AKT (Sideprojects & Experimental Collection) - Die Form

Advantages: Improved live versions of 'Train of Thought' material.
Disadvantages: A confusingly unsatisfying mix of old and new.

...by piano, like a couple of other songs already included here. Only 'Trial of Tears' could disguise itself as a more experimental song due to its length, but it's not a very interesting or eventful journey, even if the chorus is quite nice. That brings us to the majority of the album, which is taken from albums in Dream Theater's more recent, continuing phase. The emphasis of this period is more on a conflict between crushing heaviness, probably inspired by the emergence of so-called 'nu metal' in the late 90s more than death metal, balanced out by a softer side of soaring guitar melodies and light keyboards. The live experience begins with a demonstration of Dream Theater at its most uncompromising, pounding through the first two songs from Train of Thought ('As I Am' and 'This Dying Soul') followed by a ridiculously extended version... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Poignant vocals, emotive exposition, critically-applauded, intricate experimentalism.
Disadvantages: I struggle to think of any - at a push, shortage of new tracks.

...---------------- Overview ---------------- For me, this is probably one of the most important albums of all time. What it lacks sometimes in quality - because of course, it is a live album - it more than makes up for in passion, poignancy and sheer sui generis musical abstraction. The album carefully cradles the notion of controlled aggression and in many ways, presents itself as Radiohead's ultimate catharsis. This new approach, also notable in both Kid A and Amnesiac, has, by all accounts, divided critics and furthermore impelled devoted fans to reconsider their opinions. However, despite their genre-hopping tendencies, Radiohead have a fanbase that is still second to none. What with the success of both Thom Yorke's solo side-project (The Eraser) and Johnny Greenwood's branching out into far more abstract and experimental ambience... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Complete unique.
Disadvantages: Not accessable to the average listener.

...With their debut album being re-released and the short album they put together under the side-project Amorphous Androgynous, the band kept seemingly active, but Lifeforms follows on a full three years after the debut Accelerator, and it's obvious the time was used to its fullest. Gone are the four-to-the-floor beats and minimal synth lines. Instead, Lifeforms is a 90 minute sprawling ambient epic, filled with lush synths, subtle ryhthms and enough field recordings to kit out the BBC sound department for a whole series of 'Wildlife on One'. Concieved as an album, rather than a collection of songs, the band announced it to be an album with no singles. And indeed, the two singles from the record are paradoxically not present; "Cascade" is stripped down to its bare frame and is barely recognisable, and "Lifeforms" itself shares nothing... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful