Track Listing

1. New Millennium
2. You Not Me
3. Peruvian Skies
4. Hollow Years
5. Burning My Soul
6. Hell's Kitchen
7. Lines in the Sand
8. Take Away My Pain
9. Just Let Me Breathe
10. Anna Lee
11. Trial of Tears: It's Raining/Deep in Heaven/The Wasteland

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9731 in Music
• Released on: 1997-09-23
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Album Description
Japanese only SHM Pressing. The SHM-CD [Super High Material CD] format features enhanced audio quality through the use of a special polycarbonate plastic. Using a process developed by JVC and Universal Music Japan discovered through the joint companies' research into LCD display manufacturing SHM-CDs feature improved transparency on the data side of the disc allowing for more accurate reading of CD data by the CD player laser head. SHM-CD format CDs are fully compatible with standard CD players. Warner. 2009.

Customer Reviews

Very diffrent, very heavy, and very moody.
This was the turning-the-clock-around album for Dream Theater. Mike Portnoy said that this album nearly killed Dream Theater because the record company wanted them to make a commercial album. I despise it when a record company tells you what to do, but Dream Theater compromised. Part of it you would expect to hear on Images and Words or Awake, and some you would go "HUH?"

1.New Millenium-Very techno-ish intro. This is not a great album-opener, but it's a great song. 4.5/5

2.You Not Me-This is the very commercial "huh?" song. Although it tried to be mainstream, I still liked it. Very short solo, however. 4/5

3.Peruvian Skies-The classics begin. This is a very nice soothing ballad turns rocker song. Intresting lyrics about someone named Vanessa. I think it's about child rebellion. Very good instrumental part. 5/5

4.Hollow Years-One of the best Dream Theater songs recorded. This is a regular pop ballad with Spanish influences. It may sound like every other pop ballad, but at least this one has a solo, and good lyrics. Very nice. 5/5

5.Burning My Soul-Did Dream Theater write that? NO WAY! This is an ultra heavy song. It's like Dream Theater taking a stab at Metallica, and they succeed. Great riff. Also, one of the best solos from Derek Sherenian. It sounds like a guitar! I guess the record swines wanted it to be a single. To the record industry: WAKE UP! No offense or anything to the fans, but do you realize who was popular in 1997? HANSON! Do you really think Burning My Soul would get anywhere? Nope, it sounds good! Can't let that happen! See my point? 5/5

6.Hell's Kitchen-It's ok, they could've done better than this. This sounds like a instrumental climax that should've been left in a 14-minute song. Actually, it was the instrumental part in Burning my Soul, but I guess that they let it out so that Burning My Soul could try to be a single. 3.5/5

7.Lines In The Sand-Pure Dream Theater. This is another 12 minute masterpiece. It has a great intro, probably one of the longest for Dream Theater, and the singer from King's X is in it (I forgot his name). Not a great instrumental part, but it still rocks! 4.5/5

8.Take Away My Pain-Great ballad. The guitar has a Police-vibe to it. Good lyrics. Also, a very soothing chorus. I like the bass in this one. No one gives John Myung credit. He's probably one of the greatest bassisits out there. 4.5/5

9.Just Let Me Breathe-A little dissapointing, but good lyrics. 3/5

10.Anna Lee-Nice ballad about child abuse. Very good piano line. 4.5/5

11.Trail of Tears-The geatest epic on this. Let's do this part by part:

I-It's Raining-Very nice intro, and a good jazz like verse. Intresting lyrics about wasted years. I like the chorus. It's got a good hook to it. 5/5

II-Deep In Heaven-Great solos by John and Derek. John's is more crazy, Derek's is more planned. Very nice. 5/5

III-The Wasteland-Great ending. Where is this Wasteland, might I add? Good guitar riff from John. The ending is very soothing, and it's a great ending to a great album. 5/5

This shouldn't bee your first pick, but it will be the one you'll be familar with. This is good stuff.

One of Dream Theater's best
Falling Into Infinity is the often-maligned album by Dream Theater. Hard-core DT fans will tell you that this is the sell-out album, the one where they abandoned their roots and tried to make radio-friendly music. So it may come as some surprise that this is one of my favorite albums by Dream Theater. It's not perfect, and there are a few rotten apples. It has a lot less technical prowess than many of DT's other albums, but it does feature the best of John Petrucci's guitar playing, and many of the best vocal melodies written by the band. My opinion about technicality is that it is a route towards expression of what the band might aim for, if they choose to take that route; it is not in itself successful music. Fortunately they realized that when they wrote this album.

New Millenium (7/10): The keyboard intro is a little whacko, but the guitar/bass parts that follow are great. Overall, it is an okay song.

You Not Me (5/10): James LaBrie's attempts to sound rough aren't convincing. The song as a whole is very uninteresting.

Peruvian Skies (9/10): Beautiful chorus, a good mix of heavy and light moments, and a great guitar solo.

Hollow Years (8/10): Call it mainstream, call it sell-out, call it catchy... I don't care. This is a great song, and even greater live. It does have a very mainstream sound to it, with a mostly accoustic guitar and catchy chorus line.

Burning My Soul (6/10): Has some good riffs, but the vocals are annoying, and the lyrics cheesy.

Hell's Kitchen (9/10): An instrumental with some great soaring guitar work and weird but good key changes. One of DT's best instrumentals.

Lines in the Sand (10/10): Starts off with some back and forth change between a lonely synthesizer and a lonely distorted guitar. From here it builds to make a true Dream Theater classic. It features a phenomenal bluesy solo. Petrucci has never poured as much emotion into a solo as he does in this song. If it were much longer, it could well be the greatest guitar solo of all time. There are some other great instrumental parts which follow later in the song.

Take Away My Pain (8/10): The vocal melody here is great, especially the bridge which then leads into another gem of a Petrucci solo.

Just Let Me Breathe (6/10): It has some decent riffs, but other than that the song strikes me as too direct with its intent, and often cheesy. I don't particularly like the vocal melody either.

Anna Lee (9/10): This song is so gorgeous. A lot of people seem to hate it though. It's another one with a somewhat mainstream sound, but who cares about that? The vocal melody is breathtaking, and Petrucci pulls off a great guitar solo full of feeling.

Trial of Tears (10/10): Dream Theater's best song ever? It's debatable; it certainly has some competition with a few other songs. What I will say is that this song is an incredible epic, and one of the few songs to feature lyrics written by the bassist, John Myung. It's a shame, because it shows he should clearly be given more opportunities to write lyrics. The vocals are great, and carry a sadder emotion than most of the rest of the album (even Take Away My Pain, which sounds more upbeat than it should). The guitar solo is out of this world, and probably my favorite solo ever by JP. It is loaded with emotion, but not only that, it feels as though it drastically changes emotion every time the solo changes from one key to the next. And when that's over, you get a great keyboard solo by Derek Sherinian. Normally I really don't like what DT has tended to do with synthesizers, but this part is great, and it continues much of the same emotional turmoil that the previous guitar solo accomplished.

Other DT fans will surely disagree, but I tend to recommend this album first for people looking to start getting into Dream Theater. So many potential fans are turned off by the pretentious wankery that overflows many of DTs other albums. This album is all about the songs. 7.9 / 10, or 4 out of 5 stars. Could have been a 5 star album if a few of the bad apples in the bunch were just a little more inspired.

It's still Dream Theater, and still great.
This album has gotten a lot of negative response because, apparently, it's their "sellout" album. Well, don't take that too seriously, because aside from a few weaker songs (which are good, but not up to Dream Theater's standards), this album is friggin' amazing. There are definitely some weaker songs though. However, this album is still more than worth buying if you're a Dream Theater fan, because it's awesome!

Well, we obviously know that John Petrucci, John Myung, and Mike Portnoy are incredible musicians. John Petrucci's guitar work here is, IMO, his most tasteful, and easily his least flashy, but possibly his best. John Myung is a talented and humble bass player. On "New Millenium" he uses a Chapman Stick, which shows how diverse and talented he is. Mike's drumming definitely did not stand out here as much as previous albums, or as much as later albums, but it's still obviouse that he's an incredible drummer. James LaBrie has an amazing voice, not much else can be said on that. So, what about the new keyboardist, Derek Sherinian? Well, he's pretty good. Not quite the songwriter Kevin was, and not quite the technical player Jordan is, but hey, if he was hired by Dream Theater, don't you think he must be good? Well, he is.

I suppose I'll start off with the better songs. "New Millennium" is one of their best songs, IMO. John Myung uses a Chapman Stick on this song, and if you don't know what that is, look into it, cuz they're pretty cool. Anyway, this is a great song. It reminds me of "Pull Me Under" or "6:00", being a perfect opener, and a Dream Theater classic. "Peruvian Skies" is a great darker song, that builds up into some spectacular metal riffing and a great solo by John. "Hollow Years" is an amazing ballad. Just a beautiful song. "Hell's Kitchen" is an instrumental, but not the same kind as "Ytse Jam" or "The Dance of Eternity". It's not flashy and technical, it's more soft and beautiful, and John's guitar work is incredibly tasteful. "Lines in the Sand" is an epic song, and a strong one. Not another "Scarred", but it's very pleasing nonetheless. "Take Away My Pain" is another ballad, and another beautiful song. It's dedicated to John's father, who passed away. "Anna Lee" is another ballad, which a lot of people don't like. I think it's an excellent song. Now here's the best part. "Trial of Tears" is probably my favorite song on the album, and also the longest. It starts off slow, and it builds up. It has two incredible solos, one by John Petrucci and one by Derek Sherinian, and then it has a powerful finish. One of their best songs ever.

Now the weaker songs. Well, "You Not Me", while it isn't a terrible song, is definitely not up to DT's standards. It has a pretty cool wah wah riff, but prog. fans will definitely be turned off by this one, especially if they don't like "mainstream" stuff. "Burning My Soul" is almost awful. The music is decent, but the lyrics are pretty bad. Same with "Just Let Me Breath", although that's not nearly as bad. The music in "Just Let Me Breath" is killer, but the lyrics have already been said before 100 times, and said better. So, the weaker songs are ok, except for "Burning My Soul", but nothing spectacular.

Anyways, aside from those few bad points, this album is awesome. Even though I don't like it as much as say, "Images & Words" or "Awake, this album is excellent. Highly recommended to fans of Dream Theater.