People who took awhile to get into DT

[black_biff_stadler]

I was one of them. My cousin tried to get me into them in '95 with Metropolis' instrumental section(he also wanted my ear to help figure out if it was a guitar or keyboard-alas, it was a unison[4:42-4:54.]) I was only 14 at the time and with grunge still being the thing I wasn't too thrilled with it. Later on in '99 he made another attempt with Pull Me Under(wise choice) and Take the Time. I remember him actually slapping his knee to keep time to break down the meter changes just to show me how complex it was.

A few months later I made friends with this dude who I looked up to in much the same way I looked up to my cousin and also was a DT fan and the wheels were in motion. I probably listened to PMU at least once every single day during summer '99 but still didn't care two shits for the rest of I&W. Over time I guess Metropolis and shortly after that Under a Glass Moon began to appeal to me and the rest of their discography snowballed their way into favor with me with increasing momentum.

I think it helped that this was right around the release of Scenes From a Memory since all DT fans I spoke to at the time were sporting hardons the size of piano legs about it. Otherwise I may have not had the same optimism toward the long haul that I did if I was fearing a continual decline ala Falling Into Infinity. I'm not a FII dissenter any more but it definitely was at the bottom of my list when I was a DT seedling.


Vocals aside I still don't understand all the When Dream and Day Unite bashing around here. Excluding Status Seeker, I find it to be one of their most consistent albums in terms of all the songs fitting well with each other. I compare it to Kill 'em All in that despite it not having the band's sound established yet, it still came slamming down like a sledgehammer as far as how fresh it sounded and how it managed to basically build a skyscraper with barely any blueprints to work from.

If you're like me and still got into DT despite originally not liking them tell us your story.

[setrataeso]

I certainly didn't take that long to fully get into them.
A friend introduced me to them a few years ago. At that point I was into more classical, folk, and hard rock music (and still am today). I still had a natural appreciation for a musician's talent, so I at least understood the appeal of Dream Theater. It wasn't until several months later that I was in a more "give me new music to check out" mood that my friend put on Metropolis, These Walls, Overture 1928, Pull Me Under, and A Change of Seasons. Those became the first Dream Theater songs I had, and the rest was my doing.

Again, not as lengthy a discovery as yours, but it did take me some time. Currently, my brother is in the midst of latching onto DT as well (after a few years of resisting). He's doing it pretty much song by song, but he's no longer struggling.

[Dark Master Of Sin]

I first heard them on the way home from the hospital shortly after my birth.

I didn't like them until I was 14.

Born in 1992, same year my dad started his love of Dream Theater. They've been in my life since day one.

[juice]

3 or 4 years ago my friend introduced me to SFAM but that didn't get me into DT at first.  However, he played The Mirror one day and i thought that song was cool but I really got into them probably 2 years ago when i heard Score and I've become a big fan ever since

[kirbywelch92]

I first heard them on the way home from the hospital shortly after my birth.

I didn't like them until I was 14.

Born in 1992, same year my dad started his love of Dream Theater. They've been in my life since day one.

That's really cool, and we totally were born in the same year


My first taste of Dream Theater was actually live footage of Petrucci playing Flight of the Bumblebee. And then I heard the Glass Prison after my brother bought Six Degrees. Why in the hell that wasn't enough I'll never understand.

As much as it shames me I was convinced to try Dream Theater after falling in love with Panic Attack while playing it in Rock Band. I've played it so much that I have 99% the song on expert drums. I then bought Constant Motion from the marketplace and played Pull Me Under from Guitar Hero. After that I decided I would try them, I bought Octavarium as I knew I already loved one song from that album. Then I bought SFAM and I really loved it. Slowly but surely I blossomed into the DT fan I am today

[Dr. DTVT]

While DT was love at first sound for me...6DoIT took me YEARS to appriciate, six to be exact.  I'm fairly certain I had an micro-stroke or something that caused that lack of 6DoIT love.

[kirbywelch92]

While DT was love at first sound for me...6DoIT took me YEARS to appriciate, six to be exact.  I'm fairly certain I had an micro-stroke or something that caused that lack of 6DoIT love.

That definitely makes sense, but Glass Prison was the first song I'd ever really heard and that is still one of my favorite songs by them to this day.

[Jamesman42]

Instantaneously fell in love with them through Metropolis, and I still love that song and the band. They've evolved over time, but the changes are very welcome (except a lot of SC, but it's forgivable).

[Portrucci]

I got into them quite quickly. Was a big Metallica/Pantera fan. Heard Dark Eternal Night. Really liked it. Went out and bought Awake, and it just blew me away. Still today remains my favourite DT album.

[AwakeFromOctavarium]

I also was a Metallica fan, and during this era I heard Overture 1928 and Metropolis, but passed. Later on(that was about 2 to 3 months after) I got bored of Metallica, and I listened to these two songs again, and soon I found myself totally into this band.

[Perpetual Change]

Awake definitely sat on the shelf for awhile before I started digging it.

[rumborak]

Took me a looong time to get past the vocals. Hated them at the beginning.

rumborak

[black_biff_stadler]

Awake definitely sat on the shelf for awhile before I started digging it.

Took me a looong time to get past the vocals. Hated them at the beginning.

rumborak

+1

[AcidLameLTE]

For some reason, LaBrie's vocals never really bothered me.

Other than Train of Thought, it took me a fair bit of time to get into the rest of their albums due to only really liking bands like Metallica, at the time.

[PlaysLikeMyung]

the only album I had trouble getting into was Scenes. I never really had the time to listen to the whole thing through, so for a long time I only ever heard Regression-Fatal Tragedy

I love the album now, but I can still only listen to it if I have the time to listen to the whole thing (minus Beyond This Life)

[ZBomber]

I wasn't a big fan of Awake/FII at first, but I loved everything else from first listen more or less.

[RandalGraves]

I wouldn't say I took a while, but there was definitely some adjustment coming fresh off Metallica and getting into James' voice.

Oddly enough, it can take me a while to get into some of their newer stuff.  When AROP first came out, I thought it was boring and repetitive.  Sometimes it just takes me a while to digest some of the music.

[blackngold29]

I suppose it took me about four minutes.

[black_biff_stadler]

I suppose it took me about four minutes.

That's what she said.

[peruvianskynewhampshire]

after awake an images and words i really didnt listen to them for a real long time. i just got into other bands.i pretty much didnt listen to them for quite a long time. i was watching that metal show on vh1 and saw them interviewing a guy i didnt recognize. it was mike portnoy,and when i heard he had been voted best metal drummer for a couple of years,i was like wow their still together.so i went out and bought systematic chaos and the greatest hits and i was hooked. thats my story and im sticking to it!!!

[Plasmastrike]

after awake an images and words i really didnt listen to them for a real long time. i just got into other bands.i pretty much didnt listen to them for quite a long time. i was watching that metal show on vh1 and saw them interviewing a guy i didnt recognize. it was mike portnoy,and when i heard he had been voted best metal drummer for a couple of years,i was like wow their still together.so i went out and bought systematic chaos and the greatest hits and i was hooked. thats my story and im sticking to it!!!

Wow, that's pretty interesting.

[BlobVanDam]

I wouldn't say I took a while, but there was definitely some adjustment coming fresh off Metallica and getting into James' voice.

Metallica was definitely my main metal band before hearing DT, and I had no problem at all adjusting to JLB's voice. It was actually a big thing for me to hear such a good voice over amazing heavy music (first album was SDOIT, so TGP kicked my ass big time). No offense to Hetfield of course.

[Evonne]

First DT songs I ever heard were Disappear and Space-Dye Vest, in that order. Seems really odd now, since they don't represent what DT has to offer.

Then I started listening to whole albums regularly when I went driving with my boyfriend. I didn't hate JLB's voice, but I definitely wasn't accustomed to it. I wasn't accustomed to prog in general, really. I remember thinking how weird it was that the sound of a song could change so much during the course of a song. Things clicked somewhere along the line, and now I absolutely love JLB's voice and can't imagine how anyone can hate it.

[RandalGraves]

I wouldn't say I took a while, but there was definitely some adjustment coming fresh off Metallica and getting into James' voice.

Metallica was definitely my main metal band before hearing DT, and I had no problem at all adjusting to JLB's voice. It was actually a big thing for me to hear such a good voice over amazing heavy music (first album was SDOIT, so TGP kicked my ass big time). No offense to Hetfield of course.

I suppose I was like most newbs in that I thought, "What happened to this guy's nuts?" when hearing LaBrie for the first time.  Of course, now I think his voice is beautiful and I appreciate the range and all that stuff . . . ahhh, to be a new DT fan again.  Scenes was my introduction, but the first album released when I was a fan was Train of Thought.  In retrospect, it was a great time to become a fan because I had no reason to be "disappointed."  Six Degrees was definitely one of the last albums I got into, so I thought ToT was just a fun album.

[Slain]

The first song I listened to fully by Dream Theater, was The Glass Prison. My friend had actually been getting me into a lot of thrash, power and other kinds of metal when he lent me Six Degrees, IaW and Systematic Chaos. Of course, being into more of the metal oriented stuff I loved tgp, and started to enjoy a lot of songs from SC. But, I didn't like James Labrie a whole lot at first, like other people have already posted.

Then I was at best buy with a gift card and I decided to get a live DVD, I was looking through slayer, megadeth, etc. when I saw Chaos in Motion. I wasnt a huge fan at this point still but I wanted to try to get into them more, so I got it, and didnt really watch it fully (didnt have the musical patience yet) and of course picked out a few songs that I liked and watched them over and over. I liked the DVD, so I went out and bought Score, and watched it all the way through. I've been a hardcore fan ever since, and learned to appreciate JLB.

[Scrub206]

first heard dream theater when i was in 7th grade. thought they SUCKED and were terribad.. it was a change of seasons. i didnt get into them untill freshman year of highschool. now im addicted.. still to this day.. 3 years after graduation.

[OsMosis2259]

in the name of god was the first song i heard and i remember i loved the main riff.  Especially since i thought it had a middle eastern feeling to it which i really love.  This was the summer of 2005 but i remember after I heard ITNOG many times i decided to check the whole album and i loved it then i just went kind of backwards in the catalog. I got Octavarium after then checked out SDOIT and SFAM.  I remember SFAM clicked the first listen because i remember i was reading along the lyrics and overall it was a great experience.  I am still a big fan since and I saw DT live 4 times and would not miss them ever if they came around my area.

[Marvellous G]

I heard Pull Me Under on Guitar Hero (*shame*) and then I discovered they had a FORTY MINUTE SONG OH MY GOD. Being a sucker for long songs, I got SDOIT to try it out, and to be honest it didn't really click for me except about five or six parts of the title track. I actually skipped the entire first disc after realising how above my comprehension Glass Prison was. I got Octavarium a week or two later because I'd heard it was more accessible, and had it on in the background while doing an English essay. The worst way to listen to music ever. After the essay, I remembered thinking 'a bit of that title track sounded cool...' so I listened to Octavarium, the song, again later that night in bed, and my mind was FUCKING BLOWN. So yeah, that one song got me into them and I've gone back through the albums slowly getting into them ever since.

I still hate Awake though.

[black_biff_stadler]

I heard Pull Me Under on Guitar Hero (*shame*) and then I discovered they had a FORTY MINUTE SONG OH MY GOD. Being a sucker for long songs, I got SDOIT to try it out, and to be honest it didn't really click for me except about five or six parts of the title track. I actually skipped the entire first disc after realising how above my comprehension Glass Prison was. I got Octavarium a week or two later because I'd heard it was more accessible, and had it on in the background while doing an English essay. The worst way to listen to music ever. After the essay, I remembered thinking 'a bit of that title track sounded cool...' so I listened to Octavarium, the song, again later that night in bed, and my mind was FUCKING BLOWN. So yeah, that one song got me into them and I've gone back through the albums slowly getting into them ever since.

I still hate Awake though.

You and Blob van Dam are gonna get along just fine 

[BlobVanDam]

And that's why this forum needs a friends list!

[Algo Fonix]

A friend of mine gave me a mixed CD with a few DT songs and some LTE.  At the time, I was heavily into Metallica, so it was pretty strange.  I thought the music was good, but the vocals were a bit much.  Later on a friend gave me a copy of 6 Degrees disk 1.  I liked The Glass Prison, but that was about it. 

Then those two friends went to see them in concert and dragged me along.  That's when I became a fan.  I had to see them in concert.

[DarkEternalNight]

I had heard Panic Attack on Rock Band 2 and fell in love but I never really thought about looking into more Dream Theater since I had just started my Rammstein obsession. Then in November, my friend showed me A Rite Of Passage and I fell in love. I'm still becoming a die hard as I have yet to hear every album.

[LCArenas]

Until some weeks ago I started to dig on Metropolis' Instrumental part, and I've known DT since mid-2008 (When I head Pull Me Under in radio and Panic Attack in RB2 and fell instantly in love with them)... Love all of the albums, but Metropolis' instrumental was.... Still too Prog for me until two or three weeks ago where I actually started to appreciate it.

[Slain]

I still hate Awake though.

You'll learn to appreciate it, I did. It used to be far from my top 5 but now it's tied with Images as my favorite, it takes some time to get, well at least it did for me.

[Marvellous G]

I still hate Awake though.

You'll learn to appreciate it, I did. It used to be far from my top 5 but now it's tied with Images as my favorite, it takes some time to get, well at least it did for me.

The problem I have is that, unlike every other DT album, I have no desire to get into it now. I'll definitely give it another go soon, but I just feel it's the one DT album I'm destined never to love.