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

Satisfied with the results?

  • Total voters
    10
I think the more important thing when looking at 80's and 90's albums is not necessarily the production, but the songwriting. There are a few bits of incredibly 80's songwriting on WDADU (especially the parts that sound like Rush) and some very 90's sounding stuff on I&W and Awake (particularly the saxophone solo on Another Day or vague rap-talking on Take The Time and Voices), but the entirety of FII is written to sound incredibly 90's, a pure stamp of it's time, far more than the first three albums.

And in general, I think this trend only got worse post-TOT. For instance, the Portnoy garbage on BC&SL (and even some of it on Octavarium and SC) could never have been considered a good songwriting choice in any other time than the mid-to-late 2000's.
 
Yeah, the songwriting - like I said - some of the songwriting choices on these albums don't sound particularily great to me - Scarred and Voices (though I like both and even love Scarred) are chaotic, Lifting Shadows is... weird, Surrounded oscillates between a ballad and a good-morning-weather-channel background music, the second half of Metropolis has no structure at all (though I love it!), LTL goes nowhere except for the climax and then meanders for the next 4 minutes... But I agree WDADU is very "Rushy", and I love it.

In the end it's about your preferences, after all. The "electronic" Never Enough sounds fresh and interesting, the electronic "arpeggios" in the beginning sound completely different from the rest of the album/their discography, the song is very catchy, has untrivial lyrics (unpleasable fanbase) and has a completely astonishing unison part there (though it's a bit drowned by the production/mastering). And yes, it reminds people of Muse. I can't stand Muse, I can't finish even a single track by them, yet I love this song. We're only trying to objectivise the subjective here, anyway... :D
 
DT has always stuck with the times. I&W is easily the most dated DT album but the other ones all have their modern quirks. The Astonishing had EDM influences (Jordan Rudess cited Aphex Twin at one point) and there was a bit of djent on DT12. Some stuff works, some doesn't, but I thin its partly responsible for the band's longevity. I don't think they would've lasted long if they stuck with the I&W formula. Maybe they'd be at Symphony X level fame.
 
Mosh said:
DT has always stuck with the times. I&W is easily the most dated DT album but the other ones all have their modern quirks. The Astonishing had EDM influences (Jordan Rudess cited Aphex Twin at one point) and there was a bit of djent on DT12. Some stuff works, some doesn't, but I thin its partly responsible for the band's longevity. I don't think they would've lasted long if they stuck with the I&W formula. Maybe they'd be at Symphony X level fame.
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Symphony X are just taking longer to get there. They've made Train of Thought 3 times in a row now, just waiting to progress...
 
IMO nothing comes close to I&W when it comes to production & performance quality, energy and average song quality. LaBrie never sounded as good afterwards, Portnoy never had an awesome drum sound like that again. Keyboards were perfect and were never surpassed in quality in DT again except maybe on Space Dye Vest. Maybe only Petrucci had brighter moments afterwards, performance-wise probably, production-wise ehhhhh.

I'm not trying to diss the later stuff, but you guys are really underestimating I&W which is one of the most perfect albums ever.

Locking this now so that I can update, then you guys continue your conversation :)
 
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Eliminated:
Overture 1928 - 8 votes
Beyond This Life - 7 votes
Under A Glass Moon - 7 votes

Promoted:
Take The Time
Metropolis, Part 1 - The Miracle & The Sleeper
Learning To Live

Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence and Train Of Thought join the game!
Decided to introduce both at the same time since there wouldn't be enough songs in the game with just the former.
I won't update for at least a week due to 2 new albums in the game, so don't vote immediately: relisten then vote :)
 
Well it's still possible to appreciate the album while acknowledging that it's of its time. You might like the production (I think it's really bad), but there's no denying it sounds like an early 90s Metal album.
 
Mosh said:
but there's no denying it sounds like an early 90s Metal album.
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Why would I deny it? It's a fact that it's an early 90's metal album. Can't be an early 00's metal album if it was released in friggin' 1992 :P Or if you mean it as a bad thing, which I dunno why you would :P
 
I've been prepared for this.

Strange Deja Vu (No point in having it without overture 1928)
Disappear (I've only come to appreciate it within the past couple weeks but it's still the weakest here.
As I Am
Vacant
Stream

The good news is that I finally like SDOIT!! (the song)
 
Well on the other hand, Awake is an early 90s Metal album but it still sounds fresh.
 
We're including 6DOIT as one song?! YES! Easy votes here, though I definitely need to relisten to both of these albums multiple times before the next round gets posted.

Strange Deja-Vu
Finally Free
Disappear
6DOIT
Vacant
 
Yeah, they wrote and played it as a single song, but they also keep playing WIMH/TTTSTA on their own and Solitary Shell was a single... :innocent:

Let alone the fact the fucking Astonishing sounds more like a single song than that one, but... :whogivesafuck: :D
 
It's not a bad thing in itself, but I really hate that late 80s/early 90s production style.

JudasMyGuide said:
Yeah, they wrote and played it as a single song, but they also keep playing WIMH/TTTSTA
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Well by that logic ACOS should've been broken up too. :p
 
I told you to check out the LSFNY version. :facepalm:

I saw that tour though and it was awesome. Probably the best setlist DT ever played.
 
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