I love this album... I like the way those guys bent the concept of heavy metal, pushing it to an exciting kind of experimental metal. It's interesting to hear how the Deftones use their guitars ("Minerva", "Battle Axe"). The voice is probably the most experimental element and definitely a good alternative to the "common" metal singing. I suggest you to buy this just for the cover, too... ;)

I guess it's routine for every metalhead to bump into this band before or later. Especially guitarists will have to listen to this very special flavor of metal - does the name "John Petrucci" tell you something, me lad? Wikipedia categorizes this band as progressive metal, but to me this album's got a definitively epic sound to it. The music (eight songs, the shortest is 5:35, longest 16:38!) is simply superb. It actually is one of the few albums of this genre where I thought "Hey, there's taste and technique here". This album offers a whole new concept to discover. Have fun listening!