Maps of Music

Images and Words (1992)

Where the lyrics of Images and Words take you, and where it was really made.

The snare sample on this album is the exact one used on FireHouse's 1992 album Hold Your Fire, which the same producer made around the same time.

Key places

Additional recording at The Hit Factory (1992)

Recording site The Hit Factory — The album credits list The Hit Factory in New York City as a place where additional recording was done. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Recording and mixing at Bear Tracks Studio (1992)

Recording site Bear Tracks Studio — The album credits say it was recorded and mixed at Bear Tracks Studio in Suffern, New York, from October to December 1991. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Images and Words: second studio album by American progressive metal band Dream Theater
• Released in July 1992 through Atco Records
• First Dream Theater album with James LaBrie on vocals
• Band's most commercially successful studio album to date
• "Pull Me Under" is the band's only Top 10 hit, radio or otherwise
• The song gained renewed popularity after its 2008 appearance in Guitar Hero World Tour

Background

• After Charlie Dominici left, the band auditioned nearly 200 people across the nation
• James LaBrie, then in Canadian glam metal band Winter Rose, sent an audition tape
• After a short jam session, LaBrie was named the new lead singer
• Atco signed the band to a seven-album contract
• The band originally planned a double album, but Atco rejected the plan and several songs were cut
• "A Change of Seasons" was one of the omitted songs and was later re-recorded for a 1995 EP

Recording

• The band began recording in late 1991
• Recorded and mixed at Bear Tracks Studio, Suffern, NY, October to December 1991
• Additional recording at The Hit Factory, NYC
• Producer David Prater clashed with the band during production
• Prater at times locked the band out of the studio
• Prater forced drummer Mike Portnoy to use triggered snare and bass drum samples

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · www.discogs.com · fr.wikipedia.org · es.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Dream Theater is an American progressive metal band formed in 1985 in Boston, Massachusetts.
• Petrucci, Myung and Portnoy formed the band under the name Majesty while attending Berklee College of Music.
• The band was renamed Dream Theater in 1988 after a legal challenge from a Las Vegas group also named Majesty.

Members

• Current members are John Petrucci (guitar), John Myung (bass), James LaBrie (vocals), Jordan Rudess (keyboards), and Mike Portnoy (drums), who rejoined in October 2023.
• Petrucci and Myung have remained in the band since its founding.

Career

• The band has released 16 studio albums; Images and Words (1992) is its highest-selling release.
• Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory (1999) received high critical acclaim.
• By 2018 the band had sold over 12 million records worldwide.
• The band has been referred to as one of the "Big Three" of progressive metal, along with Queensrÿche and Fates Warning.
• A View from the Top of the World's lead single "The Alien" won a Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance in 2022.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Rock Hard named the album Album of the Month and praised the band as style-transcending
• Select gave a lower rating, calling it elaborate, layered prog-metal that was glossy but not essential
• AllMusic's Phil Carter praised the players' skill and LaBrie's vocal range
• Carter described the album as an excellent mix of progressive metal with heartfelt vocals
• Metal Storm called the album a masterpiece and a historical album
• Martin Popoff praised the musicianship and tricky arrangements but found the album too self-aware and calculated

Reappraisal

• Loudwire named the album the best metal album of all time in its fan-voted March Metal Madness award on April 9, 2013
• Guitar World ranked it 7th on its top ten list of 1992 guitar albums in October 2011
• Prog Report ranked it first on its list of the top 50 progressive rock albums of 1990 to 2015 in 2015
• Rolling Stone ranked it 95th on its 100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time list in 2017
• Loudwire ranked it 4th among 1990s progressive metal albums in 2025

Records

• Billboard 200 peak: number 61 on the US chart
• Only Dream Theater album certified gold by the RIAA
• Sales of more than 600,000 copies, the band's best-selling album to date
• "Pull Me Under" reached the Top 10 of Billboard's Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The snare sample is the exact one used on FireHouse's 1992 album Hold Your Fire, another album producer David Prater made around the same time
• The song Take the Time includes samples from Kurtis Blow, Frank Zappa and Public Enemy
• The song also features a quote from the film Cinema Paradiso, sung and paraphrased by LaBrie
• LaBrie had guested on Fates Warning's 1991 album Parallels, and Dream Theater thanked Fates Warning in this album's credits
• In a 2019 interview, LaBrie said the album is the Dream Theater album he is most proud of
• Images and Words was played in full on several dates of the 2007 Chaos in Motion tour in Europe, marking its 15th anniversary

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · pt.wikipedia.org

Maps of Ages ↗ (mapsofages.com)

Privacy · Contact