Awake 1994

""Awake" is a great progressive metal album, and I think, it contains some of Dream Theater's best songs. It is also a much heavier album than "When Dream and Day Unite" and "Images and Words".

Musically, it continues where "Images and Words" left off, although in a slightly more heavy direction, as mentioned above, with long and complex and genre-transgressing songs and, of course, a complete disregard of the conventions of popular music.

My favorite tracks on this album are the opener "6:00", "Caught in a Web", "The Mirror" (which was probably the "hit" of the album", and "Erotomania" all of which blend technicality and catchy melody.

This is another pivotal progressive metal album that should be included in any progressive metal collection.

(review also posted on metalmusicarchives.com)"

"This is my favorite DT album. Images & Words and Scenes are equally perfect from an objective standpoint (if I had to recommend one I wouldn't know which to choose) but this one is best balanced IMO. Scenes has that Rudess influence which moved DT a tiny bit closer to ELP, Images & Words is a tiny bit less "metal" than Awake. On Awake you have it all ... and I really like Kevin Moore's contribution, which adds an - if even only on the subconscious level - experimental and slightly avant-garde feeling, not only on Space-Dye Vest.

In a nutshell this album has all which makes Prog Metal the wonderful genre which it is - if you're into this sort of thing. Of course there are many reasons to dislike it ... outstanding musicianship, crystal clear production, amazing bandwidth of musical styles from soft/acoustic to heavy/thrash, you name it.

The only problems I have with the album are a few passages where LaBrie sings in registers which are on the fringes of what he's capable of - it's a bit better than on I&W though - and the track Lifting Shadows Off a Dream, which is perhaps the earliest example of DT honoring U2 and is simply not a particularly noteworthy song IMO.

But that still leaves us with over an hour of pure masterpiece."