Dream Theater - Metropolis Pt. 2 : Scenes From A Memory

Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory, released in 1999, is Dream Theater's fifth studio album. It is a concept album that deals with the story of Nicholas and the discovery of his past life, which involves love, murder, and infidelity as Victoria Page.
The album was ranked number 95 on the October 2006 issue of Guitar World magazine's list of the greatest 100 guitar albums of all time.

As its name implies, Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From A Memory is a sequel; it follows "Metropolis Pt. 1: The Miracle And The Sleeper", a song from the band's second album, Images and Words. However, when naming Metropolis Pt. 1, the band's intention was not to write a two part epic - it was intended as a joke. Only after continuous pleas from fans did the band begin working on "Part 2''

Initially, the band started work on Part 2 as one song rather than a whole album. It was during the Falling Into Infinity sessions in 1996/97, the group's fourth album, that Part 2 began to take shape.The song was never polished up however, largely due to the record company's reluctance to release a double album at the time (which would have been necessary to include it) and it was left off. The band recorded a 23 minute demo with Derek Sherinian on keyboards to return to at a later date. Only 12 minutes of this demo are available to the public via the internet and even then Mike Portnoy, founder of YtseJam Records, which sells official Dream Theater bootlegs, has insisted that it not be shared. When the band came to work on their fifth album, they returned to the song and made it a whole album.

Curiosity:
The final album track started a musical experiment on Dream Theater's part. The static heard at the beginning of "The Glass Prison," the opening number of 2002's Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, is the same static heard at the end of "Finally Free," this album's closing track. Similar connections would be featured on the following album Train of Thought, ending with the end of Octavarium's title track in 2005.
Musically, this album is similar to Dream Theater's earlier albums Images and Words and Awake[citation needed]. Their previous studio album, Falling Into Infinity, was criticised by fans for having a very mainstream sound[citation needed], and in response, this album was made in an extremely progressive fashion, featuring odd time signatures, and constant changes between them, as well as long instrumental sections.
Throughout the album, sections of the song "Metropolis Part 1" are quoted frequently. For example, the keyboard heard in the opening to Overture 1928 is also heard in the opening of the original "Metropolis".
As of today, Scenes From A Memory was the last album that bassist John Myung wrote lyrics for.
This album is also the first by Dream Theater to feature Jordan Rudess on keyboards.

Track listing
Act 1:
"Scene One: Regression" – 2:06 (music and lyrics by Petrucci)
"Scene Two: Part I. Overture 1928" – 3:37 (Dream Theater, instrumental)
"Scene Two: Part II. Strange Deja Vu" – 5:12 (Dream Theater, Portnoy)
"Scene Three: Part I. Through My Words" – 1:02 (Petrucci)
"Scene Three: Part II. Fatal Tragedy" – 6:49 (Dream Theater, Myung)
"Scene Four: Beyond This Life" – 11:22 (Dream Theater, Petrucci)
"Scene Five: Through Her Eyes" – 5:29 (Dream Theater, Petrucci)
Act 2:
"Scene Six: Home" – 12:53 (Dream Theater, Portnoy)
"Scene Seven: Part I. The Dance of Eternity" – 6:13 (Dream Theater, instrumental)
"Scene Seven: Part II. One Last Time" – 3:46 (Dream Theater, LaBrie)
"Scene Eight: The Spirit Carries On" – 6:38 (Dream Theater, Petrucci)
"Scene Nine: Finally Free" – 11:59 (Dream Theater, Portnoy)

Personel:
James LaBrie – Vocals
John Myung – Bass Guitar
John Petrucci – Guitars, Vocals
Mike Portnoy – Drums, Percussion, Vocals
Jordan Rudess – Keyboards

Link:http://lix.in/713267