I wish they'd throw the "we need to make sure we do x" mentality away. I appreciate the heavy songs on ADToE, and I feel they were done masterfully. I just want them to make the music that comes to them. Dream Theater owes me, as a fan, no favors. I want to hear what inspires you, not what you think you are obligated to do for me.
I think ADTOE was the most inspired album since SDOIT for them. The music had no parameters - TOT was their heavy metal album, 8VM had it's musical concepts, SC was all over the place and full of weird and fiction-based lyrics, BC&SL was pretty dark musically and lyrically... ADTOE felt like a return-to-roots collection of inspired pieces from everyone in the band, both musically and lyrically.
I think, now without the desire to have an album's direction planned out, they're writing what flows out of them naturally, especially now that they are writing on the road again, and possibly seriously considering using these riffs or bits in the next album. And even though ADTOE was written in the studio, the environment was different, so the outcome changed.
-Marc.
In fairness, I seem to remember Mike Portnoy very specifically went into Systematic Chaos without any particular direction in mind. It just happened to come out ballsy. They happened to be in a ballsy place.
He had some sort of plan in mind - a sort of design - but he changed his mind when they went into the studio. Left it at the door! After the very strict format of Octavarium, he chose to abandon all the parameters, go in, and simply let the music happen. I believe the same thing happened with BCSL. The songs just came out long.
I could be wrong, I don't have any sources on me so this could all be a misrecollection, but it's an oddly specific misrecollection if it is. Then again, wouldn't put it past me! If I'm right, though, they haven't really restricted themselves since 2004/2005.
Do agree that ADToE
sounds free-est, though. Then again, they were under completely different kinds of pressure, there - they had to make a classic, they made a very specific decision to have a mixture of everything. I seem to remember BMUBMD (or was it Lost Not Forgotten?) was written precisely because there were too many softer songs, and they wanted to have a bit of everything. So you could argue that was more directed than either of the last two Mike Portnoy albums.