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Dream Theater > The Number of the Beast > Reviews
Dream Theater - The Number of the Beast

Fun, but pointless in the end - 80%

Empyreal, September 28th, 2007

What if you were in a Dream Theater concert and then suddenly, the band switched to playing a bunch of Iron Maiden's songs? That is exactly what happened to the audience of Dream Theater's 2002 show in Paris, France - this is a so-called "live bootleg" of Iron Maiden's milestone album The Number of the Beast, played note for note, word for word, chord for chord. I'd say that's about the problem with it...what is the point in releasing this when we already have Iron Maiden's album, which features much more powerful vocals and a more energetic attitude to the whole thing? LaBrie sounds great here, almost as good as on Dream Theater's early albums, but his voice doesn't necessarily stack up to Dickinson's charismatic operatic bellow when he's doing Maiden's songs, not by a long shot. The music is played strictly by the Bible of Maiden, not adding anything new to the songs (with the exception of "Gangland", which I'll get to shortly) or improving them at all. Ironic, considering the band I'm reviewing here.

This is quite entertaining though, just because it's Dream Theater doing Maiden songs. I mean, it's like when you see a one eyed man walking down the street; you just can't help stopping and watching (or in this case, listening). We're all human, and when something like this comes along, the usual reaction would be to want to hear it, just for the sake of it. And while there really is no point to this at all, it's pretty cool to hear Maiden solos done in Petrucci fashion (check "Hallowed Be Thy Name" especially), no matter what anybody else says. Oh, and the song "Gangland" is certainly an eyebrow-raiser here, transformed from a simple, catchy rock song into a sprawling, 70s prog rock tribute. The lyrics are now extremely unfitting for such a slow, spacey, abstract song, but the music is good Dream Theater fodder for fans of that sort of thing. Not bad at all.

While this obviously pales in comparison to Maiden's timeless classic of a heavy metal record, it's a nice little tribute, and fans of both Maiden and Dream Theater will find at least a bit to enjoy here. Recommended.

One Of The Best Tribute Albums - 90%

yanosh, April 6th, 2005

Until recently i owned the bootleg (not official) version of this show, which took place in Paris in October 24, 2002.
Now I got this official bootleg and the quality of the mix is much better than the audience recording of the bootleg - The mix is so good that at times you forget this is a bootleg.

About the music - the addition of the keyboard instead of a second guitar gives the songs a pleasant emotion. The best example is at children of the damned - just listen to the intro or the solo.
I'm a bit disappointed that it is used only a little during the show.
I'm also disappointed that instead of the famous duel guitar harmonies of Dave & Adrian, they didn't try a duel guitar-keyboard but instead went on one guitar only.

James LaBrie - I think he does his best. He has no problem reaching the high notes but his problem is that Bruce Dickinson he is not and where bruce's gives the songs his power and intensity james lacks.
Sometimes his voice sounds so weak & frail (listen to invaders and hallowed) putting ththat I feel like e original album just to hear Bruce's voice.
What I do like about james though is that when he holds his voice for a few seconds on the same note he starts vibrating his voice.

The other musicians, are great but this is no surprise to me since each musician in Dream Theater, excluding the singer is a true virtuoso at his instrument, again I'm only disappointed that I didn't hear the keyboard more often. Most of the songs are played almost identical to the originals except for gangland in which they played a nice slow-groovy version.

The crowd was also good. Just imagine what a treat it was for them to be in a Dream Theater concert when suddenly the whole setting changes to Iron Maiden and Dream Theater are actually starting to play Iron Maiden who must have had quite a few fans there.

I say that if you play a tribute and you play it identical to the original, then at least play it well and Dream Theater does that. The reason they decided to play a tribute concert at the first place was for their own fun and I believe you shouldn't criticize something which is done for the fun (and the fans) since this is the very essence of the music we all love.

So the sound is good, the performance is good and if you love both Iron Maiden and Dream Theater I can certainly recommend this album to you.