That's the thing though, why not just get a live version of Metallica playing the CD? It would sound essentially the same, but not shitty bootleg quality and with audible vocals by a man for and by whom they were written. But this is a fucking waste of hard drive space. I'm not against covers, if a band can cover another band it shows a certain kind of versatility, and that's pretty sweet. Doesn't interest you? Don't bother, because the actual album is pretty much just that. Sound good to you? Seek it out, because DT's instrumental take on the album is worth a listen for the intrepid DT fan. Well, what you see is what you get: it's 2002-era Dream Theater performing Master Of Puppets in its entirety. He unfortunately drags the score down a few notches if his vocals had been Score-quality, I can see myself giving this release a 70, even an 80. Battery lacks the convincing bite that Hetfield added to his lines, and Leper Messiah sounds less than powerful - but the title track is sung well, and James does seem to get a second wind on Damage Inc. I can't tell if he has a cold, if he's just tired (This is the second set in a second show of a two-night stand in Barcelona) or if he's trying to do a "tuff dood" thrash voice - but whatever it is, it didn't work. This recording, however, shows him at his worst - comparable to Once In A Livetime. I'm one of the few who quite likes his vocal performance, but many DT fans know to approach the Six Degrees/Train Of Thought touring era recordings with a bit of caution - his voice was at a low point there before it swung back up to its old splendor with the Octavarium/Systematic Chaos tours. The instrumental section of the band is what makes this release a treat to own for me.Īh, James LaBrie. Portnoy is solid as ever, no complaints there. Myung is about as audible as Cliff was on the original recording (Read: not very). Petrucci's playing is immaculate for the most part, albeit lacking much of the punch of the original thanks to the 'official bootleg' style of production. Unlike the Number Of The Beast cover album where there were neat little touches here and there, this is pretty much a carbon copy of the original for the most part, with less punchy production and some tasteful use of Rudess's keyboard to fill in the gaps left by reducing Hetfield and Hammet's lead/rythm team to a single guitar. To sum this release up in four words, coming from who is, by his own admission, a die-hard Dream Theater fan: you don't need it.
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It's in this spirit that we have Dream Theater's full live cover of Master Of Puppets by thrash metal's most well-known. Lining up their catalogue feels completely natural, rather than forced and stilted - it's in this way that they are truly a "progressive" band that never binds itself to any single style and keeps challenging itself, setting aside the often-exaggerated accusations of pointless wankery leveled at some of their music. 49/100.ĭream Theater is a veritable musical chameleon, able to take on countless styles, themes and atmospheres. My one gripe as far as instrumentation goes is that the guitars and keyboards occupied the exact same part of the mix, meaning that they were fighting for auditory space while still managing to be indistinguishable from one another. I'm not quite sure what it is that Jordan Ruddes did, but I guess it worked. John Myung plays almost exactly as he did on the album, but he's a bassist, so that's essentially what he's supposed to do. He ups the ante, adding on to a already impressive effort by Kirk Hammett and James Hetfield. Same goes for John Petrucci on the guitar. For those who think that Mike Portnoy (a god) would be out of his element playing the drum parts of Lars Ulrich (not really a god), think again: He restrains himself reasonably well while still tastefully using some of that foot speed in places where Lars originally couldn't. It's not like this cover is otherwise unsalvageable, and in no way are the vocals just another dog turd on the front lawn. James LaBrie is why Orion (the instrumental) is the best song on this cover album, by far.Īnd it's really sad that this is the case. He sounds like a crying baby when he belts out the words, "master of puppets, I'm pulling your streeeeeeeeeighnnnnsssss !" It's just not listenable. He sounds like a southern grandma with a long, nasal drawl as he screams the word "Battery" at the top of his lungs. And I don't know why he would even make that attempt, seeing as how it'd have been in this album's best interest for him to sing in a lower register, rather than one so high it's out of his range. The singer, James LaBrie, is obviously trying really hard to be something that he's not. James Hetfield would kill himself just so he could spin in his grave. But I still had to give it a score under 50% because of one thing: The vocals.
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