DREAM THEATER – Master of Puppets (2009 Yste Jam)
From Dream Theater’s acclaimed self-released series of covers albums, we have before us Master of Puppets. This was recorded in Barcelona back in 2002. Just as advertised, it’s Dream Theater doing the whole album live, in sequence, and pretty authentically too.
Dream Theater are a very different band from Metallica. This is bound to be interesting.
The most obvious difference is that Metallica have two guitar players, while Dream Theater has one and a keyboard player. On this, Jordan Rudess does aggressive keyboard solos where Kirk Hammett may have laid down one with his axe. He also plays the acoustic parts on keys. From time to time, you forget it’s a keyboard. In short, Rudess turns the prospect of Metallica with keyboards into a lesson on forgetting your assumptions about keyboards!
James LaBrie fits the silhouette of a young James Hetfield. He sings a convincing Metallica cover indeed! He cuts loose and goes for it. Metallica requires a gritty singer, going for it 110%. LaBrie handles it. For Dream Theater, doing these cover albums (from a wide variety of bands in fact) must be a lot of fun. They would have the chance to sing and play in a way that isn’t the usual for them. Guitarist John Petrucci does not often get to riff on something for five minutes straight like Metallica do.
Lars haters are naturally going to ask “What do Metallica songs sound like with a real drummer?” Hey, I’m no Lars hater. (He can play better than I can…) But in answer to that question I can only respond “fucking awesome”.
Dream Theater cover Master of Puppets without drawing attention to themselves. Mike Portnoy does not grandstand and overplay. Nobody does. If the effort was to do an authentic version of Puppets, as close to note for note as possible, then I say mission accomplished. Beat for beat, this is stunningly true to the original album. The keyboards are the most obvious deviation, and that’s minor. In anything, Dream Theater draw attention to the fact that these are great heavy metal songs. Are they Metallica’s best-ever set of songs? Some prefer Kill ‘Em All, some Ride the Lightning. Any way you slice it, Puppets is metal immortal, a very important record in anyone’s collection. Dream Theater painstakingly learned the album front to back so they could play it live for a few thousand people. They did that because it’s a great album on any day.
Dream Theater’s live covers albums (and many, many other releases) can be found on their own Ytse Jam Records website. Check out the multitude of stuff available (though some are out of print now) and try not to drain your bank accounts.
5/5 stars
mikeladano.com 
Great write up Mike. I’d love to see DT on one of their cover nights.
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Me too! But I don’t think they do these anymore without Portnoy. I’m not certain.
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Join my band Dog’s Egg – we’ll play the whole of ‘Music From The Elder’ on our first gig.
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Dream Theater is one of those bands that I never explored, but recently after seeing a lot of Mike Portnoy all over the place, I have been wanting to start visiting their catalog, but not sure to start from the beginning or with a particular album. Thoughts?
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Images and Words! It’s incredible and one of their catchiest albums. STRONGLY recommended.
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Oh! They actually release these? I was chatting with someone fairly recently who was talking about them playing the whole of Dark Side of the Moon. Apparently it was wonderful.
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Yes sir, check out their site. Lots of cool covers albums!
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I wish more band would do covers like these. I like hearing what other bands can do with a song.
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An album is even more interesting. Phish do this frequently. I’ve heard them do the White album.
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Dream Theatre playing Master of Puppets, that does sound interesting. Are there any other albums they covered?
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Number of the Beast was reviewed here by Uncle Meat (link above). There is also Dark Side of the Moon, Made in Japan…lots more!
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Cool.
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I’ve read about these but haven’t heard them. From their own stuff my favorites are 1st, Awake, Images and Words and Octavarium and the latest one The Astonishing. What are yours?
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Interesting stuff Mikey!
Cool angle of having the keys play Hammetts solo’s!
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Sometimes it takes a minute to think, “Who the heck is playing that?”
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I was there!!! IT was awesome!! PRevious night they played a 6 Degrees setlist.. but that night was announced like a”An evening with.. Dream Theater” Pain Of salvation were mere fans like us that night… YOu can see my review (in Spanish, sorry) on that page… https://maeseleiva.wordpress.com/2015/05/15/18-dream-of-puppets/
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Hello Maese Leiva! Thank you for this link, I am using Google translate to read it as much as I can. Must have incredible to see. So did you see both nights?
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Sadly No… It was My first DT show and nobody knew what the had prepared for that night…
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It feels like a bold move covering the full record – but perhaps it’s a high risk, high reward scenario as it sounds like they pulled it off nicely!
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Great review to put the spotlight on the bootleg releases. I have em all. It’s all Portnoys doing. The record label, the releases and the material used are from his soundboard recordings.
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That’s what I figured since he seemed to write all the liner notes. Thanks for the confirmation! In a perfect world, I would own every single one of these….
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I… I had no idea this existed. I must hear it! To the Tubes Of You!
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If you ever see a Dream Theater “official bootleg” in the wild — do not hesitate. I know you’re going to Toronto soon. Unfortunately my final Toronto trip is next week as Jason and I go to “Madhaus Toys” to pick up our massive $340 (USD) Transformers that have finally come in.
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