Dream Theater

  • Thread starter Thread starter Anonymous
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I'm a double agent, signed up for both sides.

The story seems overly complicated and silly. I don't care though as long as the music is good.
 
Mosh said:
The story seems overly complicated and silly. I don't care though as long as the music is good.
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Precisely. Who listens to DT for their lyrics? :D To paraphrase Ian Anderson: "Show me a man who says he understood Octavarium and I show you the door."
 
This has the chance of being a catastrophic failure. Hopefully it's not. I have low expectations from DT in terms of really exciting me but looks like they're trying.
 
The part that has me wortied is the possibility of it being forced. Did they come up with a story naturally or did they go into it saying "let's make a concept album"? But again, if the music holds up its fine. I'll take that over poor music under a solid story. Metropolis didn't have a great story either.
 
So the news put me in the mood for a little bit of Dream Theater. I just finished listening to the last album and I think it still holds up. There are a few middle of the road songs there but The Looking Glass, The Bigger Picture, and Illumination Theory are some of the best songs they've ever done. I've also come to really enjoy Enigma Machine for what it is.
 
They're certainly making a big effort with the buildup, it's going to have a lot to live up to at this rate.
 
That's actually not a bad idea, a novelization of The Astonishing. Hopefully it wouldn't be by Kevin J Anderson though :p

Now that I've been thinking about it, this sci-fi concept album by DT is actually sounding really exciting. But the double album thing worries me. With the last album I was starting to think maybe they realized they don't have to write all super long songs with super long instrumental passages to make good music. I hope they didn't have a relapse...
 
Mosh said:
So the news put me in the mood for a little bit of Dream Theater. I just finished listening to the last album and I think it still holds up. There are a few middle of the road songs there but The Looking Glass, The Bigger Picture, and Illumination Theory are some of the best songs they've ever done. I've also come to really enjoy Enigma Machine for what it is.
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I like it. Both post-Portnoy albums are strong imo. I'm not that interested in the concept though(I never really are, unless it's Animals!!) so I may have to file this one with Octavarium and Six Degrees, but it all depends on how the songs sound.
 
I'm sure it will be a very long and complicated album. With lots of wankery. God I can't stand those keyboard solos. I like DT, but that shit drives me nuts.
 
If it's really going to be a very long and complicated album with lots of wankery, heavy as their last four albums were, keyboard solos, a concept and a handful of nice melodies, my head'll probably explode from the absolute aural orgasm. :D Systematic and BC&SL were missing the concept, ADTOE the concept and the heaviness, Octavarium the complicated-ness for the most part (or is that "complicacy"?), Six Degrees...was definitely missing something although it's still probably my #2/3, Train was missing the keyboard solos... yet all of these are my favourite albums ever, bar none, not even Maiden, I guess. Don't ask me why, the heart is a lonely hunter.

I however do not believe the new album's going to be middle of the road - either it's going to be really astonishing or seriously crappy. The bombast alone makes any other outcome improbable.
 
Mosh said:
"Wankery" is starting to become my least favorite criticism of music.
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...and my favourite praise. :D Seriously, almost everything I've ever head being described as "wankery" I have started to like or love very soon - Dream Theater, Satriani, Miles Davis, Malmsteen, Emerson Lake & Palmer, The Aristocrats, Yes, John Coltrane, Planet X, Atheist, Animals as Leaders, Weather Report, Gentle Giant, Scale the Summit, Return to Forever, Liszt...
 
I just wanted to say that 3 of my most favorite DT songs of all time are Learning To Live, A Change Of Seasons, and Outcry. The only thing I don't like is that no matter how many times I listen to their more progressive stuff, I still can't remember all of the parts of the songs and how they go. I usually just enjoy the part that's playing and don't really try to follow the entire song. That seems to give me the most enjoyment with this kind of music.
 
CriedWhenBrucieLeft said:
I always thought it was a word you quite liked using yourself? :p
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Oh I'm sure I've used it myself before, but the more I see it the more it seems a bit meaningless. It feels like almost anything with Dream Theater that's an instrumental section or has a solo gets filed under "wankery".
 
Whenever I hear that, I get that old familiar feeling...

"This is an audacity! How dare they play so well? How dare they play this way in front of people who can't! That takes music away from the working class! That betrays the spirit of rock 'n' roll! You just cannot show your chops this way in front of a regular listener; he might feel as if he's not appreciated enough. That will not do!
They keep doing these complex compositions - a guy like you and me, heart on sleeve, we don't need to hide behind anything like that. Who do they think they are?
No no no, we definitely need a new wave of punk that will annihilate these pretentious poseurs! What would be next - people could start to listen to classical, for crying out loud!
What can we say? Oh, I know, they're bad songwriters. Yeah, you see? Mozart was too, really - ask anyone who can carry a tune, I doubt he will sing you anything out of that Cozy Tutti Frutti crap of his. No? How about they lack the heart and/or the spirit! Hey, don't worry, nobody knows what that spirit is, but Sex Pistols have it and they don't, you see? Still no? Well, let's just say it's wankery and praise Velvet Underground instead.
Oh, hello Mr. Wenner, hello Mr. Bangs, I didn't notice you had come in. We were just finishing our review of the new Jethro Tull album. Oh, sorry, my mistake, an album by Yes. Could we lick your boots some more, now?"

(important disclaimer: this is just for fun and I don't want to offend anyone who likes punk (I do too, in a way), Lester Bangs, Jann Wenner and the Rolling Stone Magazine or anyone who hates Jethro Tull, Yes or Dream Theater. Yes, I get that not everyone likes that. I just think the overall hate in the music world/press for anything slightly more cerebral/complex and praise of everything indie, alternative or "edgy" is ridiculous). Love, Prance.
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