Dream Theater - Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From A Memory [2LP Clear]

Dream Theater's most ambitious story unfolds across two clear 140 gram LPs on Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From A Memory, the 1999 concept album many fans rank as the band's finest hour.

The record picks up a thread left dangling on a song from Images And Words, and seven years later the band finally told the whole tale. It was also their first album with keyboardist Jordan Rudess, whose arrival added fresh color and virtuosity to the lineup, while John Petrucci and Mike Portnoy handled production themselves.

The plot follows Nicholas, a man whose hypnotherapy sessions uncover a past life and a 1928 murder, told across a series of scenes. Overture 1928 and Strange Deja Vu set the stage with recurring melodic themes, The Dance Of Eternity unleashes a dizzying instrumental maze of shifting meters, and The Spirit Carries On offers a gospel-tinged, lighters-up moment of release.

With its reprises, red herrings and dramatic finale, the album plays best from start to finish, which is exactly what a double LP invites. Each side feels like an act in a stage play.

The clear vinyl makes the whole thing look as cinematic as it sounds, a fitting format for prog metal storytelling at its most daring.