Bio:

Okay!!! Where do I start?! I recentely started to get into this band. After I heard a few rave reviews on amazon.com (this is a great place to find new bands btw!), I dloaded a song called "Caught in a Web". While my first impression was kinda ho-hum, the song did portray Petrucci's talent for fingering that fret board with rapid off-beat palm mute picking. After weeks of ignoring the band, I returned to amazon.com. Read some more reviews, and decided to give the guys of Dream Theater another shot. Suddenly my world changed. I heard the song "Metropolis Pt.1: The Miracle and the Sleeper". WOW!!! WHOA!! HOLY SHIT!!! MY GOD!!! WTF!!! That was the extent of my vocabulary for the next 9min that awaited while listening to that song. Afterwards I purchased the album... wait let me rephrase that... I purchased the Masterpiece, "Images and Words". And so the curtains have raised... enter DREAM THEATER, the Gods of Prog-Metal!

With all the musicians graduating from Berkley, the school of music for those who don't know, its easy to see how these are sooo good. Lets talk a lil about the band members... Mike Portnoy: God of the Drums. His drumming is superb!! If you have ever watched or heard this guy play, I dare you to tell me someone is better than he is!! Just listen to some of the songs... not only can he play with absolute presicion and timing... but he can play off-timed sooo beautifully it doesn't seem human. John Myung: God of Bass. Ask any bass player to copy Myung's technique... your in for a laugh. Nuff said. John Petrucci: God of Guitar. This guy is simply amazing. While opting to play using extreme technique, rather than repetitive chops and jumping around on stage, he has established himself as a well-known guitar god. His ability to compose beautiful harmonies mixed in with awesome riffs and solos played to perfection is simply unreal. The amount of musical theory used in Dream Theater's song's is incredible. Just listen to the odd keyboard/guitar duet on "Beyond This Life". Its crazy. Jordan Rudess: God of Keyboard/Piano. This is a new recruit to Dream Theater. He has recentely played with Myung and Petrucci on a side project entitled Liquid Tension Experiment. One listen to that, and you'll understand why DT picked this guy up. Also, the same outcome will come from one listen to the Keyboard solo off of the newest Live CD, "Live Scenes from New York". Last but not least, we have James Labrie. I won't rush and call this guy the God of vocals... because he's not. Not to say he isn't good. I wouldn't trade him for another singer, no way. I'm just saying not everyone's ears will agree to his voice. I love it, and so do many Dream Theater fans. And even if you don't like it at the first initial listen, the musicianship in the songs will grow on you, and eventually Labrie's voice will as well. Because it is good, and fits the music perfectly!

Before I wrap this up, I want to point out the reason for two cover arts of the album "Live Scenes From New York." The initial release date of the 3-disc set was Sept. 11. We all know what happened that day. One look at the artwork and you'll see why another design was quickly replaced. The label quickly recalled the CDs and some stores opted to not even shelf them. I was lucky enough to get a copy of the original artwork. I say lucky because days after the release, this CD was going for well over 80 dollars on ebay!

Dream Theater is a very diverse musical machine. If you appreciate music, and very well written songs, then this is your band!! I higly recommend the albums "Images and Words", "Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory", "Awake", and "Change of Seasons" (which contains the title track "Change of Seasons", a 7-part epic song that spans 23min long! And it never gets boring!) But if you like long songs, I suggest checking out "Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence", a gorgeous song that spans 42min!! 42min of puure musical brilliance that only DT could pull off so perfectly!