Shmoolikipod
Stranger to the Light
I think I agree, DoT has more better songs but Octavarium puts so much weight on the title track. It and the other 2 best songs take up over half album and they're well spaced like in DoD.
Deus_Adrian
Prince of the Final Frontier
One full listen through and I like it, No down spots for me, I was rocking the whole way thru. Mind you I was listening on ear buds while toiling at work so I wasn't that focused....Viper King is cool as shit, is this really a DT track? It sounds like the Purp?
MW564
Ancient Mariner
I feel like Viper King is a bonus track because its something cool that they wanted to do, but it is a bit different to the sound of the record and DT on the whole
Detective Beauregard
Leviathan of Doggerland
I like every DT album more than Octavarium, save for perhaps The Astonishing.
Outside of the title track, Octavarium is a boring, uninspired, watered down mess. I don’t want my Dream Theater sounding like Muse, U2, or anyone else other than Dream Theater. And even the title track has four minutes up front of boring ambient Jordan crap. At least they tried something different with The Astonishing, as dull as it was.
Saapanael
Ancient Mariner
Solid album, better than the last two, perhaps the best Mangini era album. I'm not satisfied with the drums, they are loud and punchy but every hit is the same volume, there's no dynamics, it sounds heavily sampled. My favourite songs are Barstool Warrior and At Wit's End, followed by Pale Blue Dot, despite these lines in the latter: God creators, dream destroyers, spineless cowards and fearless warriors. What is that, a collection of Judas Priest song titles? There are weak vocal and lyrical moments throughout the album. I'm not saying that LaBrie sucks, he just doesn't shine like he has on some albums of the past. Also, I prefer a drier voice like on Black Clouds as opposed to a very wet and modulated one. Instrumentally a strong effort, especially on Petrucci's part. Sick leads by him, nothing else to say. The outro solo to At Wit's End is haunting me big-time. In conclusion, there are songs I'd skip and Distance Over Time probably doesn't make for a great listen from beginning to end but the stronger songs are very good indeed.
Saapanael
Ancient Mariner
Also, Petrucci's lead tones on this album remind me of other guitarists at times, namely Satriani and Andy Timmons. There are unmistakably Petrucci elements in there, of course, it's only positive that he has expanded his horizons. With a lot of his lead playing starting to sound stale in recent years, I'm positively surprised.
JudasMyGuide
The resident reactionary recalcitrant
My thoughts after 4 listens or so:
I was a bit afraid, because the Mangini era has been somewhat hit or miss so far and when I saw the tracklist and especially the track lengths I was kinda afraid the album’s gonna be DT12 again - "streamlined" but undercooked, the tracks being suffocated by the cut-off limit.
Also I was worried about the sound, because since 8um either the production or the mixing usually left something to be desired, with the honorable exception of ADTOE.
Of course random skimming through the DT forum didn’t really help – as usual, there were lots of talk about „best since SDOIT/SFAM/Awake“ and „reason I became a fan again – WHERE WERE YOU DT?“ etc. The same stuff that announced the arrival of The Astonishing, still a failed experiment (though let me stress once again that 3 years after the release I still respect the album as a pretty bold move and insist that many other bands – especially Maiden – never made such a bold move in their career).
Yeah, the last two albums were somewhat lackluster efforts. Third such album… well, it wouldn’t really put me off the band as a whole – I’ve spent way too much time with them for that; also, it’s me and my wife’s special band, so there – but it’d disappoint me a lot.
I only heard UA in advance and I didn’t like it all that much, apart from the instrumental section (the unison is killer – it’s the Panic Attack/Never Enough instrumental section fined and improved, a very metal, Megadeth-y? thing), but with time it grew on me. On my third spin of the album I already liked it.
The other two pre-releases I heard only about few days before the release – I liked both. Especially FITL – people say it’s DT channeling Metallica again, but these people (or at least those who use it as an insult) fail to see that even if we were to hear a Metallica song with functional drummer and lead guitarist, it would be pretty awesome. The mid-part took me by surprise and it’s really amazing, along with the instrumental section, though again, Tullica once more (Master of Puppets, anyone?).
I guess I’m not ready to write about all the other songs separately – I like pretty much every song, yes, even Out of Reach (much less diabetes-inducing than some other offenders, also I like how the drums give a different feel to the second verse). S2N is awesome, so is Wit’s End. It took me some time to appreciate Dot, but it’s a lot of fun, actually, and a rather unexpected closer. Barstool Warrior (apart from making me go „a barstool warrior lately, a barstool warrior sometimes“ in my head when I see the title) was a very pleasant surprise, such a shiny, optimistic song (with the intro sounding like either New Millennium or BAI, but I don’t mind). Actually, the self-robbing aspect is somehow present in general (there’s a part in the instrumental section of Wit that I could swear was taken off This Dying Soul), but it was always this way. There’s some new stuff here anyway, at least new for them (djenty djent).
I’d say that just as TA was a very James-Jordan album, this one is mostly an MMP show. Trucci is all over the record and awesome, whether he does insane stuff like on S2N or emotional solos full of feel like the closing of Wit. Myung is very audible and present and Mangini is a monster. Though the drums still sound a bit like shit, but I guess that won’t ever go away. James's vocals are... weird, or at least processed and/or recorded in a weird way. I don't know how this happened - he did it on TROAE and it sounded much better than here. Jordan is subdued but present. Very tasteful, IMHO.
Well, yeah, the sound could have been much better (admittedly I heard only the Spotify version so far and – allegedly – the other versions sound better, however I somehow doubt the difference is going to be THAT big) though it’s not as shitty as DT12 or as oppressive as BCSL or SC (I love those albums, but I understand how someone might get a headache from listening to them).
And they also managed to achieve the „Gentle Giant feel“ - the length of both the album and the single tracks is short (or, well, relatively so, at least for them), yet the album doesn’t feel short – there’s enough stuff happening within.
This might be controversial, but actually this album reminded me a lot of Awake – I still don’t like the latter very much (though I play it rather often and I like it more than many other albums by other bands), but there’s the moderate length of the tracks, the metal-heaviness, the rather dark atmosphere, the kinda-poppy sensibility of some of the songs… but no Space Dye Vest. Oh, thank heavens.
So, in my book (at least for now, we’ll see after some time), the best Mangini-era album is still ADTOE, but this one is a worthy successor. This is the album that the self-titled was supposed to be. I’m kinda happy again.
Oh, the bonus truck is a lot of fun. Hope they're gonna play it live.
I was a bit afraid, because the Mangini era has been somewhat hit or miss so far and when I saw the tracklist and especially the track lengths I was kinda afraid the album’s gonna be DT12 again - "streamlined" but undercooked, the tracks being suffocated by the cut-off limit.
Also I was worried about the sound, because since 8um either the production or the mixing usually left something to be desired, with the honorable exception of ADTOE.
Of course random skimming through the DT forum didn’t really help – as usual, there were lots of talk about „best since SDOIT/SFAM/Awake“ and „reason I became a fan again – WHERE WERE YOU DT?“ etc. The same stuff that announced the arrival of The Astonishing, still a failed experiment (though let me stress once again that 3 years after the release I still respect the album as a pretty bold move and insist that many other bands – especially Maiden – never made such a bold move in their career).
Yeah, the last two albums were somewhat lackluster efforts. Third such album… well, it wouldn’t really put me off the band as a whole – I’ve spent way too much time with them for that; also, it’s me and my wife’s special band, so there – but it’d disappoint me a lot.
I only heard UA in advance and I didn’t like it all that much, apart from the instrumental section (the unison is killer – it’s the Panic Attack/Never Enough instrumental section fined and improved, a very metal, Megadeth-y? thing), but with time it grew on me. On my third spin of the album I already liked it.
The other two pre-releases I heard only about few days before the release – I liked both. Especially FITL – people say it’s DT channeling Metallica again, but these people (or at least those who use it as an insult) fail to see that even if we were to hear a Metallica song with functional drummer and lead guitarist, it would be pretty awesome. The mid-part took me by surprise and it’s really amazing, along with the instrumental section, though again, Tullica once more (Master of Puppets, anyone?).
I guess I’m not ready to write about all the other songs separately – I like pretty much every song, yes, even Out of Reach (much less diabetes-inducing than some other offenders, also I like how the drums give a different feel to the second verse). S2N is awesome, so is Wit’s End. It took me some time to appreciate Dot, but it’s a lot of fun, actually, and a rather unexpected closer. Barstool Warrior (apart from making me go „a barstool warrior lately, a barstool warrior sometimes“ in my head when I see the title) was a very pleasant surprise, such a shiny, optimistic song (with the intro sounding like either New Millennium or BAI, but I don’t mind). Actually, the self-robbing aspect is somehow present in general (there’s a part in the instrumental section of Wit that I could swear was taken off This Dying Soul), but it was always this way. There’s some new stuff here anyway, at least new for them (djenty djent).
I’d say that just as TA was a very James-Jordan album, this one is mostly an MMP show. Trucci is all over the record and awesome, whether he does insane stuff like on S2N or emotional solos full of feel like the closing of Wit. Myung is very audible and present and Mangini is a monster. Though the drums still sound a bit like shit, but I guess that won’t ever go away. James's vocals are... weird, or at least processed and/or recorded in a weird way. I don't know how this happened - he did it on TROAE and it sounded much better than here. Jordan is subdued but present. Very tasteful, IMHO.
Well, yeah, the sound could have been much better (admittedly I heard only the Spotify version so far and – allegedly – the other versions sound better, however I somehow doubt the difference is going to be THAT big) though it’s not as shitty as DT12 or as oppressive as BCSL or SC (I love those albums, but I understand how someone might get a headache from listening to them).
And they also managed to achieve the „Gentle Giant feel“ - the length of both the album and the single tracks is short (or, well, relatively so, at least for them), yet the album doesn’t feel short – there’s enough stuff happening within.
This might be controversial, but actually this album reminded me a lot of Awake – I still don’t like the latter very much (though I play it rather often and I like it more than many other albums by other bands), but there’s the moderate length of the tracks, the metal-heaviness, the rather dark atmosphere, the kinda-poppy sensibility of some of the songs… but no Space Dye Vest. Oh, thank heavens.
So, in my book (at least for now, we’ll see after some time), the best Mangini-era album is still ADTOE, but this one is a worthy successor. This is the album that the self-titled was supposed to be. I’m kinda happy again.
Oh, the bonus truck is a lot of fun. Hope they're gonna play it live.
MrKnickerbocker
clap hands
Although the songs do not immediately hit me on this album, I will say my favorite thing so far is Myung's prominence.
Detective Beauregard
Leviathan of Doggerland
Myung is so freaking loud and I love it. When that Symphony X riff kicks in near the beginning of At Wit’s End, you can hear every liquidy clang and clack of the bass strings.
In other news, Viper King is growing on me. Room 137 is not.
What songs from this album do y’all think they’re gonna play on the upcoming tour?
In other news, Viper King is growing on me. Room 137 is not.
What songs from this album do y’all think they’re gonna play on the upcoming tour?
Collin
Chasing Ponce De Leon's Phantoms
I’m sure there is going to be an alternating setlist and they are going to play the whole album. Wouldn’t hold out much hope for ‘Viper King’ though.
I’m also very sure ‘Surrender to Reason’ will finally get played.
Lampwick 43
Barstool Warrior
After 2 listens, Fall into the Light, Barstool Warrior, and S2N are the biggest highlights right now. The album is very enjoyable overall. There's nothing groundbreaking here, but nothing that's flat-out bad either. I'd rate it much higher than The Astonishing and DT12, but its not at the same level as ADTOE. It's gonna take a few more listens to fully digest, though.
I think the 3 singles are a given, and then maybe 2-3 songs more. Right now I'll go with Barstool Warrior and At Wit's End. Out of Reach also seems like a strong possibility as the lone ballad of the album.
Lampwick 43
Barstool Warrior
I guess I'd be fine with a rotating setlist. However I wouldn't want them to play the entire album at every show this tour for the simple reason that they're already playing the entirety of SFAM, which would mean there would be very little room for any other songs.
Detective Beauregard
Leviathan of Doggerland
I just heard an interview where Petrucci claimed that Pale Blue Dot is his favorite of the album, so we should expect to hear that. Other than a few of the riffs, it still hasn’t grown on me, though.
Black Wizard
Pleb Hunter
I spent the last week listening to 'Distance Over Time' on my way to and from work. My overall impression is that is a solid album that none of us will consider to be one of their best but it is more manageable and easier to digest than 'The Astonishing'. 'Distance Over Time' reminds me a lot of the self-titled album in its overall vibe and sound, but it is a bit better than the self-titled album.
Saapanael
Ancient Mariner
Pretty much that. The end result is a lot stronger than Untethered Angel and Fall Into the Light led me to believe at first. The songs work better in a full album context and there are much better songs as well. Even in the weaker songs there are enjoyable elements. Viper King and Paralyzed, for example, have some nice heavy groove going on even if they're not stand-out songs. There are moments I keep going back to, such as the latter half of At Wit's End starting with the piano. I really love how the keys, guitar and vocals work together in that section, perhaps the closest we get to Dream Theater's ultimate glory with this album.
When Dream and Day Unite (1989)
1. A Fortune in Lies - Fun little intro with a riff, but it's not really good. Definitely sounds like a band just starting out. The awkward time shifts are reminiscent of early Symphony X (really, the other way around). Drumming isn't very good, or at least it's mixed poorly. I have a suspicion the production will impact my feeling of these songs. It's fine, but it's not good. 5/10.
2. Status Seeker - Phew, some wanking here, isn't it? A little happy intro, and then this odd kind of bluesy moment. Should one of the great prog metal bands remind me forcibly of Dire Straits? It gets back to a little more traditional sounds, but this is just a mess of poor ideas and execution. 3/10.
3. Ytse Jam - The name alone is absolutely frightening to me. Let's see how it sounds. Actually it's fine, some wanking going on but the most enjoyable thing yet on the album. 7/10.
4. The Killing Hand - It's not actually that interesting to get a full breakdown, even though this is supposed to be a multi-part song. I can hardly tell the difference between the portions. Some fun guitar work here from Petrucci, though, so I guess it's fine. Real awkward time change at about 5 minutes, and the song sounds like it should get a bit better. And it does. A little bit. And you know, I am looking forward to the arrival of James LaBrie a lot. I probably like it a little less than Ytse Jam. 6.5/10.
5. Light Fuse and Get Away - I like the lyrics on this one, which are very much about being friend zoned. But boy, I hate the delivery. A fair bit of wanking in the background here. You can hear a bit of what will emerge and make Dream Theater great, but this song sure ain't. 4/10.
6. Afterlife - I like this more. A bit of a better pace, a bit more angled for Dominici's voice. Pretty good solo from Petrucci too and another good one from Moore. Build on this and this band could become really quite good. Still very a unrefined track and I feel like it needs more to it, but this one is actually pretty good. 7/10.
7. The Ones Who Help To Set the Sun - Interesting introduction, driving down a rainy highway, it sounds, then some interesting synth to draw us in. A slow intro that builds. There's promise here, and then we get an odd time change and some really bland-sounding double-bass that doesn't seem to build on the intro very much. It doesn't seem to get anywhere fast, and squanders a lot of that early promise, though it eventually finds a new gar. It's not bad, but it's not good. 6.5/10.
8. Only a Matter of Time - Sounds promising, then Dominici comes in and what the fuck is he doing? Man, this song falls apart fast. Time changes are awkward and the drumming doesn't drive the pace, it stands above it and I don't like that. Is there a bass player? Yeah, the production here is not good. Uh, I want to like this because it's interesting, but I just don't think it's interesting in a good way. 4/10.
Final Score: 54%
This...is not good. The most it can manage to be is palatable, and it only touches that a handful of times over the course of the album. Bad production, extremely bad vocals, uninteresting rhythm, only Moore and Petrucci stand out at all (and the latter far more than the former). We'll see what comes next, I hear Images and Words is OK.
1. A Fortune in Lies - Fun little intro with a riff, but it's not really good. Definitely sounds like a band just starting out. The awkward time shifts are reminiscent of early Symphony X (really, the other way around). Drumming isn't very good, or at least it's mixed poorly. I have a suspicion the production will impact my feeling of these songs. It's fine, but it's not good. 5/10.
2. Status Seeker - Phew, some wanking here, isn't it? A little happy intro, and then this odd kind of bluesy moment. Should one of the great prog metal bands remind me forcibly of Dire Straits? It gets back to a little more traditional sounds, but this is just a mess of poor ideas and execution. 3/10.
3. Ytse Jam - The name alone is absolutely frightening to me. Let's see how it sounds. Actually it's fine, some wanking going on but the most enjoyable thing yet on the album. 7/10.
4. The Killing Hand - It's not actually that interesting to get a full breakdown, even though this is supposed to be a multi-part song. I can hardly tell the difference between the portions. Some fun guitar work here from Petrucci, though, so I guess it's fine. Real awkward time change at about 5 minutes, and the song sounds like it should get a bit better. And it does. A little bit. And you know, I am looking forward to the arrival of James LaBrie a lot. I probably like it a little less than Ytse Jam. 6.5/10.
5. Light Fuse and Get Away - I like the lyrics on this one, which are very much about being friend zoned. But boy, I hate the delivery. A fair bit of wanking in the background here. You can hear a bit of what will emerge and make Dream Theater great, but this song sure ain't. 4/10.
6. Afterlife - I like this more. A bit of a better pace, a bit more angled for Dominici's voice. Pretty good solo from Petrucci too and another good one from Moore. Build on this and this band could become really quite good. Still very a unrefined track and I feel like it needs more to it, but this one is actually pretty good. 7/10.
7. The Ones Who Help To Set the Sun - Interesting introduction, driving down a rainy highway, it sounds, then some interesting synth to draw us in. A slow intro that builds. There's promise here, and then we get an odd time change and some really bland-sounding double-bass that doesn't seem to build on the intro very much. It doesn't seem to get anywhere fast, and squanders a lot of that early promise, though it eventually finds a new gar. It's not bad, but it's not good. 6.5/10.
8. Only a Matter of Time - Sounds promising, then Dominici comes in and what the fuck is he doing? Man, this song falls apart fast. Time changes are awkward and the drumming doesn't drive the pace, it stands above it and I don't like that. Is there a bass player? Yeah, the production here is not good. Uh, I want to like this because it's interesting, but I just don't think it's interesting in a good way. 4/10.
Final Score: 54%
This...is not good. The most it can manage to be is palatable, and it only touches that a handful of times over the course of the album. Bad production, extremely bad vocals, uninteresting rhythm, only Moore and Petrucci stand out at all (and the latter far more than the former). We'll see what comes next, I hear Images and Words is OK.