Images and Words (1992)

Personnel:

James LaBrie: vocals

John Petrucci: guitar, backing vocals

John Myung: bass

Kevin Moore: keyboards

Mike Portnoy: drums, percussion, backing vocals (1)

Jay Beckenstein: soprano saxophone (2)

Larry Freemantle: cover art

David Prater: mixing

Doug Oberkircher: engineer, mixing

Steve Regina: assistant engineer

Produced at BearTracks Studios in Suffern, New York and The Hit Factory in New York City, October - December 1991 by David Prater

UK and US release date: July 1992.

Highest chart places: UK: none, USA: 61

Running time: 57:04

Current edition: ATCO Records 2016 gold & solid red limited edition vinyl

Dream Theater - in addition to almost everyone else who heard When Dream and Day Unite upon release - knew that they'd made an enormously forward- thinking and skilful first LP. But, with Mechanic/MCA's lacklustre aid leading to less than desirable results - not to mention the fact that genres like grunge and rap were becoming immeasurably popular as hair metal died out - the band conceded that some big adjustments were needed for its follow-up to fully flourish. Namely, they needed to change singers and labels, no matter how frustrating, extraneous, or disheartening those processes would be. In spite of facing a lot of chaos along the way, they persevered with a vastly superior record contract and frontman, ensuring that their sophomore sequence would be as monumental as possible. To say that 1992's Images and Words was a step up would be putting it lightly; more accurately, the album was a colossal evolution, kickstarting what The Prog Report founder Roie Avin calls 'Dream Theater's reign as the kings of new progressive metal'.

Charlie Dominici's voice certainly suited When Dream and Day Unite, but the rest of the group remorsefully yet decisively determined that he couldn't continue with them due to - among other things - him being over ten years older and not having the look they were going for. Shockingly, Dominici was thinking of leaving, too, since the record wasn't as fruitful as he'd hoped and the rest of the band disliked his suggestions for a more streamlined style. He adds that it was like 'a marriage' that'd run its course and couldn't be saved 'through talking', so he felt it was better to 'bow out gracefully' following a final performance opening for Marillion at the New York Ritz on 14 November 1989. All these years later, he still thinks of Dream Theater as family and is happy - if not also a tad jealous - about how far they've come.

Now faced with a vocalist void, the remaining four members set out to find that perfect singer they'd been searching for all along. At the risk of unnecessary long-windedness, suffice it to say that they tried out roughly 200 people over the next two years or so. Included in that list was Fates Warning's John Arch, who'd previously critiqued Dominici's live stage presence to the band and who ultimately decided that he 'couldn't make that kind of commitment' since he had a child on the way. For a while - and reservations from outside parties notwithstanding - Dream Theater thought they'd found their answer in Chris Cintron, a spry rocker who reminded Portnoy of Kansas' Steve Walsh. That is until they got a package containing 'a glossy black and white photo, a lengthy biography and a tape' from someone who seemed to possess everything the other guys were looking for. His name was Kevin James LaBrie.

Having spent years playing with other artists - explicitly, he took over for Sebastian Bach in Canadian glam metal act Winter Rose - LaBrie was overwhelmingly and consistently extraordinary during his strenuous four-day audition. By the end of it, they 'decided that that was it and [the] search was over'. Aside from being a musical and visual match, he was chosen because unlike many of his predecessors, he was content just to sing what the others wrote for him instead of having a major say in the writing or arranging processes. Likewise, he embraced that idea that he was never going to be 'the sole focus of attention' since Dream Theater were being run primarily by Petrucci and Portnoy. Because they felt that having two Kevins in the band - in addition to two Johns - would've been overly complicated, everyone agreed to have LaBrie go by his middle name instead. The rest, as they say, is history.

With a new singer in place, it was time for Dream Theater to settle on a new record label. Coincidentally, they ended up signing with the aforementioned Kerrang! journalist, Derek Oliver, who now worked as an A&R man at Atco (a subsidiary of Atlantic Records). As fate would have it, Oliver's boss, Derek Shulman, was no stranger to progressive music, as he fronted one of the most unique and respected acts of the 1970s: Gentle Giant. To seal the deal, Dream Theater had to record a three-song demo with LaBrie. It featured Images and Words essentials 'Take the Time' and 'Metropolis', plus a leftover from the When Dream and Day Unite sessions called 'To Live Forever', and all of it stunned the label executives. Despite simpler rock music becoming all the rage at the time, Shulman wasn't dissuaded from signing Dream Theater, either. In fact, he confesses:

Generally, my decisions aren't based on what other people are doing. I felt it had to be marketable or really good. And speaking as someone who signs artists and runs companies, when you see a marketplace going in one direction, you try and run in the other... I was pleased to be signing something that I personally could relate to, and who related to me not only as a record geek but as a musician who had been in a band who had done a similar thing to what they did - just touring and playing very good music.

Their two biggest roadblocks now resolved, Dream Theater were finally able to enter the studio in late 1991 to work on Images and Words. Regrettably, doing so proved far more perilous than expected, as producer - and former Nektar and Santana percussionist - David Prater was famously at odds with the band during the whole thing. Portnoy seems especially embittered toward him for apparently being tricked into using drum triggers; reportedly, Prater also scolded Moore for 'playing his keyboard parts wrongly on purpose to make [Prater] look stupid' - multiple members deny that Moore did this, though - and supposedly added his voice to the very end of closer 'Learning to Live' without any approval. In contrast, LaBrie and Petrucci conclude that while Pratner wasn't exactly tactful or easy-going, he 'got along fabulously' with most of the team and 'did an amazing job for us'. While there are usually multiple sides to every story, it's nevertheless astonishing that such a landmark achievement arose out of such combative circumstances.

It's also worth noting that Images and Words was intended to be much longer - possibly even a double album - with one discarded track standing out above the rest. Written about the passing of his mother, Portnoy's 18+ minute epic 'A Change of Seasons' was eventually deemed too much for the time being. Although he was originally hurt by the choice and even spent two hours fighting with Oliver on the phone (since Atco had given them 'every indication that it would be on the album'), Portnoy came to view it as the smart move. Likewise, Petrucci told Prog Sphere in 2017 that it was 'the right decision, for sure. I'm glad that [Images and Words] is only an hour-long record'.After all, the expanded piece ended up getting a standalone release three years later, so it all worked out in the end.

Easily one of the most iconic aspects of Images and Words is its artwork. Designed by renowned artist Larry Freemantle - who says that Myung was 'the key' bandmember in assisting him with the concept - it was envisioned to look like 'an old painting' with 'a collage of engravings and illustrations' that represented each of the eight tracks. That said, Moore suggests that its biggest tie is to 'Wait for Sleep', as the girl on the cover - whom Freemantle names Andrea - is holding a picture of her deceased sister. Also, 'the heart with the barbed wire wrapped around it is symbol of compassion' and, in an eerie forthcoming connection to Steven Wilson's 'The Raven that Refused to Sing', the sibling's spirit is symbolized as a bird. These days, the cover is almost as synonymous with progressive metal as Dream Theater itself.

Initially, the album didn't gain much traction; but, once a condensed version of its opener, 'Pull Me Under', was issued as a single in August 1992, everything changed. Suddenly, countless radio stations were playing it often, with their phones ringing nonstop; similarly, the accompanying music video, which the band now feels is uninspired and cheap, was equally popular on MTV's Headbangers Ball. After 'seven years of frustration', Portnoy says, it was 'incredibly satisfying' to become so big. As a result, the Images and Words tour lasted over a year and saw...