The sophisticated and enchanting music of New York’s Dream Theater hangs on the precipice of my patience when it comes to music meeting art: the band’s self-styled progressive metal sound has been in constant evolution since this 1992 debut, but for all the bombastic overblown intricacies and contrasting simplicity of some of their later albums, ‘Images and Words’ remains their most popular and enjoyable offering, with the perfect balance of song styles acting as an excellent introduction to a very interesting and worthwhile band. STYLE Dream Theater was: James LaBrie – vocals John Petrucci – guitars John Myung – ...  Read the complete review

A true masterpiece of progressive rock in every sense, Images And Words was light years head of its time and like all desert island releases, still remains one of the very best progressive albums to this day. With a set list littered with classic tracks, innovative sounds and fantastic playing, Dream Theater forged its legacy with this disk, which helped them to go on to become of the greatest bands ever. The opener, Pull Me Under is a mainstay of the DT live set lists and justifies its high status with a majestic instrumental opening before catchy lyrics and a hard rock sound dominate the rest of the track. The following Another Day is the ...  Read the complete review

Both critics and fans struggle to precisely define Dream Theater’s style because, like all great music, it represents bits taken from lots of different genres arranged into something that doesn’t particularly resemble anything that’s been done before (or since). Recurrently, this stuff is classified as “progressive-metal”, but the connotations of that generalisation won’t prepare you for Images and Words. This album – the debut of the latter-era Dream Theater line-up (which boasted an operatically-trained vocalist in James LaBrie) – was released a shade over ten years ago now and is still widely regarded as the ...  Read the complete review

Although this band has been together for years it was this 1992 album ‘Images and Words’ that was the initial eye-opener for me. The album itself contains some excellent compositions that really boost the thought provoking lyrics sung by first rate vocalist James Labrie. There really isn’t a bad song on this album. In hindsight this is largely a heavier guitar/keyboard laden album than their more recent ones with the possible exception of the beautiful piano/vocal track ‘wait for sleep’, a song which suitably demonstrates the bands lighter, more sensitive side and ultimately lends the album a well balanced feel. ...  Read the complete review

That's very simple and clear possibly the greatest record of progressive metal and the record which brought progressive music in the 90's back from the dead... The Berklee collage graduates succeeded in making a record that combines heavy, double bass - heavy metal riffing, fusion rythyms, technical extremities , eloquent piano parts and soulful singing into completed and balanced songs. That wasn't a novelty by itself, but the way in which Dream Theater did it, a band in which the only thing that comes above their individual musical geniuses is their own alien communication, like one was actually made for another. Do yourself and buy one of the greatest masterpieces or .  Read the complete review