Band:	Dream Theater
Album:	Score
Style:	Progressive metal
Release date:	August 29, 2006
Guest review by:	Storchillarn

Disc I
01. The Root Of All Evil
02. I Walk Beside You
03. Another Won
04. Afterlife
05. Under A Glass Moon
06. Innocence Faded
07. Raise The Knife
08. The Spirit Carries On

Disc II
01. Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence
    1 - Overture
    2 - About To Crash
    3 - War Inside My Head
    4 - The Test That Stumped Them All
    5 - Goodnight Kiss
    6 - Solitary Shell
    7 - About To Crash (Reprise)
    8 - Losing Time / Grand Finale
02. Vacant
03. The Answer Lies Within
04. Sacrificed Sons

Disc III
01. Octavarium
    1 - Intro
    2 - Someone Like Him
    3 - Medicate Me
    4 - Full Circle
    5 - Intervals
    6 - Razor's Edge
02. Metropolis Pt.1

As always with Dream Theater every year means a new release and so one year after their highly anticipated and well received studio-album Octavarium, which offered very varied songwriting, they return with another live album and DVD. Their website states that SCORE is the "20th Anniversary World Tour grand finale" and because it was recorded in the band's hometown of New York you know the audience won't be holding back. But on to the details of the album itself.

The set-list is in my opinion is not as good as the one on Live at Budokan. On SCORE they decided to add some never-before-played-live material: the song Another Won from the time when the official band name was still Majesty and Raise the Knife from the Falling Into Infinity sessions (you actually wonder why it wasn't on the original album in the first place). Besides the last and first two songs the set-list is made in chronological order starting from Another Won all the way up to Octavarium. From CD2 and on they even play with an orchestra which really makes songs like Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, Vacant and Octavarium stand out live.

The performance of all the band-members is what really makes this album worth owning. There are no audible mistakes and you don't need to know anything about music to tell they play it better than most other artists. They always try to enhance their live-shows in different ways and SCORE is no exception. The extended intro to The Spirit Carries On is one of the highlights, the full-scale orchestra is another. Jordan Rudess makes an incredible continuum-solo during the extended Octavarium intro which'll leave you breathless at least until the incredible climax of the song.

I just have to add the fact that James Labrie sounds amazing on this album. I've never heard him this great live and although I've never had any problems with his singing live I know a lot of people have. So you have nothing to worry about. Perhaps you'll be surprised how great he can actually sing. Finally, the production of the album is top notch. Produced by the band's own John Petrucci and Mike Portnoy it really presents the music as close to the real live-performance as possible.

So we've got a full-packed 3 hour set of entertainment from one of the worlds biggest Progressive Metal-bands with flawless production and a great variation of songs which makes this album both a great way to start out a Dream Theater-collection and for old fans to hear an incredible live-performance.

Best: The Spirit Carries On, Octavarium, Metropolis.