Warthur As a prog metal group who put a lot of stock in both the "prog" and the "metal" part of that term, Dream Theater have had a tendency over the years to follow up more progressive-leaning releases with harder-edged affairs. The band seem to spend much of their career walking a tightrope - why, they even included one on the cover of a later album! - and so once they've pushed hard in one direction, they tend to correct in the other direction rather than going too far in any one trajectory.

On Octavarium they pulled out an orchestra, something which prog bands had been doing as far back as 1967 (if you are willing to accept the Moody Blues' Days of Future Passed as a proto-prog release); thus, Systematic Chaos finds them trimming back to just the core band members. No guest instrumentalists are present at all: every note played is played by the band members, and every word is sung by just James LaBrie himself. The sole concession is that a large cast of friends of the band show up to provide spoken word contributions to Repentance, this album's episode of the multi-album Twelve-Step Suite by Mike Portnoy: as the title implies, it's a song about making amends for past mistakes, so a great number of musicians from the prog or metal world show up to record little apologies, regrets, and admissions of fault.

So much for the talking: what about the music? Though generally heavier than Octavarium, it feels like the band here are trying to show off just how diverse a sound they can deliver with just the five of them. Take The Dark Eternal Night, which has moments ranging from a Dream Theater approximation of nu-metal to a sort of prog-metal-jazz-fusion hybrid. Some aspects of Repentance feel like a nod to Porcupine Tree, which makes the presence of Steven Wilson on the track (he's providing one of the apologies) particularly apt.

Meanwhile, Prophets of War finds Dream Theater inspired once again by Muse, as they were on Octavarium, though I'm absolutely fine with that because as far as I am concerned by this point Dream Theater were doing that sort of very feverish sound better than Muse were. That said, I actually find it a weaker track - it's a little too much like a rehash of Never Enough from Octavarium - and one suspects the band aren't too keen on it either, since so far as I can tell it hasn't exactly been a live staple. (A quick check of setlist.fm suggests that they didn't even touch it live until 2009, and then dropped it from the set in 2010 and haven't picked it up since.)

Still, rounded off by two epics - The Ministry of Lost Souls and the second half of In the Presence of Enemies - the album comes to a pretty solid close, and whilst I don't think it's as consistent as Octavarium by some measure, it's still a very good release which finds Dream Theater going from strength to strength.

Warthur One three-CD live album is a tall order, though a great achievement if you can pull it off. Putting out two is a bigger challenge, though if you've got a weighty enough back catalogue you can pull it off. Three? Now you're pushing it.

Dream Theater do, however, bring something extra to the table on Score to help it stand out. Live Scenes From New York, of course, had the benefit of being built around the Scenes From a Memory concept album; Live From Budokan didn't have a uniting theme and so I felt was a shade weaker, though the strength of the material and quality of the performances carried it. Here, they're performing in conjunction with the almighty Octavarium Orchestra, who kick in on Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence at the start of disc 2 and add an extra symphonic kick to the material from then on out.

It also helps that since Budokan the band had put out the rather excellent Octavarium, which provides a good chunk of material here (nearly an hour's worth, in fact). In addition, the band don't go out of their way to fill every disc to the brim - in fact, this is a shade over two and a half hours, which makes it shorter than Live Scenes or Budokan while still being a fairly epic workout. Finally, as the title implies the concert was recorded on the band's 20th anniversary tour, so they go out of their way to pull out some deep cuts from the early days, including a live rendition of Another Won - a track which had previously languished in the Majesty demo archives. (Another rarity here is Raise the Knife - an out-take from the Falling Into Infinity sessions, here to represent that stage of the band's evolution rather than the more familiar Falling Into Infinity tracks.)

Disc 1 sets the tone with the band playing by themselves prior to introducing the orchestra, with a thunderous, booming sound which fits the material nicely, whether you are talking about some of the classic 1980s prog metal-with-light-thrash-influence of the oldest tracks or the Muse-esque touches incorporated into the Octavarium sound, whilst the remaining discs use the orchestra to excellent effect. On the whole, it still feels like a bit of a marathon, and a bit too conscious of an attempt to repeat the magic of Live Scenes From New York, to earn a full five stars; I don't think you can catch lightning in a bottle twice like that, at least not consciously. That said, it comes very close.

Warthur After an album which saw their "prog" side cranked up to 11 (Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence) and one which saw them give more prominence to their metal side (Train of Thought), Dream Theater used Octavarium to slam the two halves together and recombine them in a way which feels simultaneously familiar and different.

Take, for instance, opening track The Root of All Evil - sure, you've got all the band members present and correct and doing more or less what they do best, but there's a different air to it. James LaBrie's vocal performance isn't as up-front and bombastic as we might expect for such an aggressive track - instead he's this sort of elusive presence lurking in the depths, like a transmission from somewhere far away and more than a little malevolent.

Then from the murk comes clarity, in the form of moving ballad The Answer Lies Within - the sort of material which could very easily cross the line into being cheesy, were not not clearly heartfelt. Again, LaBrie deserves applause here - from the murk of Root of All Evil he suddenly steps forward into a spotlight of crystal-clear clarity, and he absolutely nails it.

The song benefits from the sensitive addition of a string quartet, and isn't the only time on the album the band bring on some guests - the last 35 minutes or so of the album (accounting for a bit under half the running time) is performed alongside an orchestra, who add a classical touch to the concluding tracks, the 10 minute Sacrificed Sons and the 24 minute epic title track of the album. The former track is a 9/11 thinkpiece, though once the news snippets at the start die down it's a general enough anti-war sentiment to rise above that; Octavarium itself is a meandering, somewhat self-indulgent/self-celebratory piece which ends up being more endearing than I'm making it sound largely through sheer chutzpah.

As well as the inclusion of the orchestra, the album is notable for a new mellowness entering Dream Theater's music - captured on tracks like The Answer Lies Within or during the verses of These Walls, it's these moments of tranquility shot through with an underlying tension which gets across the idea that these moments of peace are fragile things, always at the risk of being shattered. (In other moments, they go absolutely frantic; Panic Attack and Never Enough sound like Dream Theater doing Muse better than Muse were by this point in time.) On the whole, Octavarium finds Dream Theater continuing their stylistic evolution in magnificent form.

Warthur Triple live albums are a lot to digest - in vinyl days when bands like Yes or ELP put them out, you'd be looking at some 2 hours of music, and in the CD era bands with a mind to could push this to closer to 3 hours (or even longer).

Live At Budokan is the second triple live release from Dream Theater, following up the excellent Live Scenes In New York. To their credit, they don't overstuff it to the extent they could have, with the total running time coming in at under 3 hours. There's also a lot of solid material on here, much of which hadn't been on a major Dream Theater live release before (ie, setting aside fan club releases and official bootlegs and things of that nature): you get a good helping of Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, plus most of Train of Thought, plus good selections from the rest (including the remarkable Instrumedley of various Dream Theater and Liquid Tension Experiment instrumental snippets and a take on Beyond This Life which works in a Frank Zappa cover/tribute).

The main reason I don't think it quite measures up to Live Scenes From New York is that that had the play-through of the entire Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From a Memory concept album to really give that a solid reason for being as long as it was - main album, plus some shorter songs not on that album, plus a clutch of epics added up to three hours which went by in a breeze. Here, the length seems a tad excessive.

The reason I don't think it's more than half a star below Live Scenes From New York is that the material here is damn strong, and Dream Theater are at the height of their powers here. If you are interested in exploring Dream Theater's many live releases, I'd still give Live Scenes From New York the top prize, but I'd say this should be close after it on your checklist.

Warthur After Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence pushed the "prog" side of their prog metal equation further than ever, Dream Theater seem to have approached Train of Thought as an exercise in reasserting the "metal" part of their identity, resulting in their heaviest and most foreboding release at least since Awake, and maybe of their entire career up to this point.

As I Am manages to combine thunderously aggressive playing with just enough progressive touches to reassure attentive listeners that the band haven't entirely lost touch of their artier side, and then the rest of the album largely unfolds with a similar approach. If you're into Dream Theater's technical mastery, well, they're still sharp as ever, but they unite that technicality with a passionate intensity which is instantly apparent, whereas some of the emotional tones on their earlier work took a little longer for me to fully perceive.

As such, Train of Thought might be one of the best ports of call for someone coming to Dream Theater fresh as a metal fan, rather than necessarily a prog fan. (If you're more about their prog side, don't worry - there's still plenty of long compositions with sonic twists and turns to navigate.)

rdtprog It seems like it was just yesterday that the Luna Park DVD was released. Now it's another one from the Boston Opera House less than a year later. The show is divided in three acts. The first act is tracks from the last two albums and the song "A Trial of Tears" from "Falling to Infinity". The second act is 5 songs from the "Awake" album to celebrate his 20th anniversary and the third act is the encore celebrating again "Scene from a Memory" with his 15th anniversary. On those 2 albums, the band use the same pattern by starting to play the technical, fast and heavy songs like "The Mirror", "Lie", "Overture 1928" and "Strange Déjà Vu" and finishing with the slower and emotional songs like "Lifting Shadows Off A Dream", "Space Dye Vest" and "Finally Free".

"The Illumination Theory", the most progressive and the epic song of the last album is played with an orchestra in the second act which is the perfect fit with this song that contains an irresistible classical break in the middle. The picture is crystal clear and the camera work more satisfying than the "Luna Park" DVD. As for the sound, I had to crank up the volume very high to get the full sound. Again, I wish we could hear John Myung louder, but that's what happens on live recording, it rarely match the sound quality of a studio release. James Labrie's voice is in nice shape as well as all others members. It's another nice addition to your Dream Theater collection. 3. 8 stars.

AtomicCrimsonRush I always look forward to putting this DVD on as I know I am going to get the best of both worlds; symphonic orchestrated music and full on Dream Theater prog. I agree with some reviewers that the setlist is not exactly mind blowing but it nevertheless spans the 5 year history. It is interesting the way the orchestra blends into the metal sound, similar to the Metallica S&M concert, or indeed Kiss Alive IV. It is always of interest when metal meets symphony. The DVD "Score" is very well produced, sharp editing throughout and excellent sound quality. There is nothing wrong with the visuals at all, with the band members sharing the spotlight, but the problem lies in the setlist itself. There are too many omissions and some opportunities wasted in the early part of the concert.

It opens with some deadset oddities such as The root of all evil, I walk beside you, Another won and Afterlife. It isn't until Under A Glass Moon that it really takes off showing the power of that brilliant track and Petrucci's amazing guitar solo. Later we are treated with The spirit carries on and the entire suite of Six degrees of inner turbulence; absolutely flawless and indispensable on the live stage. After an ovation the band belt out Vacant, The answer lies within, Sacrificed Sons and the masterpiece epic Octavarium that is quintessential to the band. The Encore: Metropolis Pt. 1 is a brilliant way of ending the concert to a rapturous crowd.

Disc 2 is packed with some hit and miss Bonus material including a mammoth 20th Anniversary Documentary, that has some fascinating info on the band and the way that not everything goes to plan on a tour. Portnoy has too much to say and now it is a bitter taste now he has scarpered and been replaced. The Octavarium Animation is terrific, and the live performances are always a treat including Another Day (Tokyo - 1993), The Great Debate (Bucharest, Romania - 2002) and Honor Thy Father (Chicago - 2005).

The DVD comes with high recommendations due to the visual quality, and overall package. Ignore the early part of the set and just enjoy DT at their absolute best in the middle half of the concert accompanied by masterful orchestration. A must for all DT fans and one of the best DT DVDs available to this point in time.

AtomicCrimsonRush One of the first DVDs I saw of Dream Theater before the onslaught of DVDs that have come since. This is an early performance and of considerable interest as a result. These were the glory days of Dream Theater ramming prog down the throats of the hungry Budokan fans. It is an incredible performance best seen than heard though the audio experience offers much as a type of Dream Theater concoction of the best of the earlier years. The CD is good listening but the visual persentation is incredible. There are a few odd surprises scattered in the mammoth set list but the classics are here and played to perfection. Beyond This Life is a huge epic clocking 19:37, and with some dynamic lead guitar from Petrucci. The Test That Stumped Them All is always a killer track live and sounds fresh and powerful with huge bass runs of Myung and Portnoy's slamming percussion.

Endless Sacrifice is an 11 minute gruelling journey into prog excess with a wild keyboard section from Rudess. The Instrumedley to follow features some awesome musicianship. LaBrie is in fine form on soaring vocals, and shines on such compositions as the 14 minute Trial Of Tears and New Millennium. It is always a pleasure to experience a Jordan Rudess keyboard solo and it is as inventive here as ever. There are some amazing songs such as Solitary Shell, Stream Of Consciousness and quintessential Pull Me Under. The set closes with epic 16 minute In The Name Of God. So overall this is a great set with power metal and tons of instrumental breaks. It is progressive and packed to the gills with mind bending virtuoso solos and material from some of their best albums. It was the "Train of Thought" tour so there is plenty from that album as well as "Six Degrees" and "Images and Words" among others.

The special features are wonderful featuring 'Riding The Train Of Thought" a Japanese Tour Documentary of about half an hour, and John Petrucci Guitar World segment, Jordan Rudess Keyboard World, and a Mike Portnoy Drum Solo clocking 12 minutes. The Dream Theater Chronicles - 2004 Tour Opening Video is okay showing the video the crowd saw in the opening, and Instrumedley with multi-angles is lots of fun. Overall it is a fantastic DVD concert, and all Dream Theater fans must have it.