Dream Theater

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As expected. It’s great technically as always, cool rhythms, they clearly put the work in. But for me it seems we’ve heard it all before, and better. I’m not a fan of the homogenized Sneap sound anyway, and in combination with musicians that are so much about technical perfection already... I’d prefer a sound that’s more real, raw, rock and roll. I liked the panning from one side to the other in the keys at one place though.
 
Not very catchy, but I don't mind that. Love that it's heavier and that it doesn't sound like shit, production/mixing/mastering-wise.

As usual, if it's gonna be among the weakest tracks (which these teasers usually end up being, with DT, Maiden, whomever), I'm probably gonna like the album a lot.
 
Every part of the song is well done. At any given moment, it sounds good. And yet, the song still finds a way to come off as another pile of wanky circus djent. Fine (even fun) to listen to, but nothing memorable to make me want to come back to it. Petrucci kept the best melodies for his guitar solos; he oughta try sharing some of those with the singer, maybe it would sound more like an actual song, instead of a wacky instrumental with some accidental verses.
 
Didn’t realize the band was dropping a 9 minute single, that’s pretty fun. I want to give this a chance to grow but at the moment it seems a bit cluttered.

As far as the production goes, I’m not that impressed. Drums sound good, typical Sneap clarity, but outside of that it’s pretty muddy. I think this is less to do with the mixing and more to do with the arrangement, there’s a lot going on in a given section and my ears don’t know what to latch on to.

JP sounds awesome as always.

Sounds like the LTE stuff is rubbing off.

The percussion heavy bit at 5:38 going into the guitar solo is awesome. The solo itself is classic JP.

On the whole, my first impression is that this is a step up from D/T which could very well be my least favorite Dream Theater album. It seems like the name of the game since DT12 has been conciseness, so I don’t actually mind that they’re going into instrumental extravagance a little bit more. After all, that is what has made DT stand out from the beginning. But DT was also notable because of their song craft and melody writing, in the vocals as well, here it seems like the vocal parts are a major after thought and get in the way of things. I hope that’s not indicative of the rest of the album. JLB sounds better though and his vocals aren’t processed to hell and back.
 
A song like this is definitely going to need a lot more listens to be able to digest, but I like it quite a bit based on my first impression.
 
SinisterMinisterX said:
accidental verses
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But this has been DT's style for 15+ years...
Mosh said:
here it seems like the vocal parts are a major after thought and get in the way of things. I hope that’s not indicative of the rest of the album. JLB sounds better though and his vocals aren’t processed to hell and back.
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LaBrie sounds fine, and yes - aside from the final vocal section of the song, there's nothing melodically interesting to grab onto. It really does feel like an afterthought.
 
Listening to The Astonishing again and I was wondering: why is this such a maligned album among the fans? It´s not that much different from previous albums, there´s typical DT elements everywhere. I always liked it. The intro of A Savior In The Square is beautiful. Thoughts?
 
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Even though I agree that the lp receives too much criticism (I love it and enjoyed the tour), it is very different from the rest of their catalog.
Only one extended jam vs several that most of their lps have.
Not really many long tunes either.
 
MindRuler said:
Listening to The Astonishing again and I was wondering: why is this such a maligned album among the fans? It´s not that much different from previous albums, there´s typical DT elements everywhere. I always liked it. The intro of A Savior In The Square is beautiful. Thoughts?
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The lyrics can range from Disney lookalike ("no I can't climb this mountain without you...") to on the nose ("my music player...") to flat out ridiculous ("Father is it true? Bug was always you!"). It's also a little hard to follow at times as parts of the story were left online.

That said, if you get past that and don't take it too seriously I think the album is great fun and it's probably the one I listen to most. I'm a big fan of Ravenskill in particular.
 
The Astonishing is my least favorite DT album, but it definitely has some of their strongest vocal melodies. This one in particular:

My brother Gabriel
Is all the hope we need
Shining like a beacon in the night
Shed light on Ravenskill
A reason to believe
Music is the gift he brings
The songbird stops and listens when he sings
 
MindRuler said:
Listening to The Astonishing again and I was wondering: why is this such a maligned album among the fans?
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For me, Dream Theater has always been a band that writes about real things - some of them very personal, emotive, and reflective. They have some "nerdy" concepts, too, but The Astonishing is a level of silly that they had never even come close to previously. It's an entire concept album that is not only too long, but feels more like a Disney movie than a progressive metal band's album. There are numerous points where LaBrie actually does his best Saturday morning cartoon villain impression. The concept is simply far too goofy for me to take seriously.

It is also musically not at the same level as their other albums. The entire thing was written by Petrucci and Rudess, and it shows. I can't think of any standout drum parts and only one cool bass groove. It repeats itself far too often, and doesn't engage me as a listener much at all.

For me, it's at the bottom of the barrel of their albums, along with the debut and Octavarium.
 
The Astonishing is fine. Its length is the biggest thing that makes it my least listened to DT album, but I’m mostly fine with it. It’s a musical and even the best musicals are kinda cheesy by design, they do a pretty good job at covering a lot of musical tropes and stylistic things.

I appreciate the band’s restraint on the album. They don’t let themselves get in the way of the storyline and every song is serving the overall concept. The instrumental work, for the little amount there is, is really strong. Three Days is awesome, Petrucci’s solo toward the end of disc 1 (forget which track) is great, the instrumentals tracks are cool. The melody writing is a step above what DT usually do, JLB’s parts don’t feel like afterthoughts for a change. To that end, this is probably JLB’s best performance since the Mangini era, he also sounded really good on the tour. I dunno, I think it’s good for what it is and I appreciate that the band is challenging themselves at this stage in their career. I would like more of that and less of whatever D/T was.
 
KidInTheDark666 said:
Octavarium? That album is pretty much perfect imo.
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I never cared for it. I got into the band in 2002 with Six Degrees and loved Train of Thought, so Octavarium (with its poppier songwriting and constant shameless ripping off of other bands) annoyed me greatly. There are some decent moments here and there, but only the last two tracks have any real redeeming quality to me.
 
I'd probably go with The Astonishing, Metropolis Part II, the self tilted album, ADTOE and I&W in some order.

I really don't like the 12 step suite so that ruins a lot of the middle albums for me.
 
At this point I would probably say
1. Images and Words
2. Train of Thought
3. Octavarium
4. Metropolis pt. 2
5. Six Degrees
 
MindRuler said:
I Walk Beside You could´ve been a U2 song...
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Definitely, even though I think that’s one of the better songs on there. Then you have parts of Panic Attack and Never Enough that are clearly ripping off Muse, or the nu-metal vibes of These Walls.

The title track is clearly influenced by Pink Floyd and ‘70s prog but still has a Dream Theater sound to it. Sacrificed Sons is pure DT. I think that’s why the other six tracks just don’t do much for me - they’re just too simple and non-DT-like.

DJMayes said:
I really don't like the 12 step suite so that ruins a lot of the middle albums for me.
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I love the first two songs, and was lucky enough to see them play them both as one 25-minute piece of music in 2004. However, the other three songs are insanely bland. It picks up a little bit in the last song with some of the reprises and a cool chorus or two, but by that point it’s just overdone.

Picking five favorite DT albums is tough. Definitely Images and ToT, probably Scenes, the first half of Six Degrees (I’ve never liked the title track)… and I’ll go with the self-titled. ADTOE is really good, too.
 
I think mine is Awake, ToT, I&W, SFaM and the last one juggles between Octavarium, Six Degrees and lately ADToE? It's not one of the other ones at least.
 
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