Every band is entitled to their masterpiece. Pink Floyd has "Dark Side of the Moon" Led Zepellin has "Led Zepellin IV" The Beatles have "Abbey Road" Rush has "Moving Pictures"....and Dream Theater has "Scenes From A Memory". If the thought of a progressive concept album makes you shudder, then well...you're probably not reading this right now. Dream Theater combined their much anticipated sequel to their monumental hit Metropolis with the idea that seemingly every band gets around to eventually, a concept album.

This is Dream Theater's first album with new keyboardist Jordan Rudess and the improvement is immediate and extremely gratifying. Jordan manages to "click" with the band in a way that Derek Sherinian and certainly Kevin Moore never managed to, re-creating the "musical fusion" from both Liquid Tension Experiment albums.

That's not to say that this album sounds like LTE with vocals, The album sounds like what it is, Dream Theater at the peak of their writing.

Outstanding moments include the complex and zappa-esque Fatal Tragedy, The moving ballad Through Her Eyes, The bombastic and eastern-flavored Home, and the dual album closers The Spirit Carries On and Finally Free. The album flows beautifully from song to song, with melodies as complex as ever, but still strangely hummable, making them catch in your mind like a fishhook. The quality of the songwriting and playing mixed with the intriguing story of Murder and Reincarnation, make you spin this one A LOT.

To say that scenes is DT's best album is a gross understatement. I'd reccomend this album to anybody and everybody, and if you ever wanted to introduce a non-prog fan to a new world, this is the place to start.