Back when the first Liquid Tension Experiment album came out
\nlast year, I questioned if the progressive rock market wasn’t
\ngetting too saturated with these “one-off” supergroups who get
\ntogether to musically brainstorm. Leave it to the guys in Liquid
\nTension Experiment – guitarist John Petrucci, keyboardist Jordan
\nRudess, bassist Tony Levin and drummer Mike Portnoy – to turn this
\ninto their own side project. Their latest release,
\nLiquid Tension Experiment 2<\/i>, is a definite improvement over
\ntheir last outing, but there still are times when it feels like the
\nenergy is being depleted.<\/p>\n
The sessions for this album were interrupted by the birth of
\nPetrucci’s daughter, but the way this disc is put together, you’d
\nswear that the songs were performed one after the other, with
\nbarely room to breathe. In a way, this helps to really draw
\nLiquid Tension Experiment 2<\/i> together; allowing the songs to
\nflow together helps to keep a level of excitement about the
\nmusic.<\/p>\n
The opening riffs of “Acid Rain” let the listener know that this
\ngroup has grown as a band since the sessions for their first disc.
\nWith three-fifths of Dream Theater taking part in this album
\n(Rudess replaced Derek Sherinian as DT’s keyboardist shortly after
\nthese sessions took place), you know that the prog-rock levels are
\ngoing to be pushed to new heights – and the band doesn’t
\ndisappoint.<\/p>\n
But what makes this album so special is that they’re willing to
\ntake more chances outside of the strict prog-rock borders.
\n“Biaxident” succeeds on many levels, going from a tune with a
\nslight Latin flavor to the rhythm backbone to a solid rocker. On
\nthe opposite side of the spectrum, “Hourglass” is a beautiful piece
\nwith only Rudess and Petrucci playing; Petrucci’s acoustical work
\nis breathtaking, showing everyone why he could be one of the most
\nunderrated guitarists in a long time.<\/p>\n
There are some moments on
\nLiquid Tension Experiment 2<\/i> that take some time for the
\nlistener to get used to. “914” is a bizarre jam between Levin (who
\nfinally gets a chance to have his bass work brought to the
\nforefront), Rudess and Portnoy, who recorded this while Petrucci
\nwas out of the studio for his daughter’s birth. It’s kind of a
\nweird funk groove that’s laid down, but after a few listens, you
\ncan’t help being hooked by it. The same can’t be said for
\n“Chewbacca,” the only outright dud on the disc which just never
\nseems to gel as a song.<\/p>\n
The centerpiece of the album is “When The Water Breaks,” the
\nsong the band was working on when Petrucci’s wife went into labor.
\nThis one is just a lot of fun to listen to, and makes what was
\nreally hard work for these four musicians sound like it flowed out
\nof them effortlessly.<\/p>\n
While the first Liquid Tension Experiment album – albeit an
\nenjoyable and musically solid album – sounded like the band was
\ntrying to force itself to create some magic,
\nLiquid Tension Experiment 2<\/i> feels like everything just came
\ntogether. Only near the end, on “Chewbacca” and “Liquid Dreams,” do
\nthings sound like they were running out of steam. Maybe this is
\nbecause the sessions were interrupted by the impending birth, I
\ndon’t know.<\/p>\n
\nLiquid Tension Experiment 2<\/i> is a marked improvement over the
\nfirst effort from some of prog-rock’s biggest names, and is an
\noverall very enjoyable disc. One has to wonder what they have up
\ntheir sleeves for the third installment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25032,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5942],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-36237","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-liquid-tension-experiment","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36237"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36237"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}