This is an impressive, dramatic debut album by any standard; but the fact that this is a one man show makes it all the more remarkable.

Mr. Alexander has adroitly covered a great many progressive bases with this release, reminding me at some points of Sold Out errr... Soul Doubt The Dance Of Light And Shade. I find it to be rather mature for a debut album, rich with well-crafted writing, the playing of a multi-instrument virtuoso, and rather well done vocalizing.

I'd recommend this for aficionados of Soul Doubt, Haken, & maybe also for Devin Townsend.

I have to give this 4.7 PA stars.

Looking forward to digging into Part Two!

Well done, Mr. Alexander.

As always, your mileage may vary.

Grace and peace to you all,

Cylli (Jim Calistro)

Originally posted at progarchives

Reese Alexander expertly delivers on the follow up to the first part of this duology with another excellently crafted album.

Sometimes there's a hint of Transatlantic, Haken, David Maxim Micic, etc.

Again, Mr. Alexander covers some impressive bases with consistently strong, adventurous songwriting and virtuostic performances across a broad range of instruments including voice. Virtuostic in service to the song, not the over done style of the Dream Theater-esque [and the endless clones they spawned] "Time to blow you away with an album of constant flurries of hemidemisemiquaver (64th) notes played sometimes in harmony just to impress".

I find that I'm liking this quite a lot.

Going with 4.71 PA stars on this one.

As always, your mileage may vary.

Grace and peace to you all,

Cylli (Jim Calistro)

Originally posted at progarchives

This album set a new benchmark in the Progressive Metal canon.

I remember having the privilege of working in a music store as a guitar instructor when the manager came out with a "White Paper", Pre-Release of this album. I immediately grabbed a cassette and the first cut of the vinyl went onto my tape...

I'd already been very familiar with this Bellevue, Washington band from the first strains of The Warning, and was certainly a fan. But I was unprepared for how great this album turned out to be from concept to execution. I literally spent the summer of 1988 (much to the dismay of my girlfriend at the time and all my other friends, to boot) dissecting this album and learning every nuance of every note, the meaning behind every word. I even (correctly) figured out who killed Mary... (Go figure!)

I have adored this album from the first time I heard it, and am still overwhelmingly enamored of it. And, I believe I always will be...

An all-time classic, well deserving of a 5+ star rating.

As always, your actual mileage may vary.

Grace and peace, Cylli (Jim)

(Originally posted at Progarchives, edited slightly.)

Dream Theater - Images and Words Review № Stardate 11810.19a

THIS is perhaps the ultimate, most influential Progressive Metal album of all time. THIS is THE Badass Monster Mütha Fükka in my Prog Metal sensibilities..

(That is not meant to discount Fates Warning, Queensrÿche, Redemption, Pain of Salvation, etc. and others that have genre defining albums themselves).

A fantastic set of classic songs played to perfection by a group of very well practiced musicians. Well produced virtuosity tastefully on display, mixed with strong, interesting, adventurous compositions. I loved it then, and love it to this day.

This album spawned an entire generation of clone bands that tried to brave the waters that my friend, Mr. Portnoy & company set the course for and continually raised the standard of when relating to virtuostic, Progressive Metal.

This album deserves all the praise that has been heaped on it, and then some...

An absolute classic, and a MUST HAVE for any Prog Metal enthusiast.

A complete, no debate, gotta have, full-on 5 + stars on my scale. Obviously 5 stars here at PA.

As always, your mileage may vary.

Grace and peace, Cylli (Jim Calistro)

On repeated listenings, I'm finding at least some things to appreciate on this release. [edited № Stardate 11812.15]

Dream Theater - The Astonishing.

Initially I had some real issues with this album, and repeated listenings didn't seem to help. Today, I tried something new; I played the album disc II first, then disc I. Then, I tried the entire album on random. I feel somewhat differently about The Astonishing after trying this approach. There are some very well written and performed parts of this album. There is also a fair amount of "filleresque" material (which I understand are integral to the "story") to be found here.

When Dream Theater gets it right, they absolutely shine, and there are moments of sheer brilliance to be found here, but the story itself and some of the filler stuff makes me cringe quite a bit...

Overall, I have to give Dream Theater some credit for being so confident, pompous and audacious to release this album. In my opinion, had they let the ideas brew a bit longer, and had John come up with a better, more mature storyline, this could have been a genuine masterpiece.

So, upon further listenings, reflection and review, I have to significantly upgrade my initial rating from zero to Three point 25 Stars (***.25)

A good, but not excellent addition to your collection.

As always, your mileage may vary,

Grace and peace, Cylli Kat (Jim Calistro)

Original review below;

Dream Theater The ASSEATISHING review № Stardate 11810.19...

Wow!!! Everything that Dream Theater could've done wrong they did do wrong on this remarkably horrendous pile of puerile, juvenile dreck.

After being endlessly assaulted on facebook every 28 seconds with some new bit of "blah, blah, blah", about this album (I'm talking about during its initial release days), I unfriended all the band members and unliked/unfollowed the band.

I literally thought: 'Whats next? A video game, a graphic novel, a CGI movie?!?!?' Not knowing I was actually close to the mark on that one...

This is so beyond dreadful. I've tried repeatedly to garner some type of appreciation for this album; but as of this writing the only thing I'm willing to do with the discs are turn them into coasters...

Completely vapid, inane, & banal concept, hyper-overdone virtuostic masturbation done with the inimitable Dream Theater aplomb.

This is what happens when you write an album to appeal to little girls who believe in Unicorns and play with My Little Pony®...

Time for Dream Theater to get back to making good music again...

Or, it's time for them to retire...

Believe me; I wanted to go on a song by song tirade, but I literally don't think I could bear to hear this album ever again, so, I scrapped that idea...

A great big fat ZERO on my personal scale. Forced to give it 1 star due to the PA rating process.

As always, your mileage may vary,

Grace and peace, Cylli (Jim Calistro)

Originally posted at progarchives.com