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Liquid Tension Experiment
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What happens when you toss some of the most technically articulate progressive rock musicians in the studio at the same time to both write and record an entire album essentially on the spot? This is the premise of the Liquid Tension Experiment.
The Liquid Tension Experiment was initially a side project for John Petrucci (guitar) and Mike Portnoy (drums) from Dream Theater with Jordan Rudess (keyboards) and Tony Levin (bass). Shortly after this little project, Jordan Rudess was asked to play keyboard for Dream theater. At this point, three of the four members were also in Dream Theater. So, I didn’t expect them to produce anything else under this name. However, just last year, they attempted another recording. Apparently John Petrucci had other obligations to attend to, so he didn’t finish the recording. Thus, the release became the Liquid Trio Experiment’s Spontaneous Combustion (2007).
This project isn’t quite the same as Dream Theater, and it does have one particular difference from Dream Theater… it’s all instrumental. That’s right, no singing from James LaBrie. Don’t get me wrong, James LaBrie is good at what he does, but I got sick of it after the first couple Dream Theater albums. That aside, both the self-titled Liquid Tension Experiment from 1998 and Liquid Tension Experiment 2 (1999) were top notch releases in the progressive rock genre; even compared to albums that took years to write. And these were written on the spot out of jam sessions and improvisations. If it’s technical and flashy progressive rock you crave, then it’s the Liquid Tension Experiment you need. QED.
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