Dream Theater

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Detective Beauregard said:
The band performed the entire album live in the mid-2000s, and Charlie Dominici (and Derek Sherinian) joined them on a few extra tracks. It was a breath of fresh air for me at the time (I believe it was around Octavarium, one of my least favorite albums of theirs). There's an official bootleg of it called When Dream and Day Reunite.
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Yeah, I really like that show. It was actually a year before Octavarium, 2004.
 
The new single is out at midnight everywhere. It definitely sounds a bit more radio-friendly compared to The Alien. I got some Pull Me Under vibes.
 
The new song is... OK. Nothing really stood out on a first listen. I preferred The Alien, but wouldn't write home about that one either.
 
Invisible Monster is pretty nice, and The Alien has grown on me with each listen. I’d like more grit and heaviness in the sound, and vocals might not be the strongest, but I like the way they’re going with this album.
 
DT have kinda lost their touch with vocal melodies in recent years. James sounds good and the production is better than on Distance Over Time, but the choruses of these songs sound like verses. They're lacking proper hooks.
 
Invisible Monster does nothing for me. I wasn't super crazy about The Alien, but it does everything better than this song.

Neither song has memorable vocal melodies, but at least The Alien has energetic music. This song is the definition of filler. There is absolutely nothing in this song that stands out.
 
This might be the most bland song they've released, especially as a single. It just feels completely flat. The music just follows the same mid-tempo melodic pattern the entire song and the vocals do literally nothing catchy at all. The fact that they found this song to be good enough to "hype" up the album makes me rather concerned for the rest of the album.

It sounds like a Dream Theater cover band trying to write an original song that they can pass off as being a Dream Theater cover.
 
Dream Theater have made the difficult decision to move their October-December 2021 North American tour dates to early 2022.

In light of current instabilities to touring that remain due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we feel confident that this is the right decision. Know that we are as disappointed as you are that we will have to wait a little longer to bring Dream Theater music to you live. We miss performing for you all and can’t wait until we can be on stage bringing our new album and fan-favorites to you.

This was an extraordinarily challenging decision to make but needed to be done after taking into consideration the varying local mandates across North America. In an effort to present the absolute most complete and engaging Dream Theater experience that our fans around the globe have come to expect, we feel we are all best served to postpone all touring activities to early 2022. At this time, we ask that everyone hold on to their tickets as we are working frantically to finalize the reschedule of all of these dates. All shows are currently being re-booked to begin in February 2022. Please keep an eye on our website, and we’ll have a complete, updated itinerary shortly. All previously purchased tickets will be honored. Please consult your local point of purchase for any inquiries regarding refunds.

We know that we all have eagerly awaited a return to normalcy, and the opportunity to enjoy live Dream Theater music together again. We apologize profusely but hope that everyone can understand the logic behind this decision.

Playing music for our fans is all we ever want to do. We look forward to seeing each and every one of our fans as soon as possible. We wish it could have been sooner, but we are counting the days until we can see you all again.

Thank you,
Dream Theater
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Kind of expected this but still sad.
I won't ask for refund yet; will just wait to see what the new dates are...

blabbermouth.net

DREAM THEATER Postpones North American Tour Due To COVID-19 Concerns

Progressive metal giants DREAM THEATER have postponed their previously announced North American tour to early 2022 due to COVID-19 concerns. The trek was scheduled to kick off on October 28 in Mesa, Arizona and conclude on December 14 in St. Petersburg, Florida. DREAM THEATER shared the news of...
blabbermouth.net blabbermouth.net
 

In which John Petrucci basically continues to tell us that this is the most boring song on the album.

Also, holy fucking Dio, he looks so stupid with that beard and skullet.
 
MrKnickerbocker said:
John Petrucci basically continues to tell us that this is the most boring song on the album.
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It’s like he says it without actually saying it, isn’t it? Like “wink wink, nudge nudge…”

This song is simply bad.

I have no idea why they would release this song to get people hyped. They had one similarly filler song on their last album, but they don’t usually write clunkers.

Watch this be a setlist staple.
 
Mosh said:
When Dream and Day Unite
At first glance, the debut Dream Theater album isn’t much more than a glorified demo. But the band had been working on this material for years, there are demos for these songs and there was a demo tape made a few years earlier when the band were known as Majesty. So in a way, much like the first Maiden album, this is like a greatest hits of the band’s early years. Unlike the first Maiden album, it’s not exactly heralded as a classic. The production is very rough (I would say worse than the Maiden debut), the songs are pretty messy at times, and the vocals have received their fair share of criticism. The band hasn’t really developed their sound yet either, at times it doesn’t really sound like what we would come to recognize as DT.

I have to say I actually enjoyed the album on this listen significantly more than I have in the past. It definitely has problems, but at the same time I appreciate the raw energy and experimentation that feels absent from the last couple decades of the band’s recorded and live history. I also found myself appreciating the riffage, it’s a little more Metal than the other stuff. More in line with Fates Warning and Queensryche than the “Metallica meets Yes” aesthetic that came later. There’s also a lot of Rush and Maiden in there. There’s a lot of shredding which is at times distracting, they hadn’t yet learned how to be tasteful with the instrumental acrobatics. There are a lot of moments where every single instrument is going at full force and it’s hard to know what to focus on. A lot of vocal sections feel busy as a result of this. Say what you will about DT, but they generally do a good job with making sure the instrumental parts stay out of the vocalist’s way.

As far as the songs go, this album is bookended by its best tracks. A Fortune In Lies has probably had the most staying power, but Only a Matter of Time also has a really cool rhythmic feel and an awesome buildup at the end. These songs are also the only ones where it feels like there’s a healthy balance between hooks, interesting song structures, and instrumental fireworks. They feel well arranged.

Otherwise the songs seem to fall into two categories: jumbled messes that don’t go anywhere (Light Fuse, Ones Who Help To Set the Sun) and songs that are really melodic but don’t really showcase the band as instrumentalists (Afterlife and Status Seeker). Between the two categories, I much prefer the latter. Afterlife is an awesome Metal song that would be well placed in any old school metal mix tape. Status Seeker gets a lot of undeserved hate imo, It’s a cool song with some really nice melodies and Rushisms. Definitely some hints of greater things in the album too. Ytse Jam is fine, but has some nice parts throughout. Killing Hand has some cool ideas but lacks a cohesive arrangement, suffers from the vocals, and has a really abrupt ending.

Overall this album is probably a 5/10. It isn’t terrible but it definitely sounds like it was made by a bunch of college music students in a basement. I should also mention that this is the only DT album without James LaBrie on vocals. I think Dominici gets more hate than he deserves. He definitely couldn’t handle the stuff like Killing Hand, but had the band gone in a direction more like Fates Warning or Queensryche with a more power metal sound he would’ve been fine (a producer also would’ve worked wonders). He actually sounds pretty good on the more straightforward rockers. I can’t imagine him doing anything off I&W though.
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Just re-listened to both the original and Reunite today, and I agree with these points for the most part. Dominici isn’t the problem. The songwriting, vocal melodies, and production are truly bad. I may give some songs on this album decent marks, but it’s overall pretty bad.

LaBrie doesn’t enhance any of these songs (and downright sounds terrible on the latter half), but the version of Killing Hand from Live At The Marquee is incredible and makes me think it’s the strongest composition here.

A Matter of Time comes in second, followed by Ytse Jam (solely because it lacks vocals) and then Afterlife or Fortune in Lies. The rest are truly incoherent at best and mostly terribly muddled. Light Fuse and Get Away is an utter failure, Status Seeker has such a bad chorus.

I’d give this one a 5.5/10.
 
Part of the reason it’s taking me awhile to get to I&W is that I’ve been going back and listening to both the Majesty demos and the WDADU demos. Of all the material that they wrote from 1985 to 1989, the stuff that made it onto the album really is the strongest material, which is not really saying anything but there are noticeable improvements. The jump they would make immediately after WDADU is crazy. Even more that they managed to make it sustainable for decades to come.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the debut isn’t at the bottom of my rankings after all this.
 
Mosh said:
Part of the reason it’s taking me awhile to get to I&W is that I’ve been going back and listening to both the Majesty demos and the WDADU demos. Of all the material that they wrote from 1985 to 1989, the stuff that made it onto the album really is the strongest material, which is not really saying anything but there are noticeable improvements. The jump they would make immediately after WDADU is crazy. Even more that they managed to make it sustainable for decades to come.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the debut isn’t at the bottom of my rankings after all this.
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It's definitely at the bottom for me, which is rather unsurprising. I think most metal-related bands I enjoy have a very patchy, underwhelming debut that feels disjointed and poorly constructed. The difference with Dream Theater is how titanic of a jump they made from that first album to their next.
 
I can’t say much about WDADU right off the bat but seeing the commentary video where the DT guys talk about revisiting WDADU made me appreciate the album more. The debut itself is a poorly produced mess but hearing the songs’ live versions that they played in 2005(?) was positively surprising. I enjoyed some songs a lot - I’ll look up the titles when I have time - and was struck by how technically proficient Petrucci was at that age already.
 
Wow I haven't been listening to the debut in years...
I think there are a few excellent tracks there but the production/singer is questionable.
 
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