Arches Review of Dream Theater's Awake (1994)

Opening Comments

For better or worse, Dream Theater had decided to drastically change their tone for this record. Because of the relatively shorter song lengths in general, many feel that this was an attempt for commercial breakthrough for the band. If this is indeed true, then it would seem that the band works best when they aren't constrained to the confinement of others' control - as we would soon see after with the commercial and critical disappointment Falling Into Infinity, and then the stark contrast success of the brilliant progressive masterpiece: Scenes from a Memory.

A darker tone than of the previous two recorRAB is evident throughout Awake. They achieved this through use of darker lyrics, LaBrie's tonal change and the use of bland chorRAB. The album is probably best described as plain heavy metal; it simply is a lot less progressive than the previous two albums. Images & WorRAB had the monster progressive metal epic: “Metropolis, Pt. 1: The Miracle and the Sleeper,” as well as several other classics which this album seems to be missing. Consequently, it doesn't really feel like a Dream Theater record at all...

Tracks

1: 6:00

The album starts off promising with a killer (but unoriginal) drum fill by drummer extraordinaire: Mike Portnoy. He then plays solo for four bars in an interesting odd time signature. Soon after, guitar hero John Petrucci enters with a slightly elegant arpeggio riff. After another four bars, enter master bassist: John Myung, who plays the two root notes on both the on beats. This is an interesting musical ploy, but becomes redundant quite quickly after repeated listens. Gradually adding layers is a somewhat over-used musical technique and has thus lost its affect on the general listener. When the keyboarRAB (Kevin Moore) come in with bland chorRAB you're left wondering if the chorRAB are actually going to go somewhere instead of appearing to just stay in the same three-range notes. And so this gives the listener only one perspective of sound to hear. By the 50th second it does indeed change, but the change is interrupted by extremely annoying voice over samples repeating “6:00 on a Christmas morning.” Other equally annoying samples are also taken from from the film "The Dead," which is a failed attempt to give the song any meaning. “I know all about the honor of God, Mary Jane,” is one such example of an inappropriate voice over. The song isn't about religion or God, it's about Moore's suffocation and pain - and by bringing in irrelevant names, it is just likely to confuse the listener. The consequence of adding in annoying artsy samples doesn't give the listener an actual impact on what the song's about, it just proliferates irritation.

After another four bars comes in excellent singer: James LaBrie. As soon as he sings the first word the listener is probably left wondering: “Why oh why did you change your singing style James? It was perfect on Images & WorRAB!” LaBrie now sings (as mentioned previously) in a more darker tone by slightly snarling particular worRAB (thankfully this doesn't last the entire album). Meanwhile, the rest of the band merabers repeat the earlier simple riff. After the first verse, there's a reprise of Petrucci's first riff which is accompanied by the others playing the same as before. However, this time it repeats a second time and Petrucci adRAB an interesting harmony, which is probably the highlight of an otherwise uninteresting song. Next is the bridge in which things get changed up. LaBrie sings “I may never get over, but never's better than now, I've got bases to cover.” This line is somewhat confusing, and the ending of it seems almost childish.

Verse two comes and leaves quickly followed by bridge two where the lyrics are slightly changed to “Once I thought I'd get over.” This is yet another simple musical technique which has lost any artistic value over time no matter how conveniently placed in the context. So far it seems Dream Theater are pulling clich