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Liquid Tension Experiment
Instrumental rock "Supergroup" with Mike Portnoy, John Petrucci, Jordan Ruddess (before he was in DT), and Tony Levin.
Liquid Tension Experiment #1 (1998)
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1. Paradigm Shift 2. Osmosis 3. Kindred Spirits 4. The Stretch 5. Freedom Of Speech 6. Chris And Kevin's Excellent Adventure Listen 7. State Of Grace 8. Universal Mind 9. Three Minute Warning |
 Rank: 5 guitars out of 5 Masterpiece! |
| Reviewer: lach (96) |
Possibly my only moan about Dream Theater is that they severely limit themselves to only playing one or two instrumental tracks per album. Obviously Portnoy had had enough and decided to go bananas and release an entire album's worth! He recruited the players and wrote and recorded the whole album over an extremely short period, something like two weeks. Originally Petrucci was not meant to be in it, but they couldn't find another guitarist in time, so he was thrown in! What results is some of the most delightfully enjoyable instrumental tracks ever recorded by a band! Opening "Paradigm Shift" is an exercise in speed, technicality and pure fun. "Kindred Spirits" is a ripper instrumental with some massive bass sounds. "State of Grace" is a really nice laid back keyboard and guitar duo. So how does Tony Levin and Jordan Rudess match up to the rest of the guys? Well the bass sound is really gritty and heavy and really adds to the entire sound. And Rudess is possibly the best keyboard I have ever heard! The guy is a bit of a musical freak! He pulls out some wonderful sounds on this CD and really adds a lot. I can see why this guy replaced Sherinian. This work clearly isn't a "guitar-based-instrumental" album (as a lot of instrumental work can quickly degenerate into). Portnoy specifically didn't want that to happen, and the mixture of styles and cross-overs really add to the total range of the CD. The last track is the epic 28 minute jam that is so cool it's freezing. If you like instrumental rock, please, please, get this album. My ranking: 5 - Masterpiece! |
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Liquid Tension Experiment #2 (2000)
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1. Acid Rain 2. Biaxident 3. 914 4. Another Dimension 5. When The Water Breaks 6. Chewbacca 7. Liquid Dreams 8. Hourglass |
Rank: 5 guitars out of 5 Masterpiece! |
| Reviewer: lach (96) |
Following up the previous album comes another inbelievably stupidly good bunch of tracks. Opening track "Acid Rain" is another version of "Paradigm Shift" except it's even faster! (DT slipped it into their instrumedley at a couple of gigs). "Another Dimension" contains some horribly complicated time signatures, but they all weld together wonderfully. (I know because I spent an entire weekend transcribing the song). Possibly better than the first. Hmm maybe not.. ok they are both great. My ranking: 5 - Masterpiece! |
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