DREAM THEATER — A Change of Seasons (review)

DREAM THEATER — A Change of Seasons album cover EP · 1995 · Progressive Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
SouthSideoftheSky
Dream Theater's last stand

It is almost unbelievable that Dream Theater could expel such a great composition as Change Of Seasons to an EP bound to get fewer listeners than a proper album, while releasing such a disappointing album as Awake around the same time. It has always been my firm opinion that Awake could have been extremely much better had they replaced at least half of its songs with the Change Of Seasons track! Or did they really think that the Awake material was better than this!? It puzzles me.

In my opinion, Dream Theater never again came even remotely close to making such a brilliant album as Images And Words. But outside of that album, the Change Of Seasons track is the closest they ever came to approximating the brilliance of the Images And Words material. It is definitely by far the best 20 minute plus piece they have ever made and a classic of Progressive Metal.

This EP is a very weird release overall, however. It is rightly regarded as an EP even though it has a running time close to an hour. The reason is that half of it consists of covers recorded live while the title track is the sole original studio recording. I usually don't rate EPs; I usually don't like studio/live combination albums and I usually don't enjoy cover albums very much. Add to this that I usually don't like Dream Theater very much(!). But apart from these "obstacles", I really enjoy the whole of this EP even though it is rather incoherent.

The live covers are fun! Such unlikely artists as Elton John, Dixie Dregs, Journey, Queen and Pink Floyd get covered together with the usual suspects such as Kansas, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin. When I heard this for the first time I had never heard the original version of Funeral For A Friend. I didn't even know that it was an Elton John until I investigated it further. Imagine my surprise when I found out who it was! The original by Elton John is really good and an excellent choice for a cover version. Dixie Dregs was another band I had never heard before. I like them too now, and I thank Dream Theater for introducing me to them.

I guess that Dream Theater were doing a good thing here, introducing these older bands and artists to a supposedly younger audience. And even if I'm normally not very fond of Dream Theater's own music, I have to say that they have excellent taste in other people's music! So even if I'm not really a Dream Theater fan, I consider them as fellow fans of Kansas, Deep Purple, Queen, etc. some of my favourite bands of all time.

I'm giving this strange EP three and a half stars. But I really think that the very good Change Of Seasons track had been better off on a proper album together with some more original studio material.
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