Metropolis Part 2: Scenes From a Memory

Act One
1. “Scene One: Regression” John Petrucci / Petrucci 2:06
2. “Scene Two: Part I. Overture 1928” (instrumental) Dream Theater 3:37
3. “Scene Two: Part II. Strange Deja Vu” Mike Portnoy / Dream Theater 5:12
4. “Scene Three: Part I. Through My Words” Petrucci / Petrucci 1:02
5. “Scene Three: Part II. Fatal Tragedy” John Myung / Dream Theater 6:49
6. “Scene Four: Beyond This Life” Petrucci / Dream Theater 11:22
7. “Scene Five: Through Her Eyes” Petrucci / Dream Theater 5:29

Act Two
8. “Scene Six: Home” Portnoy / Dream Theater 12:53
9. “Scene Seven: Part I. The Dance of Eternity” (instrumental) Dream Theater 6:13
10. “Scene Seven: Part II. One Last Time” James LaBrie / Dream Theater 3:46
11. “Scene Eight: The Spirit Carries On” Petrucci / Dream Theater 6:38
12. “Scene Nine: Finally Free” Portnoy / Dream Theater 11:59

Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory is the fifth studio album by American progressive metal band Dream Theater, released in 1999. It is a concept album that deals with the story of a man named Nicholas and the discovery of his past life, which involves love, murder, and infidelity as Victoria Page. It was recorded at BearTracks Studios in New York, where the band had previously recorded their second album Images and Words.

The album is the sequel to “Metropolis Pt. 1: The Miracle and the Sleeper”, a song previously featured on Images and Words. Critical and commercial reaction to the album was extremely favorable, as many fans and critics alike view the album as the band’s masterpiece. It was also the first album to feature Jordan Rudess on keyboards, and the last album (as yet) for which John Myung has written lyrics for a song.

History
After playing with keyboardist Jordan Rudess in Liquid Tension Experiment, a supergroup composed of various members of famous progressive rock bands and finding themselves writing music and working together quite easily, drummer Mike Portnoy and guitarist John Petrucci convinced the band to offer Rudess the position of full-time keyboardist for the band’s upcoming album. He accepted, and unfortunately current keyboardist Derek Sherinian was fired from the band via a Conference Call between the four members in New York and him in Los Angeles (Portnoy and Petrucci have stated that while it was an uncomfortable and unattractive situation, they didn’t want to ask Derek to fly out from L.A. to New York only to be fired). After his departure, the band went back to BearTracks Studios in New York City to record their new album, previously the site of recording for Images and Words. (A photograph of Beartracks Studios 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 begun with “Metropolis, Pt. 1” from Images and Words.

The album’s recording was kept secretive, to keep fans from meddling with the band’s recording, and to surprise them. Fans had previously requested the band to make the sequel to the first part, but they had not yet been able. The band thought that the surprise would delight their fans, thus the secretive nature of the recording. However, shortly before the album’s release, the track list and release date were leaked onto the internet against the band’s wishes.

The album was released in September 1999 to wide critical and commercial success. The band then embarked on a massive world tour, and at a show in New York City the band actually hired actors to perform the album live while they were playing the music in the background. The performance was recorded and was released in 2001 as the Metropolis 2000 Live DVD. To the band’s dismay, their documents of the performances for the album were burdened by the Live CD’s release date, September 11, 2001. The album’s cover also featured pictures of the World Trade Center with a flame above them. The unfortunate occurrence resulted in the band changing the album’s cover shortly after release. However, the original printing has become a rarity among fans of the band.

The album was ranked number 95 on the October 2006 issue of Guitar World magazine’s list of the greatest 100 guitar albums of all time.

Roughly half of the songs on the album was used for the soundtrack of the American version of The History of Trunks, a Dragon Ball Z TV Special.

Story
Characters

Present Time
Nicholas
The Hypnotherapist
The Old Man

1928
Victoria Page - “Metropolis/Love”
Sen. Edward Baynes - “The Miracle”
Julian Baynes - “The Sleeper”

Act 1

Scene One: Regression
The album opens with Nicholas relaxing to the sounds of the Hypnotherapist’s voice and entering a hypnotic state in the pursuit of regression therapy. A part of “The Spirit Carries On” can be faintly heard in the background at one point.

Scene Two: I. Overture 1928
Nicholas is in a hypnotic trance and marvelling at the surreal peace and comfort. As he settles into his trance, he begins to focus on the subject of his regression therapy, a girl named Victoria and a life that feels strangely similar to his own. In this song, there are many parts included from other songs from the album. At the beginning of “Overture 1928” (00:05-00:11) and at the guitar solo (01:35-01:51) there are riffs from Metropolis Pt. 1. The “Strange Déjà Vu” chorus appears from 00:44 to 01:01 and from 02:08 to 02:25. The main theme from “One Last Time” is used from 02:26 to 02:42. A part from “The Dance Of Eternity” is sampled from 02:45 to 03:08. This song is also a slight nod towards The Who’s Tommy. The idea of an instrumental song describing an experience was the concept of the song “Underture” on that album.

Scene Two: II. Strange Déjà Vu
We hear a little more about previous dreams that have led Nicholas to his therapy, and also continue deeper in the current trance. We learn that every time he closes his eyes, he is taken to this very vivid, recurring dream of another (yet just out of reach of conscious understanding) life. We understand that it is what he’s been dreaming previously that has led him to his regression therapy.

The dream is as follows: there is a pathway to a house. Inside the house and upstairs is a room where a girl appears in a mirror. All of this seems very familiar to him, but it logically shouldn’t. In this dream, probably because this is actually a hypnotic trance and not just a regular dream, some things seem clearer than ever before. He can see the face of a young girl and poses the question, “Young child, won’t you tell me why I’m here?” He sees that she has something to share with him, that there is a reason she is leading him here, a story to be told, and this story is of something terrible that is “tearing at her soul”.

Victoria now expresses her first hint at why she is haunting Nicholas. She has been searching for a way to reveal the truth about her murder. She also expresses great lament, “tears my heart into two”. This along with the next line, “I’m not the one the Sleeper thought he knew”, is her guilt that Julian Baynes never knew about her relationship with his brother, Senator Edward Baynes, which we learn about much later. She feels guilty for what she did to Julian.

Now Nicholas is out of his therapy and back in real life. Even though he is awake, the thoughts and events of this other life are beginning to permeate every second of his day, and this is the beginning of his obsession with resolving this whole thing. He desperately wants to know why this is happening and would cross over to this other world consciously if he knew how. Nothing in the current day matters to him, only learning more about his new obsession. It is here that he has his first inclination that he may have actually lived in the world of which he dreams. He knows that this dreamland holds the key to his peace, and he will not rest until he unlocks that door.

Scene Three: I. Through My Words
Nicholas realizes that he was Victoria in a past life. He now knows why he feels so drawn to her and her world as they share the same soul.

Scene Three: II. Fatal Tragedy
It starts with Nicholas ‘alone at night.’ He knows who Victoria is now, but not why she is so torn or how he is involved. Sometime later he goes to visit an older man, who the story makes a point to tell us is ‘alone.’ Whose house this is, and who the old man is, are things that are never made clear. The importance of the older man is that he knows a little about a murder that happened a long time ago and shares what he knows with Nicholas. We learn that a girl was murdered when she was very young. Nicholas sits and listens to the older man’s tale and finds that exactly what happened still remains a mystery.

Nicholas is then realizing that until he unveils the truth about what happened to Victoria, he cannot live his current life. He is stuck in this obsession and cannot turn back. We learn then that Nicholas understands that without faith and hope, ‘there can be no peace of mind,’ therefore Nicholas encourages himself to be strong and have faith that he will find the truth, because without the truth he will never rest. This song ends with the Hypnotherapist speaking. The next session starts with taking Nicholas back to the point of Victoria’s murder.

Scene Four: Beyond This Life
We learn the newspaper account of what happened in 1928. The story is that an anonymous witness heard a horrifying sound and upon reaching the scene of the sound discovered a woman who’d been shot dead, and the shooter standing over her. The witness tried to help, but the man shot himself next. The newspaper account talks of a sad close to a broken love affair. This indicates that the victim and the murderer are identified as previous or maybe even current lovers.

The paper goes on to explain that Victoria and Julian had recently broken up due to Julian’s decadent lifestyle; it’s later suggested that gambling and/or drug addiction might be of significance. Julian later drops a liquor bottle in scene 9, so it’s possible his habit was drinking. It’s also indicated that Victoria would have taken him back if he’d straighten up his lifestyle. The article speculates that the murder may have been premeditated.

Next we read an account of the physical evidence at the scene. There is evidence of a ‘violent struggle’ and a switchblade is found. The switchblade causes some confusion, because the victim is a young girl and typically you wouldn’t expect a young girl in 1928 to be carrying a switchblade, unless she was anticipating a need to defend herself. Also found, in the killer’s pocket, is a written note. It clearly reads that Julian would rather take his own life than live without Victoria, but it mentions nothing of harming her.

Lastly, there is the repetition at the end of “Beyond This Life.” These lines are deepening Nicholas’s belief that he and Victoria share the same soul. They also indicate that not only souls reincarnate, but they also carry the same personality traits with them, and deeds will follow each soul throughout eternity.

Scene Five: Through Her Eyes
Nicholas is awake again. He has learned that Victoria was brutally murdered in 1928. He feels compelled to visit Victoria’s grave. He expresses the sorrow he feels for her, and how helpless and innocent she was. Not only that, but since he’s learning about his life by looking through her eyes, he realizes that this happened to HIM also and the unfairness of it begins to nag him.

Upon reaching her grave, he is overcome with sadness. Even the words on her stone indicate that she was a sweet innocent girl who had her life brutally taken from her at a very young age. He is startled by how much her death feels like his own. He compares it to losing someone you love. He continues to let images of her wander through his mind as he just wallows in his sadness for a while. He thinks of how much more he’s lived and again is stricken by the injustice of her young death. As the song ends, Nicholas begins to regain his composure and is comforted by the realization that by facing this tragedy and mourning the loss, he can now move on. This time of pain was necessary to accept his death in a previous life and fully comprehend why this other life has beckoned him.

Act 2

Scene Six: Home
We hear Julian talk of his obsession with decadence and how he is only living a charade. Victoria (as we learned earlier) ultimately leaves him because of his addiction, considered by some to be a combination of cocaine and alcohol (possibly hinted at by the lyrics “Lines take me higher”) and gambling. Next we hear Edward, giving his account of Victoria crying on his shoulder over her break up with Julian. He finds himself falling for her, and at first even feels guilt over deceiving his own brother. But his obsession for her becomes stronger than his guilt and he seduces her in her vulnerable state. He soon becomes violently possessive as well.

Lastly we hear from Nicholas again, back in present day, and awake. So far he only knows what the older man told him, and what he learned about the newspaper article in his last therapy session. He knows there must be more to the story and he is obsessed with solving this mystery. He yearns for regression and cannot wait for his next therapy session so that he can get back to solving the mystery.

There are several lyrical similarities between “Home” and “Metropolis Pt. 1,” such as references to “the city’s cold blood” and a “lake of fire,” the lines “I was told there’s a new love that’s born for each one that has died.” Also, “Home” contains the lines, “Victoria watches and thoughtfully smiles/she’s taken me to my home,” while “Metropolis” features, “Metropolis watches and thoughtfully smiles/she’s taken you to your home.” Also, in the last several seconds of the song, the beginning of Metropolis Pt. 1 is sampled.

Scene Seven: I. The Dance of Eternity
As last line of “Metropolis Pt. 1” says, “Love is the Dance of Eternity”. This represents when Victoria and Ed make love, the dance because of the movements and eternity as the endless memory of that moment. The song begins with a sample of Part 1 played backwards.

Scene Seven: II. One Last Time
This song begins with Nicholas going over it in his head. He is not convinced, from the evidence given so far, that the newspaper account is the truth. He also appears to have heard some rumors, most likely rumors of Victoria’s affair with Ed. Did Victoria wound Ed’s soul and bid him farewell? Then we see Victoria, in the past again, saying “One last time, we’ll lay down today.” This may be Nicholas hearing Victoria telling Ed goodbye, that this will be their last meeting.

Nicholas visits Edward’s house, where he and Victoria had their affair. The house seems to hold many clues and he feels that he is finally shown some confirmation of what he’s been thinking. Though he is now awake, as he enters the bedroom, he experiences a sort of revelation, almost as though he’s slipped right out of consciousness. The cold returns, as he felt in his recurring dreams before, and he’s suddenly outside and hears a woman screaming and a man pleading forgiveness. It is possible that Nicholas at this point suspects Edward and Victoria were having an affair. That is the suspicion to which the home holds many clues. In his current state of dual consciousness, he is seeing Victoria’s memories of the fatal meeting, but he doesn’t get enough info yet and the scene fades to black.

Scene Eight: The Spirit Carries On
Nicholas is again, and for the last time, under hypnosis and reiterating his belief that his soul will transcend, and that he need not fear death. He believes now that Edward was involved in the murder. He plans to expose the truth behind a crime that happened over 70 years ago. Victoria pipes up, in the present this time, and tells Nicholas that he should move on now, she has revealed the truth to him, but he should never forget her. At this point he basks in the peace that he feels as he has appeased Victoria’s nagging and his own obsession. Nicholas now feels that the reason all of this happened, the ultimate message, is that death is not the end, but only a transition, as the Hypnotherapist has already pointed out.

Scene Nine: Finally Free
The last scene holds information Nicholas is not aware of, because the Hypnotherapist brings him out of his last hypnotic trance and we hear him get in his car and leave. What we learn is that Victoria and Julian meet by chance and decide to meet up later in secret so they can talk. She is obviously excited because Julian is the one she has always loved, and she’s going to break it off with Edward. She is no longer torn between Edward and Julian, who she would rather have been with. But she knows Julian would “kill his brother if he only knew” of her affair with him.

They meet without anyone knowing, or so they think. Edward shows up and begins struggling with Julian, who drops a bottle of liquor out of his coat pocket and pulls out the knife. Ed shoots Julian. Victoria screams. Edward tells her “Open your eyes, Victoria,” and shoots her also. Julian crawls over to her, collapses on top of her and utters his last lines (“One last time…”). Edward writes the suicide note, leaves it in Julian’s pocket and then runs for help to play his part as the witness.

We then are transferred back to Nicholas. He’s driving home and thinking about how he is free of the haunting that has plagued him. Also he has learned about his life, that it will carry on after death, through Victoria’s presence in his life. Nicholas arrives home, begins playing a record and pours himself a drink to relax. Soon another car pulls up. The Hypnotherapist enters the room and startles him by saying “open your eyes, Nicholas.” The phonograph gets bumped as Nicholas is startled by the Hypnotherapist. Then we hear static noise, which fades to black. The album recording leaves things unclear as to what happens, but it’s revealed on the live DVD that the Hypnotherapist, Edward’s reincarnation, has killed Nicholas and has completed the cycle yet again.

The static from the phonograph marks the beginning of what fans have called a meta-album where the last note or noise of one album is the same or similar to the beginning of the next. The Dream Theater meta-album spans 4 albums, from Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory to Octavarium. Octavarium Ends the meta-album by having the same piano note at the beginning and end of the same album, with the last lyrics stating “This story ends where it began.”

Chart performance
Billboard 200:

Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From a Memory - #73
Billboard Top Internet Albums:

Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From a Memory - #2
UK Album Chart:

Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From a Memory - #131

Band
James LaBrie – Lead vocals
John Myung – Bass guitar
John Petrucci – Guitars, backing vocals
Mike Portnoy – Drums, percussion, backing vocals
Jordan Rudess – Keyboards

Guests
Theresa Thomason - Additional vocals on “Through Her Eyes” and “The Spirit Carries On”.
Theresa Thomason, Mary Canty, Shelia Slappy, Mary Smith, Jeanette Smith, Clarence Burke Jr., Carol Cyrus, Dale Scott - additional backing vocals on “The Spirit Carries On”.
Choir arranged and conducted by Jordan Rudess
Terry Brown - the voice of the hypnotherapist (uncredited)
David Bottrill - the voice of Edward (uncredited)

Production
Doug Oberkircher - Sound engineer
Brian Quackenbush - Assistant engineer
Michael Bates - Assistant engineer
Terry Brown - Vocals co-producer
Kevin Shirley - Mixing engineer on tracks 2-8 and 11
Rory Romano - Assistant mixing engineer on tracks 2-8 and 11
David Bottrill - Mixing engineer on tracks 1, 9, 10 and 12
Shinobu Mitsuoka - Assistant mixing engineer on tracks 1, 9, 10 and 12
George Marino - Mastering engineer
Eugene Nastasi - Assistant mastering engineer
Lili Picou - Art direction and design
Dave McKean - Cover illustration
Ken Schles - Still life photography
Andrew Lepley - House photography