«Images and Words» is Dream Theater’s second album, released on 7 July 1992 through ATCO Records. The recordings ran from October to December 1991 at BearTracks Studios in Suffern, New York, and at The Hit Factory in New York, with David Prater producing. The line-up was James LaBrie on vocals, John Petrucci on guitar, John Myung on bass, Kevin Moore on keyboards and Mike Portnoy on drums.
“`Country: USA
Style: Progressive Metal
For fans of: Queensrÿche, Fates Warning, Rush
It is the band’s first album with James LaBrie on vocals, picked out of roughly 200 candidates. The compositions are long and complex, with frequent time changes and extended solos.
«Pull Me Under» came out as a single in August 1992, got played on MTV and became their biggest hit, the only one of theirs to reach the Top 10. «Another Day», «Take the Time», «Metropolis—Part I» and «Under a Glass Moon» stand out as well.
The album reached number 61 on the Billboard chart and remains the only Dream Theater record to go gold, still the best-selling release in their catalogue.
At first the band wanted a double album, but the label turned it down and a few songs were left out, including «A Change of Seasons», which was re-recorded later.
It is one of the albums that defined progressive metal and the start of the band’s classic line-up, which stayed together for years and delivered their biggest records.
The record is counted among the most influential in progressive metal and the foundation on which Dream Theater built their long career in the years that followed.
See also
Dream Theater – Parasomnia and Geoff Tate Again Denies Pulling a Knife on Scott Rockenfield: «There Were No Knives».
