Liquid Tension Experiment 3

Alright, let's kick this review off on a different note for a change. There are many prejudices regarding Liquid Tension Experiment and its third studio album and almost all of them are completely wrong in my book. Is it true that the quartet sounds rusty twenty-two years after its last studio output? No, the four talented gentlemen don't sound rusty at all and have excellent chemistry which is quite astonishing considering that bassist Tony Levin is already seventy-four years old. Doesn't Liquid Tension Experiment only offer long-winded instrumental wankery for pretentious connoisseurs? No, that isn't the case either since the songs vary in length, sound surprisingly structured and should at least partially appeal to most fans of progressive rock and metal music. Is it true that the band basically sounds like Dream Theater without vocals? No, Dream Theater focuses much more on atmosphere, concept and structure than the mostly improvised songwriting of Liquid Tension Experiment. Doesn't Liquid Tension Experiment sound much better than Dream Theater? No, it doesn't and it wouldn't be fair to compare those two bands since James LaBrie's emotional vocals have always been an essential element in Dream Theater's sound. Wouldn't it be great to have Mike Portnoy back in Dream Theater since he is still cooperating with some of its members in Liquid Tension Experiment? No, that wouldn't be a great idea since Mike Portnoy has many other interesting projects going on and the chemistry in Dream Theater with current drummer Mike Mangini seems to be better than ever before.

With those questions out of the way, what can we say about this instrumental progressive metal album whose limited edition includes thirteen songs and a whopping running time of one hour and fifty-seven minutes? Well, the final result is varied, skillful and much more entertaining than I had initially expected. The first disc offers eight more structured tunes while the second disc presents five songs consisting of improvised jams. The first disc should be accessible for most progressive rock and metal fans while the second disc is for die-hard fans of the band only.

Among the most accessible songs, ''Beating the Odds'' comes around with futuristic melodies where guitars and keyboards harmonize perfectly and bring back the greatest hours of progressive rock and metal music of the nineties. ''The Passage of Time'' also opens up after a few spins with a more technical, raw and contemporary edge driven by the guitars and rhythm section but those passages are refreshingly interwoven with mellower parts driven by imaginative keyboard sounds and a few heartfelt guitar solos.

Among the more experimental tracks, ''Chris & Kevin's Amazing Odyssey'' is a highly atmospheric combination of otherworldly bass guitar sounds and playful percussive sections that take the listener on an uneasy but fascinating trip. ''Shades of Hope'' on the other side offers an epic, melodic and vibrant combination of mid-paced piano sounds and slow guitar leads that makes for an imaginative instrumental ballad.

The record's longest tunes like the warm, slow and mellow ''Rhapsody in Blue'' and the diversified, imaginative and spectacular ''Key to the Imagination'' combine the more accessible moments with the group's confident experimental side. They sound appealing upon first contact but need some focus and time to fully unfold due to their epic lengths.

Not every single experiment on this album works out however. The challenging ''Hypersonic'' is chaotic, fast and technical and the worst way to open an album in my opinion. ''Solid Resolution Theory'' is a tad bit repetitive towards the end and could have been cut by at least three minutes to make it sound more fluid, focused and organic.

At the end of the day, Liquid Tension Experiment's third studio album was certainly worth the wait and offers almost two hours of diversified, inspired and technically stunning progressive metal musicianship that grows with every single spin. That's no music to be listened to on your iPod on your bus ride to work or on Spotify while cooking your dinner. This music is best appreciated with some time, patience and focus as you put your headphones on, sit down and close your eyes. This imaginative music offers escapism of the greatest kind and transports its listeners to worlds unknown which is a welcome gift in tough times like these.

After 22 years passing with no activity from one of the most renowned prog supergroups of all time, when Liquid Tension Experiment finally revealed that a new album was to be released, expectations were ridiculously high, and understandably so. This group is undeniably overflowing with talent, and has a damn solid resume to back them up. However, after all this time, does LTE3 meet our expectations?

I had extremely high hopes for this release after the first single, The Passage of Time, was released. It had a straight-ahead, catchy, and satisfying riff, as well as the epic tone, wild shredding, and fascinating melodies that we’ve all come to expect from this group. My expectations were slightly lowered after Beating the Odds, which has admittedly grown on me since, but initially lacked the impact I was looking for. And finally, upon Hypersonic’s release, my anticipation was through the roof.

Hypersonic serves as a wicked opener to this album, definitely a real face-melter to start the album off strong. It tells you pretty much everything you need to know about this group: the reliance on technical dexterity, each member’s individual talents, and the absolutely ridiculous and often difficult to process melodies, solos and passages. This track is followed by the (at least comparatively) more relaxed track, Beating the Odds. After that is Liquid Evolution, and that’s where the album starts to lose me. This track did a poor job of keeping my interest and was kind of generally uninteresting. The Passage of Time and its absolutely killer riff brought me back, Chris & Kevin’s Amazing Odyssey was slightly underwhelming but still enjoyable. Rhapsody in Blue, after a slow start, brought in the satisfying riffs that I’d been looking for. My opinions on these tracks pretty much describes my overall feelings for the album: the strong tracks are engaging and highly enjoyable, but the weaker tracks in between are… pretty damn weak. I would have enjoyed this album to a higher extent if it weren’t for the aforementioned weak tracks, which detract from its re-listenability.

As for the more specific elements of this album, it was pretty much what I expected, given the background of each musician. John Petrucci’s tone is, as always, heavy and absolutely fantastic, and he plays with as much feel, speed and technical dexterity as ever. Tony Levin’s bass parts are excellent; although I definitely would have appreciated him having a bit more well-deserved time in the forefront. Mike Portnoy’s drums sound killer as always, and Jordan Rudess plays both piano and synth parts that I could only dream of playing. The production doesn’t detract from any of it; one could complain that it’s your typical sterile prog production, but like it or not, it definitely works well with this.

Obviously, this group has an insane amount of talent under their belts, so my complaints fall upon the songwriting. This is a quintet of incredible songwriters, and I personally am a fan of intense and long-winded noodling, so that aspect of the album is certainly not where my issue lies. A couple tracks had parts that were oddly reminiscent of other works by these artists; such as the Count Of Tuscany-sounding bit on Rhapsody in Blue, and the beginning of Key to the Imagination, which reminded me of John Petrucci’s latest solo album. Even besides the slightly recycled parts, something about this album just didn’t do it for me. Almost every track (besides the two that I mentioned disliking earlier) has parts that I really liked; sections that I found incredibly engaging; melodies, solos and riffs that sounded great and were nice to listen to; and passages that stuck with me for quite a while after listening. On the other hand, these tracks (particularly the 10+ minute ones towards the end) also suffered from borderline boring sections that kind of lost me partway through the track. When something more engaging came in later, they brought me right back, but overall I would describe this album as rather inconsistent. The good parts were incredible, but were offset by weaker parts that definitely detracted from it.

Overall, I don’t think this album really scratched the itch I was hoping it would. Despite everything I loved about it, there were a significant amount of parts that really just didn’t do it for me, and caused the rest of the album to suffer. It’s definitely not a bad album, and I most likely will revisit it after a while to see if it’s grown on me at all. However, for now, I’ll probably stick with the individual tracks that I enjoyed significantly more.