DREAM THEATER
Once in a Livetime (1998)

Rating: 7/10.
... no Elton John medley tonight, then.



Dream Theater is one of those bands who go into the studio and churn out albums with all the emotional timbre of guitar and keyboard instruction manuals. But like Deep Purple before them, they seem to grow wings (and a modicum of soul) when you put them on a stage. This 2-cd live set of career-spanning material culled from a July '98 Paris show sees the band playing themselves ragged, their mannerly prog-metal fussiness flying out the window in the process. "Pull Me Under", for example, is transformed from the complex workout it is on the IMAGES & WORDS album into an incredibly thunderous piece of music. And the three drum, keyboard and guitar solo showcases are inspiringly, and surprisingly, unindulgent.

Billed as the "ultimate gift to their fans" (I thought all their albums were ultimate gifts to their fans), ONCE IN A LIVETIME is in fact Dream Theater's most essential release to date.


Gerald Tan 1998

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 Visitor's Comments:

FROM: zasylum@softhome.net (Zasylum)
DATE: Tue, 23 Mar 1999
SUBJECT: Mixed terribly bad or played bad?
COMMENTS: I found this double disc disappointing....often the keyboards are turned way too high in the mix creating blind spots in the recording. I've heard matertial live from Dream Theater and this isn't the best by any means...Kevin Shirley (producer)seems to catch the worst of the band's moments, and should be gratefully sent back to produce for Aerosmith and Silverchair.


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