Yax
Ancient Mariner
I went to a pre listening session in Stockholm yesterday, with Labrie and Petrucci present. It was in a restaurant/pub in the outer Stockholm city with around 30 other people as well. There was a Q/A for about 10-15 minutes (I asked Petrucci if he's ever used a Kemper profiling amp, blah blah, and profiled what he calls his chocolate cake gutiar soun don the album. The reply was negative, and then he talked about how he likes to use images to describe sounds, when talking about drum sound etc), then a signing session where a photographer took pictures (Definitely going to hang mine on the wall when I get it), and after that we got to hear the album, on a fairly crappy 5.1 setup. Petrucci and Labrie, were quite sociable and entertaining, trading jokes with each other and the rest of us.
The upcoming album is kickass. Mind you, I'm in no position to give any detailed review, as the listening circumstances didn't offer any real opportunity to let the album sink in. Very cool riffwork by Petrucci, and, as I had already heard the single in my headphones, I agree that he achieved a chocolate cake guitar sound. The drumming is more present than the last album, as Mangini was involved in the songwriting. The intro piece, was written as a pre concert opener, as DT usually have used like a movie soundtrack, they wanted to write their own piece. Sounded very cool.
One song I particularly liked, starts with grand piano, acoustic steel guitar and vocals, which then explodes into a really heavy song, and as I recall, then comes back down toward the end again. The rest of the album, was kind of a blur. Not musically wise, but my recollection of them. I was just sitting there, grooving and listening and smiling and enjoying it. It was a very, very enjoyable album, but I can't really at this point remember that much or distinguish between most songs, as it was only one listening in a listening environment and situation that doesn't really let you get into the songs in depth. I'm preordering the album though. Overall impression is, that it's on par with Black Clouds, which is my favorite DT album along with Images and Words. I'm myself, rather fond of the modern Dream Theater, than earlier Dream Theater. I like Labrie's more matured, mid range-upper mid inclinded vocals, that he's been using for the last 10-7 years, than the ultra high singing he dabbled with earlier.
I was though, very impressed by the drumming. I'm no drummer and can't for the life of me say how it compares thechnically to Portnoy, but I like Mangini as much as, maybe more, than Portnoy.
Production wise (mostly assessed through listening to the single on proper headphones): It's excellent. Very modern sounding, rather dry, as I've grown to prefer rather than 80's- early 90's Metal albums that often were rather wet. It's very dynamically compressed though (you compress in a lot of stages, mind you. And by dynamically compressed, I mean the amplitude rather than data compression like with mp3 etc. I don't mean it as the songs are undynamic), as expected. It's both good and bad. The cymbal attack's a bit too effected for my taste, but it's one of the sacrifices you have to make. Wouldn't call them undefined like Mosh though, but I don't kow, that might just be semantics. The cymbals are, physically positioned into two main arrays, and I suppose that if you hit several cymbals that are close, it can sound a bit blurry, but not sure if that's what Mosh means.
But back on track, all the different compressors package it in very neatly. It's very tightly sounding which I like. I attribute a lot of this to the relatively large use of multiband compression (basically evens out the balance between low, mid and high frequencies so that no specific frequency band jumps out. It packages it together). The production is, overall, definitely an improvement over A Dramatic Turn Of Events, which compared to the self titled, is more midrange-ish, not as tight and a lot worse drum sound. It's the nuances that make or break it, and A Dramatic Turn Of Events lacked the little nuances. I'm very satisfied with the production.
Solo-wise: I recall Petrucci played a bunch of very cool solos, with clear melodic themes. Rudess played some cool stuff as well.
All in all, I loved this album and can't wait to quietly sit down and listen to it properly, by myself.
The upcoming album is kickass. Mind you, I'm in no position to give any detailed review, as the listening circumstances didn't offer any real opportunity to let the album sink in. Very cool riffwork by Petrucci, and, as I had already heard the single in my headphones, I agree that he achieved a chocolate cake guitar sound. The drumming is more present than the last album, as Mangini was involved in the songwriting. The intro piece, was written as a pre concert opener, as DT usually have used like a movie soundtrack, they wanted to write their own piece. Sounded very cool.
One song I particularly liked, starts with grand piano, acoustic steel guitar and vocals, which then explodes into a really heavy song, and as I recall, then comes back down toward the end again. The rest of the album, was kind of a blur. Not musically wise, but my recollection of them. I was just sitting there, grooving and listening and smiling and enjoying it. It was a very, very enjoyable album, but I can't really at this point remember that much or distinguish between most songs, as it was only one listening in a listening environment and situation that doesn't really let you get into the songs in depth. I'm preordering the album though. Overall impression is, that it's on par with Black Clouds, which is my favorite DT album along with Images and Words. I'm myself, rather fond of the modern Dream Theater, than earlier Dream Theater. I like Labrie's more matured, mid range-upper mid inclinded vocals, that he's been using for the last 10-7 years, than the ultra high singing he dabbled with earlier.
I was though, very impressed by the drumming. I'm no drummer and can't for the life of me say how it compares thechnically to Portnoy, but I like Mangini as much as, maybe more, than Portnoy.
Production wise (mostly assessed through listening to the single on proper headphones): It's excellent. Very modern sounding, rather dry, as I've grown to prefer rather than 80's- early 90's Metal albums that often were rather wet. It's very dynamically compressed though (you compress in a lot of stages, mind you. And by dynamically compressed, I mean the amplitude rather than data compression like with mp3 etc. I don't mean it as the songs are undynamic), as expected. It's both good and bad. The cymbal attack's a bit too effected for my taste, but it's one of the sacrifices you have to make. Wouldn't call them undefined like Mosh though, but I don't kow, that might just be semantics. The cymbals are, physically positioned into two main arrays, and I suppose that if you hit several cymbals that are close, it can sound a bit blurry, but not sure if that's what Mosh means.
But back on track, all the different compressors package it in very neatly. It's very tightly sounding which I like. I attribute a lot of this to the relatively large use of multiband compression (basically evens out the balance between low, mid and high frequencies so that no specific frequency band jumps out. It packages it together). The production is, overall, definitely an improvement over A Dramatic Turn Of Events, which compared to the self titled, is more midrange-ish, not as tight and a lot worse drum sound. It's the nuances that make or break it, and A Dramatic Turn Of Events lacked the little nuances. I'm very satisfied with the production.
Solo-wise: I recall Petrucci played a bunch of very cool solos, with clear melodic themes. Rudess played some cool stuff as well.
All in all, I loved this album and can't wait to quietly sit down and listen to it properly, by myself.
! I was more interested if he had used a Kemper profiling amp to, so to speak, copy it (so that I could fantasize about him sharing the preset. I've got a Kemper, so I was curious to hear if he had tried one. But he hasn't used one yet. Wish I had it before I did my album. The guitar sound would've been much more satisfying). Anyway, a guy did a match profiling of the Pull Me Under rhytm and lead sound, and they sound incredibly close, as close as you can get without profiling the actual rig, which obviously, was impossible at the time as the Kemper came out last year. Great piece of gear, Andy Sneap used it a bit on Testament's Dark Roots of the Earth and Accept's Stalingrad (and uses it live himself now). But John, obviously, as most people in the room weren't interested in guitar gear or production, focused on the chocolate cake phrase.
