Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory

Fans had previously requested a sequel to the song "Metropolis—Part I" from Images and Words, but the band had not yet been able—nor had they originally intended—to make one. The "Part I" was added by Petrucci as a joke. With the sessions for Falling Into Infinity (1997), the band recorded a 21-minute instrumental demo of "Metropolis Pt. 2" (which Mike Portnoy later released via his Ytsejam Records site along with the other Falling Into Infinity demos), but this did not make it onto that album. The demo, which included several musical citations from "Metropolis—Part I" and featured many motifs that would later appear on Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory (most notably the majority of "Overture 1928" and "Strange Deja Vu" and parts of "The Dance of Eternity" and "One Last Time"), was however significantly different from the finished album version in most parts.

At some point during the mixing sessions for their 1994 album, Awake, keyboardist Kevin Moore left Dream Theater. Accordingly, They held auditions for keyboardists. Initially, Jordan Rudess played one concert with them on September 9, 1994, but wasn't yet considered a Full-Time member due to commitments to another band, the Dixie Dregs and his job at Kurzweil Music Systems. Once more, they held another round of auditions for keyboardists, and in October 1994, they selected Derek Sherinian as a touring keyboardist, then promoted him to Full-Time member in February 1995. His time in Dream Theater yielded an E.P., A Studio Album and A Concert Album. As such, Sherinian provided synth work for the "Metropolis pt. 2" demo recorded during the sessions for "Falling Into Infinity".

While Dream Theater had to promote that album with Sherinian, their drummer Mike Portnoy and guitarist John Petrucci had a side-project named Liquid Tension Experiment, which also counted with the help of bassist Tony Levin and returning session keyboardist Jordan Rudess.

Portnoy and Petrucci then convinced bassist John Myung and singer James LaBrie to have Jordan Rudess join, and Derek Sherinian was fired from Dream Theater via conference call. (Portnoy and Petrucci have stated that while it was an uncomfortable and unattractive situation, they didn't want to ask Derek to fly from Los Angeles to New York only to be fired.)[3]

After his departure, the band went back to BearTracks Studios in Suffern, New York, to record their new album, previously the site of recording for Images and Words (a photograph of Beartracks is featured on the album's back cover, meant to represent the house in the album). After the commercial failure of Falling Into Infinity, their record label gave the band free rein over their new album's direction, which led the band to finally finish the story. The final version of the story became a concept album, dealing with the story of a man named Nicholas and the discovery of his past life, which involves love, murder and infidelity as Victoria Page, and as such was heavily inspired by the 1991 film Dead Again,[4][5] more so than "Metropolis—Part I".

Following the album's release, the band embarked on an extensive world tour, and at a show in New York City the band hired actors to perform the narrative elements of the album whilst they played. The performance was recorded and was released in 2001 as the Metropolis 2000 live DVD. In 2011 the album was released on LP for the first time to celebrate Record Store Day. In 2019, the twentieth anniversary of the release of Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory, Dream Theater performed it live in its entirety alongside material from their fourteenth studio album, Distance over Time.[6][7] The Distance over Time tour was documented as well and released in November 2020.

Scenes from a Memory showcased a traditional progressive rock sound.[1][8][9][10] According to the "Making of Scenes from a Memory" video, some of the influences for Metropolis Pt. 2 are the following concept albums: The Who's Tommy (1969), Genesis' The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (1974), Roger Waters' Amused to Death (1992), Radiohead's OK Computer (1997), Queensrÿche's Operation: Mindcrime (1988), The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), Marillion's Misplaced Childhood (1985), and Pink Floyds' The Wall (1979) and The Final Cut (1983). These albums are shown on a table Mike calls "Inspiration Corner".[11]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
Rock Hard	10/10[12]
Metal Storm	10/10[5]

Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory reached #73 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, #2 on the Billboard Top Internet Albums, #6 on the Finnish Albums Chart and #8 on the German Albums Chart. The album received acclaim from a variety of sources. It was ranked number 95 on the October 2006 issue of Guitar World magazine's list of "The greatest 100 guitar albums of all time".[13] It is ranked as the 15th Greatest Concept Album (as of March 2003) by Classic Rock Magazine.[14] The German Rock Hard magazine voted it Album of the Month, giving a perfect score,[12] and eventually ranked it number 410 in their book The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time in 2005.[15]

In 2012, the readers of Rolling Stone voted the album into the #1 position of their "Your Favorite Prog Rock Albums of All Time" poll.[16] Scenes from a Memory was ranked by the same magazine at #29 in their list "50 Greatest Prog Rock Albums of All Time."[17]

In 2015, The Prog Report ranked it #3 in the Top 50 Modern Prog Albums 1990–2015.[18]

Jordan Blum of PopMatters called the album "the greatest progressive metal work of all time."[19]

Loudwire named it at #14 in their list "Top 25 Progressive Metal Albums of All Time."[20]

Dream Theater

• James LaBrie – lead vocals
• John Petrucci – guitar, backing vocals, programming (track 7), production
• Jordan Rudess – keyboard, choir arrangement and conducting (track 11)
• John Myung – bass
• Mike Portnoy – drums, background vocals, production

Guests

• Theresa Thomason – additional vocals (tracks 7, 11), additional background vocals (track 11)
• Mary Canty, Shelia Slappy, Mary Smith, Jeanette Smith, Clarence Burke Jr., Carol Cyrus, Dale Scott – additional background vocals (track 11)
• Terry Brown – voice of the Hypnotherapist (uncredited)
• David Bottrill – voice of Edward (uncredited)

Production

• Doug Oberkircher – sound engineering
• Brian Quackenbush – assistant engineering
• Michael Bates – assistant engineering
• Terry Brown – vocals co-production
• Kevin Shirley – mixing engineering (tracks 2–8, 11)
• Rory Romano – mixing engineering assistance (tracks 2–8, 11)
• David Bottrill – mixing engineering (tracks 1, 9, 10, 12)
• Shinobu Mitsuoka – mixing engineer assistance (tracks 1, 9, 10, 12)
• George Marino – mastering engineering
• Eugene Nastasi – mastering engineering assistance
• Lili Picou – art direction and design
• Dave McKean – cover illustration
• Ken Schles – still life photography
• Andrew Lepley – house photography
• Darko Danicic – band photography

• Very detailed analysis of SFAM music and lyrics by Fabien Labonde