It's no secret that the nineties were the decade of grunge and alternative music. Bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden ruled the charts and in the process revolutionized the way music was to sound like by bringing their chip into the game, which in turn ended up meaning that anything not resembling grunge could easily be given up for dead and as not standing a chance against the aforementioned new wave of music. Progressive rock was obviously amongst these "obsolete" genres, and if the eighties had been the genre's coma (with the exception of bands like Pink Floyd and Rush), the new decade was about to pull the plug. People had lost all interest in progressive rock bands, and the latter's demise was just a matter of time, since most of them were content with mimicking the seventies' formula of progressive rock, which in turn meant that what "progressive" meant in the first place was being lost thanks to bands stagnating within a sound that belonged to another era.

When everything seemed lost, however, a completely unknown band from the US broke out with a record that turned the entire concept of progressive rock around and gave way to a whole new generation of progressive bands. That band was Dream Theater, which with Images and Words began earning a small cult of loyal followers that were already tired of hearing the same alternative bands everywhere they went. The new fans were attracted to the fact that the album gave progressive rock a new focus, with heavier guitars and pounding drums, while still maintaining the genre's essential characteristics, such as odd-time signatures and complex compositional structures. It was certainly a fresh and intriguing "alternative" to the music scene out there at the time.

The album begins with the classic "Pull Me Under," Dream Theater's first single ever and a track in which the guitar and synth melodies quickly create an entire atmosphere while the drums mark an interesting beat in the background. The track's sound then gets bigger and bigger until a huge distorted riff takes the spotlight with the rhythm lead and evolves into a complex web of layers that can be heard throughout the song's verses and pre-choruses, which complements the track's mood and is kept as a varying accompaniment for the distorted guitar riff. The chorus' vocal melody, meanwhile, is rather catchy, which was probably the reason why the song was chosen a single in the first place. Then it's off to the middle section, where guitarist John Petrucci and keyboardist Kevin Moore perform some very good solos that achieve virtuoso flash while avoiding oversaturation; all before the song closes up with a great synth line that marks the drums' beat.

The following song, "Another Day," is a relaxed ballad that implies an entire change of mood for the listener. It's kind of hard to get into the right vibe for the song after experiencing the intense impact of "Pull Me Under," but the song is still quite good and focuses favorably on the band's lighter side, with the vocal melody shining through and the piano melody that backs it up helping immensely in lifting the entire song. A group of sax solos contribute to the atmosphere as well, before the middle section picks up the pace with some electric guitars and great drum fills, only to burst into an incredibly emotional guitar solo before the song's closing. Then "Take the Time" takes care of sending the listener back to the true formula at the heart of Dream Theater by creating an intense array of extremely complex musical passages, signatures, and moods. The song simply has everything on it: heavy edges, mellow sounds, and some jazzy fills, which allows the band's musicians to open up and shine in their respective performances. Actually, the innumerable changes in the track make it impossible for it to be described, except for the fact that it's full of instrumental interludes. One thing's for sure, it's hard to fathom how the band came up with such a strange and great arrangement.

"Surrounded," meanwhile, starts off with a fading synth melody and a piano line that accompany the vocals and are speeded up after some verses, at which point the guitar kicks in as well. The track has a pretty straightforward beat, but its arrangements make it flow with great ease and make the affair rather accessible and emotional, which becomes quite evident by the time the music returns to the intro melody and fades out gracefully. One then arrives at the song that may very well have been single-handedly responsible for making Dream Theater the leader of the new wave of prog rock: "Metropolis Pt.1."

The track starts out with a cymbal arrangement and keyboard melody that pick up in intensity, thus paving the way for the soon-coming electric guitar riff. After that happens, the rhythm and beats are strongly accentuated by every instrument, which creates a massive wall of sound before singer James LaBrie takes the lead through a couple of passages. Afterwards, one is introduced to a huge instrumental segment during the middle section of the song that allows every instrument to get the spotlight and every member of the band to show off his technical abilities. The tempos behind this aural flurry are characterized by odd-time signatures and a rather complex musical approach, which one believe would harm the song's flow. Alas, the band manages to come out in perfect shape, as the excellent overall arrangement of the song allows for continuous movement before the vocals return for the song's ending and gently lead to the final of this excellent masterpiece.

The following track, "Under a Glass Moon," is another amazing song. The intro's beat is truly outstanding and gives the guitar melody a whole new essence, which changes the feel of the music in a rather drastic and excellent manner. The rest of the band, in turn, achieves an enormous sound through the use of chromatic note phrasing, and the verse play of the guitar, going around the melody line by switching between power chords, arpeggiated chords, and sustained notes, accentuates the band's incredible complexity. "Under a Glass Moon" also benefits from a lengthy instrumental section, much like its predecessor does, and its music moves along with ease, appearing to be entirely disrespectful when it comes to boundaries of any sort. Then the vocals come back for the last verse, with the music finishing in a rather dramatic manner before going into the beautiful "Waiting For Sleep." The aforementioned track is strictly based on piano and vocals, and its short and apparently simple structure varies the album's mood yet again, in no small part thanks to the fact that when one digs deeper, the song is a great composition with an excellently crafted arrangement that accentuates each word perfectly.

Finally, one comes upon "Learning to Live," a grand finale that begins with an amazing musical intro and has particularly impressive vocal melodies, as well as a guitar that just holds out a few notes during the verses while several other keyboard and guitar layers linger intently in the background. Also of special importance is how the bass lines can be clearly appreciated, as the band manages to find the necessary space for its instruments to breathe, which in turn allows for yet another excellent musical interlude with no overly dramatic instrumental wizardry. So with solos that blend in such a manner with the music as to make them seem part of the melody, the song flows gracefully along before giving way to an incredibly touching bass line and then allowing every instrument to come back and increase the track's layering so that its ending is a gigantic wall of sound.

If there's any appropriate way to conclude this review, it's by stating the enormous impact that Images and Words had on progressive rock. The album is a true milestone; a record that launched Dream Theater into prog stardom and began to truly expand the genre's limits and the concept of what it meant. The band brought together melody and rhythm with technically challenging musicianship, and developed an amazingly intense sound within this approach. If anything, I shudder to think where prog would be now if the band had never released this album.

-by Javier Elizondo