DREAM THEATER SURVIVOR 2016: Results -> A Change Of Seasons wins!

Satisfied with the results?

  • Total voters
    10
Night Prowler

Night Prowler

Customer Deathcycle Manager
Staff member
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Welcome to the fourth Dream Theater Survivor!
There will be 13 albums in this game.
We start off with the first two albums - When Dream & Day Unite and Images & Words.
As usual, first round will last for a while; if you can't vote right away, just post here and I'll wait for you - I won't update until everyone's voted (this goes for all future rounds too).

Another Won is a song that was written during the band's years as Majesty, but its first official release was on the live album Score. In this game, it will be a part of the debut album.
To Live Forever was first released around the time of release of the album Awake, but it was written during Images & Words sessions, so in this game it's gonna be a part of that album.

Enjoy!
 
YAAAASS!

By the way...

Status Seeker
Light Fuse And Get Away
The Ones To Help To Set The Sun
Another Won
To Live Forever

Can't vote for anything from Images. Not yet, anyway.
 
This Survivor will probably last until 2017... Amorphis Survivor has 145 songs, this one has 139, and Amorphis has been going on for more than 6 months :p
 
All of WDaDU except, Fortune in Lies, Ytse, and Afterlife.
and
Another Day
To Live Forever
 
After several thorough listens of When Dream and Day Unite, plus When Dream and Day Reunite (live with LaBrie in 2004), I'm finally ready to vote. Yes, I also gave I&W a quick spin and plan more listens in the future, but I know that I far prefer every single song to anything on the debut.

However, I must say that this album actually clicked with me this time. Dominici is nowhere near as annoying as I remember and some of the songs are truly quite good. If I listen to it and envision Geddy Lee it really helps my overall enjoyment. A Fortune in Lies, Status Seeker, and Afterlife are all solid, but still rough around the edges. They all have catchy choruses and work well despite the awful production and mix. I don't get the hate for Status Seeker, honestly. It's not perfect and it sounds like a Rush knockoff but it's still a good, quick song.

Light Fuse and Get Away, The Ones Who Help to Set the Sun, and Only a Matter of Time, on the other hand, are jumbled piles of garbage. It's obvious that the guys had not refined their songwriting approach yet, as these jump from part to part without any finesse. The choppiness abounds with these three. Not to mention, the lyrics are truly terrible. Petrucci's disjointed, magical realism tale of a guy who dreams about a car crash lacks the emotion it strives for and Moore's two lyrical children...holy shit, write less lyrics! Some of the lines themselves are truly beautiful, but so overstuffed and unsingable it's a wonder they ever made it past demo stage.

Despite liking some of these songs a lot more than I used to, I'm voting for everything off the debut + Another Won except Ytse Jam and Killing Hand.

Those of you voting against Killing Hand, I urge you to listen to this version:


The Killing Hand is an early classic that is completely misrepresented by this album. Dominici is not right for it and the production really hides the power of this gem.

Also, in case you guys haven't heard it, check out When Dream and Day Reunite. LaBrie's performance is certainly not perfect, but it's still really cool to hear the whole album with him.
 
WDADU is a fun oddity that I enjoy listening to for survivors but that's enough for me. It's fun whenever they bring out one of those songs live though. The real MVP of this album is John Myung. The production ruins a lot of his basslines but if you really listen to them (or listen to the live versions) there's some really melodic interesting stuff happening. Not just Myung doubling JP the whole time like in recent DT. There are actually quite a few bass solo spots too, you just can't tell most of the time because of how muddy the production is. Also quite a few Petrucci solos that would become iconic among the most hardcore fans, but didn't really catch on with DT's general audience the way Under a Glass Moon did, for example. But he already knew how to construct a good solo.

I agree with Knick on Status Seeker. It's an unremarkable song but nothing offensive. I think it's bizarre that it's the first song people point to when talking about the flaws of this album. It's weaker for sure, but not the worst. I think it might just have to do with being the 2nd song on the album and being less exciting than A Fortune In Lies. Put any song in that spot besides Afterlife, OAMOT, or Ytse Jam and it'd probably have the same infamy.

I disagree with Knick on Only A Matter Of Time. That song is awesome. Lyrics are wordy but musically there are so many awesome melodies and rhythmic ideas. I think this is the closest we get to I&W on this album. More keyboard/guitar duels, more throwbacks to old school prog, lots of changes. They've always described themselves as a heavy metal Yes or Yes meets Metallica/Iron Maiden etc and this is the only song where that really comes across. The bridge is awesome and I love how they "preview" it earlier in the song. That'd go on to be a signature DT trick.

But when it comes down to it, there are more good songs than bad songs, so it isn't a bad album. I think I might even prefer it to Systematic Chaos now after listening to it again. The problem is that it's not really Dream Theater in sound or style. It's more like an awesome Queensryche or Fates Warning album. They really elevated themselves after this which makes the album pretty unremarkable in comparison. I've also found that a lot of people who especially like WDADU were around when it came out and didn't have later DT to compare it to. Context is everything.

Anyway, I always find it crazy how this band went on to write stuff (for better or worse) like The Astonishing or Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence. Or even the next album. Probably one of the more bizarre debut albums.
 
I don't think Afterlife is rough at all. One of the most underappreciated DT songs ever. Awesome melodies throughout. Even Dominici can't ruin it.
 
Mosh said:
WDADU is a fun oddity that I enjoy listening to for survivors but that's enough for me. It's fun whenever they bring out one of those songs live though. The real MVP of this album is John Myung. The production ruins a lot of his basslines but if you really listen to them (or listen to the live versions) there's some really melodic interesting stuff happening. Not just Myung doubling JP the whole time like in recent DT. There are actually quite a few bass solo spots too, you just can't tell most of the time because of how muddy the production is. Also quite a few Petrucci solos that would become iconic among the most hardcore fans, but didn't really catch on with DT's general audience the way Under a Glass Moon did, for example. But he already knew how to construct a good solo.

I disagree with Knick on Only A Matter Of Time. That song is awesome. Lyrics are wordy but musically there are so many awesome melodies and rhythmic ideas. I think this is the closest we get to I&W on this album. More keyboard/guitar duels, more throwbacks to old school prog, lots of changes. They've always described themselves as a heavy metal Yes or Yes meets Metallica/Iron Maiden etc and this is the only song where that really comes across. The bridge is awesome and I love how they "preview" it earlier in the song. That'd go on to be a signature DT trick.
Click to expand...

Myung was the first thing I noticed on this relisten. The production is terrible, but he's mixed really loud (especially when compared to The Astonishing). Maybe it's just that Petrucci is quieter.

OAMOT is an instance where I simply cannot get past the vocals. They are so all over the place and unmelodic that it just drives me crazy. The music is good, but it still feels disjointed to me.

The Flash said:
I don't think Afterlife is rough at all. One of the most underappreciated DT songs ever. Awesome melodies throughout. Even Dominici can't ruin it.
Click to expand...

Afterlife is definitely the most "complete" song on the album. I guess my rough comment is more in terms of production than actual songwriting on that one.
 
Myung is definitely loud but I just have trouble picking up what he's actually playing, if that makes sense.

Afterlife is the best song, could have a better riff though.
 
Oh absolutely. The whole album sounds like mud except for the occasional too-loud keyboard synth or weightless, floating Dominici wail.
 
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