Dream Theater

It's hard for me to go back to the studio version of the Six Degrees title track after I've grown so accustomed to the Score live version with the Octavarium orchestra. That version has so much more energy in it. I feel the Overture in particular was always meant to be performed by an orchestra, because of all the synthesized strings.

The real deal when it comes to Six Degrees is that first disc and I'm sure most people can agree on that at least. That is some of DT's strongest material. Maybe I'm not the biggest fan of Misunderstood, but everything else is aces. The Great Debate took me a long time to get into, though. Disappear is a very underrated song. Almost feels like a sequel to Space-Dye Vest, but without all the baggage that one has. Granted, everyone who loves that song calls it underrated, so is it really underrated...?

As for the other two songs, well...they almost speak for themselves although I will say I prefer Blind Faith to The Glass Prison by a hair and it's mostly due to the instrumental section being better on Blind Faith. The chorus kinda stinks, of course. I really hope they play either of those two songs live for when they go out on tour again with Portnoy. I think if anything those two songs don't sound too taxing for JLB to handle at this stage, moreso Blind Faith.

If they play Blind Faith now in 2024, I think it will have been slightly longer since they played that song last time (in 2008) than how long it was since Kevin Moore left the band at that moment in time?
 
MindRuler said:
Any specific reason why you skipped this album?
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I don't own it lol. To be honest, I had no idea Images and Words is their SECOND album and that Falling into Infinity was even a thing until a few years ago. I feel no need to get the first one, but I've seen a lot of retroactive love for Falling into Infinity, so... I might stream it and if I like it I'll buy it.
 
I might recommend Live At Budokan as well. It's from the Train of Thought tour and contains a few songs from both FII and WDADU.
 
Mosh said:
I might recommend Live At Budokan as well. It's from the Train of Thought tour and contains a few songs from both FII and WDADU.
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I think I have it already.... a friend gave me a bunch of mp3s and I do remember listening to it YEARS ago.... I'll look through my hard drive see if it's still there to give it a fresh listen. I am in the process of creating new playlists and burning new MP3 collections, so hopefully it's there. Starting tomorrow I'm listening to pt. 2 of my DT discography which spans from Train of Thought through.... A Dramatic Turn of Events? I do have the self-titled, but I burnt this before purchasing it, one of the reasons I'm due for new playlists.
 
Just my tuppence, FII remains my second favourite 90s DT album, right after SFAM. There was a time when it was even higher.

And maybe it's nostalgia speaking, but  Budokan might still be my favourite live album of theirs. I've had it on recently and I was utterly taken away.
 
FII is one of the few albums where I feel a rearranged trackorder would make a big difference. I love the album's sound and the musical variety, but it is a very long listen with some filler (funny that it's already a shortened version of what the band intended). I also think it could have used one more epic track, so I replaced one of Portnoy's lyrical contributions (Burning My Soul) with Raise the Knife, which was IMO the only questionable omission from the original album. Just Let Me Breathe gets to stay for album flow purposes primarily.

1. New Millennium
2. Just Let Me Breathe
3. Peruvian Skies
4. Hollow Years
5. Raise the Knife
6. Hell's Kitchen
7. Lines in the Sand
8. Take Away My Pain
9. Anna Lee
10. Trial of Tears

The only problem is that the album is too ballad/slow song heavy now. Not sure I like Take Away My Pain and Anna Lee work one after the other, but not sure where else I would put them. I guess part of the problem with the album was that they weren't coming up with a lot of energetic solid short songs in the vein of Caught in a Web/Innocence Faded.
 
Mosh said:
FII is one of the few albums where I feel a rearranged trackorder would make a big difference. I love the album's sound and the musical variety, but it is a very long listen with some filler (funny that it's already a shortened version of what the band intended). I also think it could have used one more epic track, so I replaced one of Portnoy's lyrical contributions (Burning My Soul) with Raise the Knife, which was IMO the only questionable omission from the original album. Just Let Me Breathe gets to stay for album flow purposes primarily.

1. New Millennium
2. Just Let Me Breathe
3. Peruvian Skies
4. Hollow Years
5. Raise the Knife
6. Hell's Kitchen
7. Lines in the Sand
8. Take Away My Pain
9. Anna Lee
10. Trial of Tears

The only problem is that the album is too ballad/slow song heavy now. Not sure I like Take Away My Pain and Anna Lee work one after the other, but not sure where else I would put them. I guess part of the problem with the album was that they weren't coming up with a lot of energetic solid short songs in the vein of Caught in a Web/Innocence Faded.
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My "version" would be:

1. Burning My Soul
2. Hell's Kitchen
3. Lines in the Sand
4. Just Let Me Breathe
5. Anna Lee
6. Speak To Me
7. Peruvian Skies
8. You Not Me
9. Trial of Tears
10. Hollow Years
11. New Millenium/ Raise The Knife suite
 
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Stardust said:
The real deal when it comes to Six Degrees is that first disc and I'm sure most people can agree on that at least.
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I think The Glass Prison and Blind Faith are top-tier Dream Theater. The Great Debate is also an excellent song that I feel is often overlooked (as a scientist I particularly like the subject matter here). Misunderstood is solid but I don't think it can compare to the three juggernauts above. I've always found Disappear to be mind-numbingly boring until the incredibly powerful depressing part near the end of the song.

As for the title track, I've never cared for most of it. I like the two heavier parts in the middle as well as About to Crash (Reprise), but otherwise I think the whole thing is massively overrated. Goodnight Kiss might be one of the lamest tracks the band has ever written.
 
@MrKnickerbocker and I saw Meanstreak open up for John Petrucci about a year ago. Their stuff isn’t something I’d seek out to listen to, but they weren’t bad. More than anything it was cool to see three of the Dream Theater wives after hearing for years about how they were all in a band together. Myung and Petrucci’s wives play the same instruments as their husbands, while Portnoy’s plays guitar.
 
A couple of hiccups on my retread through DT's discography. The first being that upon re-burning my MP3 cds I rearranged them and now Train of Thought is at the end of CD one instead of the beginning of CD 2, so when I started listening to CD 2 I started with Octavarium. Second snag, my CD player is refusing to play the disc now after getting to the Self-Titled. It plays the original discs and it played my Apocalyptica MP3 disc (I'll get to that one later), so not sure what's going on. I did the old fashioned thing and put the original disc in and listened to it non stop for like three days.

That being said I found this album even MORE frustrating doing that. It is such a good album. Not great, not amazing just.... baseline DT good album. I find no faults with it, but also no highlights and even after having it on repeat for three days.... utterly forgettable. I can't say anything about any specific song as I sit here. Nothing sticks from this album and I don't get it. As I listen to it I really enjoy it and parts of some tracks really make my head bop, but as soon as it ends it's like I get a mind wipe.

I'll try to figure out what is going on with the MP3 disc, listen to Train of Thought again for the first time since release and give a proper pt. II.
 
TheMercenary said:
blabbermouth.net

MEANSTREAK Feat. DREAM THEATER Members' Wives: 'The Dark Gift' Lyric Video

The reunited all-female band MEANSTREAK — comprised of guitarists Marlene Portnoy (wife of DREAM THEATER drummer Mike Portnoy) and Rena Sands Petrucci (wife of DREAM THEATER guitarist John Petrucci),vocalist Bettina France, bassist Martens Myung (wife of DREAM THEATER bassist John Myung) and...
blabbermouth.net blabbermouth.net
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It's funny I mean... Was Mangini's wife or girlfriend fired too from this band ?
 
You’ll get a ban or a warning on the Dream Theater forums if you say Mangini was fired.

But yea, it seems pretty clear he was dismissed from the band to make way for Portnoy. It seemed obvious from the beginning tbh.
 
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