Awake - Dream Theater

A desert island follow up to a desert island album is a very difficult feat to achieve, but Dream Theater manage it with apparent ease, and despite the weird voice overs in the opening track 6:00, Awake is a winner every time. The entire band have always been renowned for being technically brilliant musicians, and this shines through in the outstanding instrumental track Erotomania, which is an ever changing mix of guitars, drums and keyboards. The major hit from the album, which was used as a single is Caught In A Web which has a melodic type edge to it, and certainly hints at future Dream Theater territory. As does Innocence Faded for that matter, which ...  Read the complete review

Before inserting this CD into my player, I took a look at the tracklisting on the back. Probably something that every listener does - perhaps not worth mentioning? Never before have I read a track title and known just what I'm in for! "Awake" is possibly Dream Theater's "rockiest" album. It's progressive, it's harsh and it's James LaBrie's (lead vocals) most vocally diverse album to date. Indeed, listening to him hear makes you wonder if he'll ever be able to sing like this again - such a thick, growling tones in some of the songs (see "Caught in a Web") Perhaps the food poisoning had something to do with his recent vocal ...  Read the complete review

With ‘Awake,’ Dream Theater faced accusations by fans of commercialising their sound. Selling out by crafting an often brutally heavy and musically complex collection of mostly long songs? Whoever said progressive metal was simple. Awake isn’t one of my favourite Dream Theater albums, but is certainly the peak of the period between 1992’s ‘Images and Words’ and 1999’s ‘Scenes from a Memory,’ the former a landmark release that paved the way for popular prog. metal bands such as Tool and the latter a perfect culmination of a decade’s work. Perhaps Awake is looked down upon for its lack of an over-arching concept; the first track, ‘6:00,’ with its ...  Read the complete review

Awake is Dream Theater’s third full album and is a bad purchase if you’re new to the band or if you think that beauty is letting your ears lie back in an easy chair. It took me several attempts to get into the album, but now I have finally become accustomed to it, I really get a thrill from its dense, complex and dark power. This is the album after which founding keyboard player Kevin Moore left, and in my opinion, you can tell how troubled he was throughout this album. On the previous two albums, his playing is fiery and pyrotechnic, with some more reflective, gentle passages. On Awake it is a different story. He often uses a new sound, a ...  Read the complete review

1994’s Awake sees Dream Theater indulging the heavier side to their unique brand of progressive rock cum metal, a creative direction that can at least in part be attributed to record label Elektra’s drive to fashion the quintet into some sort of commercialised prog hit-factory. The result is a much darker-sounding record than their debut, Images And Words, that delivers a more consistent, but consequently less varietous, set of songs. Awake panders squarely to fans of hardcore prog – factor in the CD’s 75-minute length and wave goodbye to the accessibility that made Images And Words so popular. Here, Dream Theater’s astonishing ...  Read the complete review