DreamTheaterForums.org Dream Theater Fan Site
Dream Theater => Dream Theater => Topic started by: BeardedGentlemanHistorian on July 07, 2017, 04:59:54 PM
-
A quarter century ago today Dream Theater released what would become their best selling album. How many members here discovered the band with this album? Did anybody make it a point to listen to the album today?
-
I bought this album on it's release day. Having seen them a month earlier, I had a new favorite band just based on seeing them live.
-
I heard Pull Me Under on the radio and bought the CD immediately, though not on release day. I think there are quite a few people on this board in the same boat as me. I've seen many posts.
Very interesting to me as I was living in Seattle at the time and very much into the grunge thing. There was just something different about DT that really stood out to me. It really was exactly what I looked for in music.
Congrats DT for the 25th anniversary of a world changing album!
-
Congrats DT for the 25th anniversary of a world changing album!
Perfect way to put it!
-
One of the best prog metal albums.
-
One of the best prog metal albums.
It is to progressive metal what Master of Puppets is to thrash metal.
-
I actually listened the whole album yesterday not knowing it was the EXACT 25th anniversary :biggrin: :biggrin:
One of the best prog metal albums.
And my favourite album of all time! :metal :metal :hefdaddy
-
Still my favourite DT album and a Top 10 album of all time for me.
I'm listening to Under A Glass Moon right now.
-
One of the best prog metal albums.
My all time favorite album from any band. Just perfect. A neighbor in my apartment complex while in college handed me this and Awake as recommended music for me when she found out I liked metal. While I thought that girl was really weird, I am forever grateful for the recommendation and listen she allowed me to have. That was summer of 2006. :metal
-
One of the best prog metal albums.
My all time favorite album from any band. Just perfect. A neighbor in my apartment complex while in college handed me this and Awake as recommended music for me when she found out I liked metal. While I thought that girl was really weird, I am forever grateful for the recommendation and listen she allowed me to have. That was summer of 2006. :metal
What did you give her in return? :zydar:
-
My all time favorite album from any band. Just perfect.
This.
-
One of the best prog metal albums.
It is to progressive metal what Master of Puppets is to thrash metal.
I wouldn't say so. I think there are a number of essential albums that shaped the genre and influenced countless bands. Images And Words is surely among them. I don't think there is "THE ALBUM" that you put on a pedestal and say "this is the best".
Often forgotten are masterpieces by Voivod, Thought Industry, Psychotic Waltz, Atheist, etc. I'd take some Voivod albums over Metallica any day, if we are talking about Thrash Metal.
-
My all time favorite album from any band. Just perfect.
This.
Yup.
-
One of the best prog metal albums.
My all time favorite album from any band. Just perfect. A neighbor in my apartment complex while in college handed me this and Awake as recommended music for me when she found out I liked metal. While I thought that girl was really weird, I am forever grateful for the recommendation and listen she allowed me to have. That was summer of 2006. :metal
What did you give her in return? :zydar:
lol I really wish I had a good answer for that.
-
Thankfully, we can go back in time and listen to what is truly great. Kinda makes you wonder if it's possible to produce anything like that again. The good ole days may be gone forever...
-
Kinda makes you wonder if it's possible to produce anything like that again. The good ole days may be gone forever...
This was probably said 984375034957439057490 times in the history of music. Probably since time immemorial. And yet music goes on and on....
-
Of course it goes on. Doesn't necessarily mean it's better than it was. Change isn't always for the better. That includes music.
-
Unbelievable album. So many "classics". I'm hoping to be able to see it live once the band comes back through the States. :metal
Random note here, but about a month back I was going for a jog while listening to music, and Pull Me Under came up on shuffle. I hadn't heard it in forever. I was blown away by how monstrously heavy that song is. It's got to be one of the top five Dream Theater workout songs. :lol
-
I had Awake in the car and changed to this after reading the topic, it is a really good album.
I was late to DT, about 2003-4 somewhere there so TOT was my first intro to DT.
I have listened to it at various times, but I feel now my taste is heading to their earlier catalogue.
I wish I knew of them earlier .. I think I was more into Joe Satriani, Def Leppard, The Black Crowes, Faith no More, Peter Gabriel, INXS, etc etc
I never realized how long Learning to Live was .. loving Metropolis Part 1.
My drive is roughly 40 minutes each way, so I have heard this album more than ever in the last week and a bit!
-
I saw the video for Pull Me Under on Headbanger's Ball on MTV sometime after midnight on a sunday before going to work. Got the album the next day and was hooked.
Saw them live a couple of months later... 25 years..... have been a fan of Dream Theater for half of my life.... been a ride. Thanks DT!!!
-
I started with Awake in 1998, then I bought Scenes in the day of release... and after that was Images & Words. But it's still my favourite DT album, next to Awake. I know every second of this record and it still makes me happy when I'm listen to it :metal
-
Hi my friends. Please forgive me for shamelessly plugging my son's performance but since we're discussing Images and Words here I'm giving it a shot. This proud daddy watched his son today playing Pull me Under on drums during a show at the biggest drum shop in Holland. Please have a look at this 8 year old kid with only 1 year of drumming lessons.
https://youtu.be/_dU9XJ1X17A (https://youtu.be/_dU9XJ1X17A)
-
Keys, I think You gave us wrong link ;) or uploaded some other video, because I see a running horse on that one :p
Edit - OK, I found it ;) You have to click on user menu to find it, I'm checking it out now and it's impressive :)
-
Hahaha, whoops. Sorry, fixed it.
-
I still wish Metropolis got a sequel :-\
-
This was my gateway album into DT. My cousin bought it based off an internet search when looking for bands like Rush. He thought the album was too heavy and didn't care for it. He gave it to me because I was into heavier stuff and thrash. One listen and I was hooked and the rest is history. Still enjoy this album to this day, but the rest of the discography isn't to shabby either.
-
Not the first one I heard from DT (that was Awake in 1994), but definitely the one I've listened to the most. Truly a game changer.
-
The thing that always amazes me about this album is that every single song is a standout track.
On basically any other album, you get a really kick-ass standout like Lines In The Sand followed by the less interesting Take Away My Pain, or Repentance followed by Prophets Of War, or for a different band, Roll The Bones followed by Face Up.
On I&W, every song is like "Oh yeah, I love this one!"
The only other time I've seen that to this extent that I can think of is Haken's The Mountain.
-
The thing that always amazes me about this album is that every single song is a standout track.
On basically any other album, you get a really kick-ass standout like Lines In The Sand followed by the less interesting Take Away My Pain, or Repentance followed by Prophets Of War, or for a different band, Roll The Bones followed by Face Up.
On I&W, every song is like "Oh yeah, I love this one!"
The only other time I've seen that to this extent that I can think of is Haken's The Mountain.
This. I&W is the only album by DT where every single song has been "my favorite song on the album" at one point or another. Just a flawless album, start to finish.
-
The thing that always amazes me about this album is that every single song is a standout track.
On basically any other album, you get a really kick-ass standout like Lines In The Sand followed by the less interesting Take Away My Pain, or Repentance followed by Prophets Of War, or for a different band, Roll The Bones followed by Face Up.
On I&W, every song is like "Oh yeah, I love this one!"
The only other time I've seen that to this extent that I can think of is Haken's The Mountain
This. I&W is the only album by DT where every single song has been "my favorite song on the album" at one point or another. Just a flawless album, start to finish.
Agreed. All killer, no filler.
-
The thing that always amazes me about this album is that every single song is a standout track.
On basically any other album, you get a really kick-ass standout like Lines In The Sand followed by the less interesting Take Away My Pain, or Repentance followed by Prophets Of War, or for a different band, Roll The Bones followed by Face Up.
On I&W, every song is like "Oh yeah, I love this one!"
The only other time I've seen that to this extent that I can think of is Haken's The Mountain.
This. I&W is the only album by DT where every single song has been "my favorite song on the album" at one point or another. Just a flawless album, start to finish.
I disagree. I mean, it'll always be a true classic. And the good songs are just SO good! But to me, there is a lot that feels like filler, and I generally consider it to be one of their most inconsistent albums, which is why I rank it 5th overall despite some truly amazing quality tracks.
-
Let me see if I got this straight. "It's a true classic". "All the good songs are just so good". Where does the "a lot of filler" and "one of their most inconsistent albums" part come in? That just doesn't make any sense. Why don't you "fill" us in.
-
Though some Watchtower and Fates Warning fans may argue, I&W was a genre defining album. It was great enough to carve out
an historic niche and influenced thousands of musicians and bands moving forward. It's a gateway album that opened to door to
countless listeners and to this day sounds as fresh and amazing as it did then.
-
Let me see if I got this straight. "It's a true classic". "All the good songs are just so good". Where does the "a lot of filler" and "one of their most inconsistent albums" part come in? That just doesn't make any sense. Why don't you "fill" us in.
The good songs are really good. Not all of the songs are really good.
It's not too difficult.
-
Let me see if I got this straight. "It's a true classic". "All the good songs are just so good". Where does the "a lot of filler" and "one of their most inconsistent albums" part come in? That just doesn't make any sense. Why don't you "fill" us in.
The good songs are really good. Not all of the songs are really good.
It's not too difficult.
Exactly. But to be a bit more verbose, here is what I typed up and was ready to post before Adami posted more concisely:
I'm not sure what the issue is. But as far as my thoughts on the album, I've posted them in pretty good detail many times. In a nutshell: PMU, Metropolis, Wait for Sleep, and Learning To Live are some of the best things they have ever done. Under a Glass Moon, Take the Time, and, to a lesser extent, Surrounded, have some cool moments, but are largely just "there" and aren't nearly up to the incredibly high standard I expect for DT songs. I don't skip them. But I would never go out of my way to listen to them, and often find myself tuning out during them. And Another Day is definitely a bottom tier DT song. Still, on the strength of the 4 songs I mentioned, and its undeniable place in prog metal history, the album definitely deserves "classic" status. It was (and still is) a revolutionary album, and, like many albums, its weak points don't diminish that fact--they only diminish it in terms of where I would rank the album. There's no shame in an album having songs that are relatively weak. Many of the album we consider "classics" do.
-
It's so subjective. I mean, "Classic Albums" are usually defined by sales and mass popularity that over time end up continuing to resonate with an audience. That's not entirely fair, but generally speaking, as the public understands the term "classic album," that's how it's thought of.
For us, music snobs, it can mean totally different things. I consider the Images/Awake records to be Dream Theater's "classic" period where they were at their pinnacle. So those records are "classics" to me. But I can easily understand why others would say something like SFAM or another record is.
It's almost pointless.
-
It's so subjective. I mean, "Classic Albums" are usually defined by sales and mass popularity that over time end up continuing to resonate with an audience. That's not entirely fair, but generally speaking, as the public understands the term "classic album," that's how it's thought of.
For us, music snobs, it can mean totally different things. I consider the Images/Awake records to be Dream Theater's "classic" period where they were at their pinnacle. So those records are "classics" to me. But I can easily understand why others would say something like SFAM or another record is.
Yes. But for this discussion, to me, I&W fits both sets of criteria. I think it's a "classic" by either definition. But that doesn't mean it's perfect. And it doesn't have to be. That's all my point was.
-
Let me see if I got this straight. "It's a true classic". "All the good songs are just so good". Where does the "a lot of filler" and "one of their most inconsistent albums" part come in? That just doesn't make any sense. Why don't you "fill" us in.
The good songs are really good. Not all of the songs are really good.
It's not too difficult.
Exactly. But to be a bit more verbose, here is what I typed up and was ready to post before Adami posted more concisely:
I'm not sure what the issue is. But as far as my thoughts on the album, I've posted them in pretty good detail many times. In a nutshell: PMU, Metropolis, Wait for Sleep, and Learning To Live are some of the best things they have ever done. Under a Glass Moon, Take the Time, and, to a lesser extent, Surrounded, have some cool moments, but are largely just "there" and aren't nearly up to the incredibly high standard I expect for DT songs. I don't skip them. But I would never go out of my way to listen to them, and often find myself tuning out during them. And Another Day is definitely a bottom tier DT song. Still, on the strength of the 4 songs I mentioned, and its undeniable place in prog metal history, the album definitely deserves "classic" status. It was (and still is) a revolutionary album, and, like many albums, its weak points don't diminish that fact--they only diminish it in terms of where I would rank the album. There's no shame in an album having songs that are relatively weak. Many of the album we consider "classics" do.
I totally respect your opinion and everything, but I can't disagree more. I'm just astonished (pun not intended at first, and then totally intended) that you would put Take the Time and Under a Glass Moon in your "just there" category, when those are literally my top two songs from this album. I don't get it, but you can think whatever you'd like.
-
Individual tastes.
I think every song on that album is a 10/10 and would rank Under A Glass Moon among their best ever compositions. But different people
hear different things.
-
And I absolutely respect others' right to disagree. But even going way back to 1992 when I first discovered the album, I have felt that way, for the most part. The only song that I have really changed my opinion on is TTT, which I used to like given that its catchy parts are immediately catchy. I just grew tired of it very quickly and felt there wasn't enough to hold my interest. But I get why others may love the songs I do not. I just don't find them compelling. And that's okay.
-
Let me see if I got this straight. "It's a true classic". "All the good songs are just so good". Where does the "a lot of filler" and "one of their most inconsistent albums" part come in? That just doesn't make any sense. Why don't you "fill" us in.
The good songs are really good. Not all of the songs are really good.
It's not too difficult.
Of course that's easy enough if you want to be selective about it, but that wasn't really my main point. Liking or not liking certain songs is one thing, but I asked about a lot of filler and inconsistency when describing I&W as a "classic". It doesn't really compute. It's ok to describe certain songs as weaker than others but that doesn't mean they are inconsistent or "filler" as previously mentioned. It's not like DT was only able to come up with a certain amount of good songs and then decided to "fill" in the gaps. That's kind of what it sounds like when using that descriptor.
-
Right, using the word "filler" to describe a song you do not like has never made sense to me. Your point nailed it, Dublagent66. :tup :tup
-
Still remember seeing this at a record fair a month before it was supposed to come out. Had been listening to the first album for three years thinking that was all it was ever going to be.
There was a stack of of promo CDs with a small drill holes on the corner of the cases and the hype sticker stuck to the jewel case so I grabbed one. Until then they weren't on my radar for possible live gigs for a few years so I missed that Maiden show in June '92.
Still remember the first time I heard it. It was kind of like Journey on steroids and the vocalist was different. Took me a while to warm up to it. Sounded way too polished and slick. The live gigs helped a lot with balancing that out.