DREAM THEATER: “Falling Into Infinity” (EastWest)

BIG WRECK: “In Loving Memory of...” (Atlantic)

So compatible a double bill that they might as well have been fabricated in the same product-development lab. Dream Theater and Big Wreck are indeed big and theatrical. Although the former hails from Long Island, N.Y., and the latter from Boston, both groups are essentially from the same preserve, the spiritual homeland of big-shouldered band like Led Zeppelin, Boston, U2 and Soundgarden. Each group even opens its latest album with a riff that recalls the Terry-Riley-meets-Godzilla keyboard hooks of the Who’s “Who’s Next.”

Dream Theater is the more metallic of the two bands, with lashing guitars and choruses (notably the one to “You Not Me”) that could be Bon Jovi. The quintet’s “Falling Into Infinity” also has strong prog-rock tendencies, as demonstrated by a three-part, 13-minute suite called “Trial of Tears.” While singer James Labrie (sic) proclaims a “New Millennium,” the music doesn’t do anything at all new.

Big Wreck demonstrates its bluesiness on songs like “Look What I Found,” but the quartet’s debut album, “In Loving Memory of ...,” shows that this is the more lyrical of the two bands. Such tracks as “That Song” and “Blown Wide Open” suggest the Celtic sweep of Big Country and U2, or just REM on steroids. Exactly what singer-guitarist Ian Thornley’s blustering songs are about, however, hardly seems worth investigating. Just because the quartet’s gestures are big, doesn’t make them meaningful.

—Mark Jenkins