BLABBERMOUTH.NET
Expectations are set unreasonably high when a revered band records its first album in over twenty years, especially when it's from a collection of musicians as extraordinary as
LIQUID TENSION EXPERIMENT. The supergroup — consisting of
DREAM THEATER guitarist
John Petrucci, now
DREAM THEATER keyboardist
Jordan Rudess, former-
DREAM THEATER drummer
Mike Portnoy and bassist / Chapman Stick musician
Tony Levin (
KING CRIMSON) — produced two records in the late '90s that set a high bar for instrumental prog rock. The news that the group reconvened during the summer of 2020 for another studio recording after two decades attracted much attention, as well as the prospect of
Portnoy recording with his former
DREAM THEATER bandmates again. The resulting record, simply titled
"Liquid Tension Experiment 3" in the tradition of their previous albums, doesn't quite match the near-perfect highs of its predecessors, though ultimately remains well worth the lengthy wait.
Opening track
"Hypersonic" continues the tradition of first songs from prior
LIQUID TENSION EXPERIMENT efforts, begins with a 30-second barrage of whirlwind musicianship reminding you that the band is going to take you on an expansive journey, and still has the musical chemistry to pull off every twist and turn.
Petrucci storms out of the gate with crunchy metallic riffs while the rest of the band steers through a super-jazzy display of dexterity, with
Portnoy impressing in particular by showing his most frenetic drumming since his
Dream Theater days.
Levin's work on bass and Chapman Stick lays a thick and rumbling underpinning to the proceedings as the song weaves its way through tempo changes throughout, culminating in a scintillating display of shredding from
Petrucci.
The elements that make for one hell of an album opening would be exhausting if the band tried to maintain that for entirety of the record. One of the reasons that the group is as revered as they are though is that they are capable of balancing those moments of indulgent histrionics with moments of calm, catchiness and beauty.
"Beating The Odds" is a high-energy rocker that would have been at home on the soundtrack of a late '90s
SEGA arcade racing game, punctuated by some of the most beautiful guitar work of
Petrucci's career.
"Liquid Evolution" is a piece of new-age prog that allows for both the band and the listener to catch a breather before heavier guitar squeals from
Petrucci and more pronounced keyboard work from
Rudess returns to drive
"The Passage Of Time".
"Chris & Kevin's Amazing Odyssey" is another break from the frantic prog mayhem, with
Levin showing how much he can bend riffs with his Chapman Stick while he's backed by
Portnoy's improvisational drumming. Over-the-top indulgence returns tenfold with the group's cover of
GEORGE GERSHWIN's
"Rhapsody In Blue". The group had performed that track on live shows over a decade ago, but the band's first proper studio recording of the song is filtered through layers of circus prog forming the perfect mix of dexterous, whimsical and bonkers that one would hope for from such a cover.
"Shades Of Hope" is a beautiful single-take duet from
Petrucci and
Rudess that at times is evocative of
Elton John's
"Funeral For A Friend", before the album closes with the sprawling epic
"Key To The Imagination", accentuated by
Rudess's most beautiful keyboard performance on the record.
"Liquid Tension Experiment 3" isn't quite the sublime genre definer that the supergroup's first two albums were. But as outlined above, everything that made the quartet's diehard fans fall in love with those records is more than delivered in droves.