amazing these individuals are on their instruments. None of that has changed. But for me it just doesn’t hold my interest like other albums do. And I am sure that for the big Dream Theater fans out there, what I have said here would be considered blasphemous. I am happy to accept that. Immersing yourself into the story that is being told does actually draw you in to the album more, making you more attuned to the music and lyrics as they are playing around you, and over time I have found that actually following the story has improved my enjoyment of the album as a whole.
For me, the truly great Dream Theater albums were still to come, the ones where there was more songwriting in the style that I enjoy more. This may be the band’s landmark, but for me it is what followed this that truly caught my attention.
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