DREAM THEATER Week on Maidenfans!

[Mosh]

You can still vote/nominate bands here
Previous threads (feel free to continue discussion):
Opeth
Black Sabbath
Metallica
Iced Earth

Since this week is a release week for Dream Theater, I figured it'd be appropriate to dedicate this week to them.

Talking Points:

• Favorite/least favorite DT songs
• JR, KM, or DS?
• What do you think of the latest tour/DVD (Breaking the Fourth Wall)?
• What are your thoughts on the new static setlists?
• Thoughts on Mike Mangini?
• What direction would you like to see them take in the future?
• Favorite DT DVD?

 

[Collin]

Yay Dream Theater week!!!

- If I named all my favorites I'd be here for a very long time but my favorites of my favorites are A Change of Seasons, Learning to Live, Metropolis pt:1, Voices, Beyond This Life, All of Train of Thought, Sacrificed Sons, In the Presence of Enemies, Ministry of Lost Souls, The Best of Times, Bridges in the Sky, and The Bigger Picture. That was hard. Anyways my least favorites are all of When Day and Dream Unite, Another Day, Disappear, The Answer Lies Within and Wither.

- Jordan Rudess. He plays a key role in the bands sound, and I personally don't think he will ever leave the band.

- The sound is awful, but the setlist is awesome, so regardless, I'm still buying it.

- I kind of wish they would go back to rotating setlists. It allowed more songs to be played, they didn't play the best songs from DT12 live and that's kind of a letdown.

- He's good but I'd like to see Portnoy back in the band. All of his songs were really good and he added something to the band, something that they have been lacking on these last 2 albums.

- A direction that goes to Spokane, WA so I can see them live. I would really like them to keep the same process going. Write/Record/Tour. I also would like to see another concept album.

- The only one that I have now is Live at Luna Park, and I really enjoy it. I've seen the rest on YT and all of them were good. But I really just like that one the most.

 

[MrKnickerbocker]

Voted for Images & Words, Train of Thought, and the self-titled.

- The Glass Prison remains my favorite DT song.
- Kevin Moore. No one can touch Rudess as a player - he's a virtuoso. However, I felt Kevin Moore was a better fit for the band from a songwriting perspective. Rudess is just Petrucci with a keyboard and he only adds to the wankery.
- I saw the last tour and it was incredible. LaBrie sounded the best I've ever heard him (out of at least 6 shows since ToT)
- I'm fine with static setlists as long as they change on each leg of the tour. I'm not likely to see more than one DT show a year, so it's fine by me.
- Mike Mangini is great. He seems like a positive guy, an amazing player, and a good emotional fit for the band. I'm incredibly glad to see Portnoy gone. He was dragging the band down.
- I would like to see them stay the course. I think ADTOE was a transition album and it think the s/t is a culmination of everything they've ever done. It's proggy, heavy, soft when it needs to be, epic, emotional, and vast in scope. I hope to hear more like this in the future.

 

[The Flash]

My appreciation of Dream Theater has fallen off a bit (not drastically, but they went from 3rd favorite band to barely Top 10) in 2014.

• "Metropolis Pt. 1", "A Change of Seasons", "Learning to Live", "Octavarium" are my favorites. Least favorites would be the fillers from When Dream and Day Unite, Falling Into Infinity and Systematic Chaos.
• Kevin Moore. Rudess is one of the (if not the) most technically superior musicians in rock, but Moore's emotional contribution and ability to create an atmosphere is unmatched.
• Haven't seen it.
• Never seen them live, so no comment.
• Mangini is technically superior to Portnoy but lacks his feel, I think.
• Softness. I want to see soft, gentle stuff with great atmospheres and attention to detail from this band. I've actually lost my interest in DT lately because their albums sound really stale. If they bust out a prog rock record, something even softer than Falling Into Infinity, I'd be really excited.
• Live Scenes from New York.

Favorite albums are Images & Words, Awake and Scenes from a Memory.

 

[MrKnickerbocker]

• Softness. I want to see soft, gentle stuff with great atmospheres and attention to detail from this band. I've actually lost my interest in DT lately because their albums sound really stale. If they bust out a prog rock record, something even softer than Falling Into Infinity, I'd be really excited.

I feel like the last two albums, especially the self-titled, have been quite soft. They have an airy lightness about them, an emotional maturity and purity that has been missing since Scenes from a Memory. I find their new direction to be a breath of fresh air after the multiple albums of copycatting prog and pop rock/chunk-chunk meathead metal they were doing during Portnoy's final years.

 

[The Flash]

I feel like the last two albums, especially the self-titled, have been quite soft. They have an airy lightness about them, an emotional maturity and purity that has been missing since Scenes from a Memory. I find their new direction to be a breath of fresh air after the multiple albums of copycatting prog and pop rock/chunk-chunk meathead metal they were doing during Portnoy's final years.

Both albums were flat out technically superior prog metal records. Don't see anything soft about them. I'm talking simple, stripped down song structures and attention to detail. Think "Surrounded". I'd love to hear them do stuff like "Misunderstood", too, not a metal song per se, a song filled with atmosphere and twistedness.

 

[Mosh]

The last album was hardly technical. It was extremely straightforward save for Enigma Machine and Illumination Theory. And even those weren't very complicated compared to their other instrumentals and epics. Structurally, it's their simplest album to date.

 

[The Flash]

Still, not "soft".

 

[Collin]

Dream Theater needs to return to the forum with more complexity and rag time solo's. Metropolis Part 3!!!!

 

[SinisterMinisterX]

Metropolis Part 3!!!!

Dear H, no.

 

[Mosh]

Didn't Operation Mindcrime 2 teach us anything?

Going back to an earlier style would not help DT in the least. They've always been about evolving their sound. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, but that's just how it works when you do something different every time. It's what keeps them interesting.

 

[Collin]

Didn't Operation Mindcrime 2 teach us anything?

True, but Dream Theater doesn't have Geoff Tate.

I do agree with you on Dream Theater evolution of sound, it does keep them interesting. I'd like them to do something like Images and Words and Awake, something along the lines of those two albums would be really cool. But whatever they put out next will probably be pretty good.

I still want more ragtime solos though...

 

[SixesAlltheway]

I listened to the new DT album yesterday for the first time and I swear there was some ragtime inspired stuff in one of the songs...

How about doing a DT album discussion some time? (like the Priest one) Or has that been done already?

 

[Collin]

I listened to the new DT album yesterday for the first time and I swear there was some ragtime inspired stuff in one of the songs...

How about doing a DT album discussion some time? (like the Priest one) Or has that been done already?

I don't immediantly recall any. Although there may have been some in Illumination Theory.

And I agree. Lets do it!!!

 

[SixesAlltheway]

Listened to the album again earlier and it wasn't as ragtime inspired as first perceived but the song I was thinking about was Enigma Machine. Perhaps because it reminded me of Dance of Eternity in some places...

 

[Mosh]

I'll host a dt discography thread when I finish priest. I'm busier than ever right now so that had to be put on ice until I have time to update.

 

[Mosh]

Totally forgot to post in this.

• Favorite/least favorite DT songs

Favorites: Octavarium, Scarred, Learning to Live, Surrounded, The Bigger Picture, Illumination Theory, Under a Glass Moon, Lines in the Sand, Blind Faith, The Glass Prison
Least favorites: The Ministry of Lost Souls, Burning My Soul, You Not Me, Just Let Me Breathe, Build Me Up Break Me Down, A Rite of Passage, Forsaken

• JR, KM, or DS?

All three offered a lot to the band and it's really hard to compare, but overall I think I'd go with Kevin Moore. He wrote some of DT's best lyrics and his keyboard playing had a lot of atmosphere to it. I love his solo work too (Chroma Key and OSI). DS is also awesome though and was by far the MVP on FII. Wish they could've done at least one more album with him.

• What do you think of the latest tour/DVD (Breaking the Fourth Wall)?

Saw the tour when it hit Denver and it kicked major ass. One of the best productions I've ever seen and the setlist was probably their best. The new DVD captures it perfectly too. Great sound and visually very pleasing. It's a little early but this could very well beat Score as my favorite live DVD from DT.

• What are your thoughts on the new static setlists?

At first I was bummed out that rotating setlists were out, especially after the lackluster setlists we got on the ADTOE cycle, but this new tour has me sold on them. I'd rather them put together one mindbloing setlist and play it every night than rotate a bunch of good ones. However, I wouldn't be against seeing one or two songs being rotated in and out just to add some variety.

• Thoughts on Mike Mangini?

While technically a great player, I haven't exactly been sold on him yet. He doesn't have the same feel as Portnoy and there's still a huge hole there with all the concepts and arrangement ideas that MP brought to the band. Both ADTOE and DT12 have some really jarring transitions (though I quickly got used to them) and I think they could've been improved with MP's input. Ultimately MP leaving was probably the best for everyone, but I hope somebody steps up in this department.

• What direction would you like to see them take in the future?

I'd like to see them build on the foundation set with DT12. They finally know how to write in a concise manner again, now lets see if they can apply that to longer song forms and make a truly bombastic album. They've settled in with Mangini, it's time to make this lineup's "classic album". I'd also like to see them go even further with the cinematic sound of DT12. In terms of mood, DT12 could be my favorite.

• Favorite DT DVD?

Unless the new one dethrones it, my favorite is Score. Great setlist/performance and the bonus features are well worthwhile. I love all the DVDs though, even Chaos In Motion. They really know how to make each DVD worth it, and each has something unique about it that gives it value even among every other DVD. Something Maiden could learn from.

 

[SinisterMinisterX]

John Petrucci AMA on Reddit (Fri Oct 10)

Not especially interesting, except for this:

Q: Did you ever consider rebranding to Dream Theatre for the UK?
A: We did considre.

 

[Mosh]

His responses were pretty entertaining. It's the questions that sucked.

Him wanting to collaborate with Peter Gabriel was pretty interesting though. I wonder how that would come out