Dream Theater

I revisited A View From the Top of the World this week to commemorate the Mangini era. I did a full discography run last year but I figured I would revisit some of those recent albums again to see if my impression has changed. The recent events have reignited my interest in the band, so maybe that would make me more receptive to the newer albums.

I still feel like it is a very average at best album. On a technical level, I can see it being the best of the Mangini albums. It feels like the band doing what they do best and everybody sounds settled into their roles. The production is pretty good and the performances are, as always, top-notch. Unfortunately, none of the songs really grab me. The title track is really cool and there are a couple standout moments (Transcending Time, Awaken the Master). Definitely more to chew on than Distance Over Time (I'll have to revisit this one next), but it lacks any sort of identifiable traits that would make me want to revisit it, whereas I'm used to each Dream Theater album having a "thing" that differentiates it from the rest of the discography.

On the other hand, I noticed two glaring flaws with the album that were also present on Distance Over Time and I hope the band irons these things out for the next album:

1. JLB's vocals are super processed to the point of distraction - it's better than on Distance Over Time and I can accept that this is just a necessary evil for where JLB's abilities are currently. The biggest problem with the vocals for me is the lack of any memorable vocal melodies. The vocal parts have always felt like something of an afterthought, but that has become more noticeable recently. I was surprised to learn that James did the lyrics for The Alien, since that is one of the most prominent examples of awkward vocal parts for me. It just doesn't mix with the instruments well and often feels like vocals and instruments are competing with each other. I actually think that, if nothing else, having Portnoy contribute some vocal parts/lyrics (he usually does one or two per album) might bring some more variety into what they're doing in the vocals department. I would rather see them just change their writing approach to accommodate James' limitations but recognize that is a lost cause.

2. Other than The Astonishing and A Dramatic Turn of Events, the Mangini era albums have lacked a clear theme to create a full album experience. I really loved the callbacks, segues, and nuggets found in the Portnoy era albums. It always just gave the album a little extra something special as opposed to merely being a collection of songs. Even Systematic Chaos and Black Clouds & Silver Linings, two albums that were decidedly "anti grand concept," had a lot of commonalities in the lyrical topics and the musical stylings. Bringing Portnoy back into the fold probably makes this a given, but I would like to see more attention paid to the way the songs are tied together.

By the way, this is not the same as wanting them to do a full-on concept album. I actually hope Dream Theater never makes another concept album - I just think it would be way too contrived at this point (as The Astonishing was). But grand thematic ideas for an album ala Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence or Octavarium? Sign me up!
 
Somehow, somewhere, I have a feeling that the Portnoy's return will be celebrated with a Metropolis part 3
 
I gotta admit, I'm still surprised that this happened, although, looking back, you can really see this one coming. I feel bad about Mangini. To me, he was a part of the band, and all this time he took those questions from Portnoy with a smile. I remember watching auditions, and I don't know a lot about drumming, but that guy seemed like the antithesis of MP. And he even agreed to make an album about MP even if he badmouthed them (actually, he was badmouthing LaBrie on that Brazilian radio station).

But since then, Mike has played it smart. First playing live with Rudess on that Prog Cruise, then a solo album for Petrucci, then finally going to DT gigs, warming everybody up to the idea (I guess that picture with him and LaBrie meant exactly what everybody hoped for), and then a new LTE and solo tour with Petrucci. Still, I thought Mike would be afraid to rejoin again because of the pressure, and it seems I was wrong. More than their live performances (which I don't think will change a lot from the previous couple of tours), I'm really curious about the next album. Their last two with MP, to me, sounded like they were stuck in a rut of some sort. Since then, Dream Theater has gone in all directions, just as MP has with his projects, so I have to admit that I really have high expectations for the next album.
 
That's cool to see and maybe PR but more authentic sounding than anything in the original press release save for maybe Portnoy’s comments. Really looking forward to seeing what the band chemistry is like this time around.
 
Mosh said:
That's cool to see and maybe PR but more authentic sounding than anything in the original press release save for maybe Portnoy’s comments. Really looking forward to seeing what the band chemistry is like this time around.
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Their press releases always sounded like they were write for people who never even heard about rock music, let alone Dream Theater.
 
Covid, man. It was a crazy time and people had way too much time on their hands.
I remember Gal Gadot organising this celebrity rendition of "Imagine", which was so cringeworthy it was almost worse than the entire pandemic.
 
JudasMyGuide said:
Covid, man. It was a crazy time and people had way too much time on their hands.
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No, this was for Cameo, you can even see watermark on the video. I think James did those even before Covid (so did Rudess and Portnoy).
As far as I can tell from this video, a group of friends did this for their teammate (who I guess gave himself Big Chungus nick). Also, speaking of impostors, they probably played "Among Us".
And I have to say: I always found publishing private videos like this distasteful.
 
Spambot said:
No, this was for Cameo, you can even see watermark on the video. I think James did those even before Covid (so did Rudess and Portnoy).
As far as I can tell from this video, a group of friends did this for their teammate (who I guess gave himself Big Chungus nick). Also, speaking of impostors, they probably played "Among Us".
And I have to say: I always found publishing private videos like this distasteful.
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I'm pretty sure he started doing cameos in 2020. The Big Chungus clip is from either 2021 or 2022. Youtube is full of these videos of him singing DT and other stuff on Cameo. I don't think uploading them is a huge issue since you can view these on his cameo profile too.
 
KidInTheDark666 said:
I'm pretty sure he started doing cameos in 2020. The Big Chungus clip is from either 2021 or 2022. Youtube is full of these videos of him singing DT and other stuff on Cameo. I don't think uploading them is a huge issue since you can view these on his cameo profile too.
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I knew he did it for some time, I didn't knew when he started.
It is not a huge issue, but those that you can see on his cameo profile were agreed upon to be released live (there's an option) when the person books (and even those are only for promotional purposes of the Cameo and the person who is making them) . Seeing it later float around on other channels so public seems... IDK, those should be more private, especially the ones when there's a birthday celebration, kid being born or some other private event (I'm kinda OK with those where people answer questions that have something to do with work that made them famous in the first place)
 
Last year I happened across a used copy of the DT bio Lifting Shadows, reading about those early years and digging deep into WDADU/all the old demos really increased my appreciation for that early period. It’s hard to see WDADU as much more than a glorified demo, and Dominicci wasn’t a good choice at all, but I can get into the fire of a young band trying to be the next Iron Maiden/Queensryche. You can hear that classic metal influence a lot more directly compared to I&W and compared to even their more metal later albums like Awake and Train of Thought where they’re clearly more interested in stuff like Pantera/Metallica. So there’s a bit of a unique flavor there, also a lot of Rush. Anyway there are a few cool songs on there and I honestly get more enjoyment out of the debut than the last three DT albums. Wouldn’t mind if they brought something back live as a tribute. RIP Dominicci.

I AM THE

KILLING


haaaaaaand
 
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