The tour to support the album was unusual in that every show started with a full performance of the entire album, something the band had never done before with any of their previous albums. The band's production values increased as time went on, introducing more story elements to the show.
The final show was taped and filmed, eventually released as both Metropolis and Live Scenes from New York.
The album was received extremely well, with most fans and critics agreeing that not only was it better than Falling Into Infinity, but also better than Awake and Images and Words. Critics praised the cohesive concept and story structure, as well as the flawless integration of Jordan Rudess, who is a very different fit with the band than his predecessor Derek Sherinian.
Fans also lapped up the album, usually ranking it either first or extremely high among Dream Theater albums, and the general consensus by fans is that it is their best album. The band themselves also say this, saying they only like Systematic Chaos more. The concept of Scenes from a Memory is that it is a sequel to Metropolis, though the concept is very different.
While Metropolis was a largely abstract song thought to be about two brothers and Rome, Scenes changes all this. The Miracle and The Sleeper are introduced as brothers, Edward and Julian, who both love the same woman, Victoria, who represents Metropolis. In this way, the album has little to do with the original song lyrically, though it does follow similar themes and borrows many of the musical cues from the song.
In the story, a troubled young man named Nicholas is going through hypnotherapy, to analyze his dreams. Nicholas dreams about a young woman named Victoria Page, who died in It is revealed throughout the story that Nicholas was Victoria in his past life, and much of the story deals with her.
Victoria leaves her boyfriend Julian due to his drinking and gambling problems, and finds comfort with his brother Edward, with whom she begins a sexual relationship.
In the end there is a "double reveal". Through his research, Nicholas assumes that Victoria was killed by Julian out of revenge, who then killed himself. However through hypnotherapy, he reveals the truth behind her death.
Victoria discovered at some point that she still loved Julian, and that her relationship with Edward was very shallow. She begins to see Julian in secret, and Edward discovers them, killing them both, and planting a note on Julian's corpse to make it seem like a suicide, and using his influence as a senator on the local newspapers. In the story's epilogue, told after the last song, Nicholas leaves his therapy session and goes home, then he is followed by the hypnotherapist, who kills him.
It was explained by Portnoy that the hypnotherapist was Edward in his past life. The tone of the album is somewhat similar to Images and Words , though Scenes is much heavier due to better production and writing. Out of the four tenets of Dream Theater's sound progressive, metal, melodic and pop the album focuses on progressive firstly, with melodic and metal secondary, with very little pop sound. Most of the songs are very progressive, containing extended solo sequences, such as "Fatal Tragedy", "Home" and "Beyond This Life", which are also some of the heaviest works on the album.
The album's two instrumentals, "Overture " and "The Dance of Eternity", are also very proggy and are seen as some of the band's most difficult music. The lyrics flesh out the conceptual story, with the structure being in the form of a play or opera, with LaBrie playing all parts excepting the hypnotherapist, who was played by Terry Brown. The liner notes denote who is speaking, such as "Miracle", "Sleeper", "Nicholas", "Victoria" and such, with additional notation to show whether a passage is taking place in the past or present.
Though the album has a cohesive plot, Portnoy, Petrucci, LaBrie and Myung all contributed lyrics, with "Fatal Tragedy" being the last song Myung has written lyrics for until the A Dramatic Turn of Events album was released.
The album's rather striking cover is the creation of artist Dave McKean, who had created similar "mosaics" previously, such as the DVD cover art for the film "Thirteen Ghosts" and the cover of a Sandman comic book. Portnoy saw McKean's previous work and asked him to create something similar, a mosaic made out of photographs of a person's past life. The face in the picture is supposed to represent both Nicholas and Victoria. Band photography was done by Darkophoto.
Scenes from a Memory is the band's most celebrated work and is considered by many to be their vanguard album, replacing Images and Words. The songs from it are still played live, garnering a huge response from crowds. Many fans have speculated the possibility of a Metropolis Pt 3, though the band has denied any plans to do either a song or album by that title. Scenes from a Memory enjoys the title of being the Dream Theater album to be performed live in its entirety the most times, with every show on the initial tour being done that way, excepting for one show that was closed by a fire marshal during "The Spirit Carries On", nearly leading to a riot by fans.
The band claimed that the final show at Roseland Ballroom would be the final time they performed the album in its entirety, however they did once again on their South American tour in support of Octavarium , as they had not toured there previously, excepting a few one-off shows. Then, in , the band announced that on their Distance Over Time Tour , that they would play the album in its entirety to celebrate the album's 20th anniversary.
The band did this on every show of the tour until it was unfortunately called off due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Dream Theater released the portion of the Roseland Ballroom show containing the full album as Metropolis , and later released the entire show as Live Scenes from New York.
The fan club CD Scenes from a World Tour is a companion piece, containing various performances from throughout the tour in support of the album. Portnoy also released The Making of Scenes from a Memory through YtseJam Records , containing the writing tracks and also the full album with the original mixes by Dave Bottril. The live album Distant Memories - Live in London also contains a full live performance of the album.
Dream Theater Wiki Explore. There was a point where they tried to straighten out their sound somewhat as they flirted with straight-ahead, laid-back metal on 's Falling Into Infinity , but with its studio sequel, Scenes from a Memory , Dream Theater delves straight into old-fashioned prog rock.
Scenes from a Memory is an unabashed concept album told in two acts, about the murder of a young woman and how a modern man is haunted by the crime. A convoluted, difficult tale is told in a convoluted, difficult fashion, with no less than four tracks clocking in at well over ten minutes and three others ranging from to Clearly, this is intended as some sort of masterwork, and what's remarkable is that Dream Theater comes close to creating just that with Scenes from a Memory.
The album plays more like a suite than a collection of individual songs. At times, that means the album can bog down slightly in its own flights of fancy and long instrumental sections, but concentrated listens reveal the intricacies of the song structures and the musicianship. Occasionally, it can seem as if James LaBrie oversings, but that's a minor point: the overall, end result of the album is quite impressive indeed.
AllMusic relies heavily on JavaScript. Please enable JavaScript in your browser to use the site fully. Blues Classical Country. Electronic Folk International. Jazz Latin New Age. Aggressive Bittersweet Druggy. Energetic Happy Hypnotic. Romantic Sad Sentimental. Sexy Trippy All Moods. Drinking Hanging Out In Love.
Introspection Late Night Partying. Rainy Day Relaxation Road Trip. Romantic Evening Sex All Themes. Articles Features Interviews Lists. Streams Videos All Posts.
0コメント