PRIME CUTS (E)

Mike Portnoy, the human drum machine of Dream Theater, Transatlantic and Neal Morse Band needs no introduction and he ranks amongst the greatest rock drummers of his time. In the footsteps of celebrities like Neil Peart (Rush), Bill Bruford (ex-Yes) and Terry Bozzio (ex-UK), he strikes the most complex patterns and he amazes friend and foe with his physical ability to keep on going for three hours or more. The growing popularity of Portnoy and the fact that the aforementioned bands are not on the Magna Carta-label, has probably been the cause of the release of Prime Cuts. In an attempt to make some money, Magna Carta put together some of Portnoy’s work, but for me it’s questionable whether Portnoy would choose these tracks as ‘best of’ by himself. Prime Cuts contains some nice works by Liquid Tension Experiment (LTE), from the Rush-tribute Working Man, Andy West's solo album Rama, a quite boring remix of LTE called Another Dimension and the beautiful track Endlesss Enigma from the tribute to Emerson, Lake & Palmer. Excellent performances, no doubt about that but given the fact that most of Portnoy’s fans will have LTE in their collection, the remaining tracks are merely half an hour of music featuring Portnoy's impressive drumming techniques. Also the difference in genre - experimental  metal in Three Minute Warning, metal in the Rush-tracks, prog rock in Endless Enigma and the weird spacey Another Dimension doesn’t make this album easy to listen to. Top class craftsmanship, but a somewhat strange compilation!