When Dream and Day Unite is the debut studio album by American progressive metal band Dream Theater, released on March 6, 1989, through Mechanic/MCA Records. The album is composed mostly of material that originally surfaced during the band's early years as Majesty, and it is the only Dream Theater album to be recorded with their full original lineup. James LaBrie replaced Charlie Dominici as the lead vocalist on all subsequent albums.
Background
The band was originally formed in 1985 by Berklee College of Music students John Myung (bass), Mike Portnoy (drums), and John Petrucci (guitar) under the name Majesty, which was inspired by Portnoy's commentary on the ending of "Bastille Day" by Rush. After the band found a keyboardist in Petrucci's childhood friend Kevin Moore, the band hosted auditions and settled on Chris Collins as the lead vocalist.
Majesty recorded The Majesty Demos between 1985 and 1986 but, shortly thereafter, were forced to change their name after another band threatened to take legal action. While touring around New York, Collins left the band, and the band went through many lead singers before settling in with experienced vocalist Charlie Dominici. Still trying to come up with ideas to rename their band, they settled on Portnoy's father suggestion of Dream Theater, which was the name of a nearby movie theater.
Despite not having toured with Dominici, they caught the attention of Mechanic/MCA, who sent a representative to watch them play in the basement of a hair salon where they would practice at the time.
Recording and songwriting
The album was recorded in mid-1988 at Kajem/Victory Studios (a converted gun factory mandated to remain with its original form
The commercial failure of their very first attempt at becoming professionals and the lack of support from the label impacted them negatively and nearly brought the band to an end. As Petrucci describes, they were then "just an instrumental band without a record label, without a singer, and wondering if this was ever going to happen".
Critical reception
When Dream and Day Unite did not receive much attention upon release. The Colorado Springs Gazette-Telegraph concluded that the music "is well-intentioned, but so overplayed that it leaves the listener guessing which odd-time signature or tempo change will bolt out of the darkness next."
Due to the commercial success of Images and Words, the album later received critical reviews and criticism from many resources. Robert Taylor of AllMusic remarked an obvious Queensrÿche influence in the band's "progressive metal" music and defined Petrucci and Portnoy "competent musicians", whose "individual styles were not yet refined"; he criticized the "subpar singing, too many metal clichés, and poor production", but added that the album has "enough interesting playing to make it a worthwhile listen for fans of this genre."
Track listing
Personnel
Dream Theater
- Charlie Dominici – lead vocals
- Kevin Moore – keyboards
- John Myung – bass guitar
- John Petrucci – guitars
- Mike Portnoy – drums, percussion
Production
- Dream Theater – producers
- Terry Date – producer, engineer, mixing
- Joe Alexander – engineer, mixing
- Brian Stover, Trish Finnegan – assistant engineers
- Steve Sinclair – executive producer
- Amy Guip – cover art
Charts
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders"
|-
! Chart (1989)
! Peak<br/>position
|-
!scope="row"|Japanese Albums (Oricon)
| align="center"| 98
|}