Most bands write, record and release songs in short order. Even groups prone to taking lengthy breaks between albums work quickly once the creative juices start flowing. Dream Theater didn't intend to buck the trend when they wrote their epic suite "A Change Of Seasons" in 1989, but the track was left off their 1992 album Images and Words, which bore its sister song, "Metropolis - Pt. 1." Since then, the suite has been performed live only twice, and fans have patiently made do with bootlegs. On September 19th, the waiting will be over. A massive fan campaign organized through the Internet flooded the band's record label with requests for a studio recording of "A Change Of Seasons." The band has responded with a compilation EP containing a reworked version, along with a set of cover songs performed at Dream Theater's "Uncovered" concert in London this January. Like its title track, the EP is unusually long, with nearly an hour of music.
The band reunited with David Prater, Doug Oberkirchner, and Bear Tracks Studio, the production team behind Images and Words, with clean, precise results. The musical similarity between "A Change Of Seaons" and "Metropolis - Pt. 1" is evident, but for all its length, the suite has few slow spots, and is more diverse and moving than "Metropolis." The EP's second side is also diverse, full of covers and medleys of songs by several bands which influenced Dream Theater. The selection ranges from Elton John's 1973 "Funeral for a Friend" and "Love Lies Bleeding" to Deep Purple's 1984 "Perfect Strangers." Between these chronological extremes fall the "Led Zeppelin Medley" and "The Big Medley," featuring songs by Pink Floyd, Kansas, Queen, Journey, Dixie Dreggs, and Genesis.
The unusual track list will make A Change Of Seasons a must-have for Dream Theater fans interested in the first official release of previously unavailable songs. The title track will also appeal strongly to fans of progressive rock and metal, and the covers offer a fresh treatment of seventies songs many fans grew up with. Those who buy this EP only for the title track, or only for the covers, should be pleasantly surprised by what they find on the flip side.
