Favorite DT Instrumental Stretches

[Zyzzyva17]

By "instrumental stretches," I obviously include instrumental sections, but I'm also including full instrumentals, as well as any particularly long intros or outros. My top 10 goes roughly as follows:

1. Blind Faith, 5:00 - 8:23
2. Stream of Consciousness, 0:00 - 11:16
3. Breaking All Illusions, 5:02 - 10:35
4. Take the Time, 3:46 - 6:03
5. Beyond This Life, 5:55 - 10:04
6. The Ministry of Lost Souls, 6:36 - 11:18
7. The Count of Tuscany, 0:00 - 4:23
8. Metropolis Pt. 1, 4:16 - 8:15
9. Sacrificed Sons, 3:35 - 7:50
10. The Dance of Eternity, 0:00 - 6:14

[aprilethereal]

Only counting the actual typical instrumental sections in the middle of a song, some of my favourites are Take The Time, Metropolis, Caught In A Web, Fatal Tragedy (it's at the end of the song but whatever), Home, The Glass Prison, Blind Faith, Endless Sacrifice, In The Name Of God, Never Enough, Octavarium, The Dark Eternal Night, Bridges In The Sky, Breaking All Illusions, The Enemy Inside.
This list is a little longer than intended.

[The Stray Seed]

There's many of them, really. But if I had to choose one, I'd go for Learning To Live.

[Kotowboy]

Beyond This Life Jam on Budokan. 

[hefdaddy42]

Without think about a list, right off the top of my head one of my favorite pieces is Another Hand, and my favorite version of it is from Live at the Marquee.

[son_ov_hades]

Beyond This Life and Metropolis

[bl5150]

The two that come to mind immediately are from Awake , which isn't in my top 2 albums but the mid section solo of Erotomania and the guitar outro to Innocence Faded.

[CharlesPL]

All of them.

[OsMosis2259]

Some great lists so far.

I really the The Dark Eternal Night instrumental section as well. Especially live, I think it works out great!

[Chino]

LAB: Beyong This Life

F

[rumborak]

Without think about a list, right off the top of my head one of my favorite pieces is Another Hand, and my favorite version of it is from Live at the Marquee.

Same album, different tune: The middle section of A Fortune in Lies. The staccato buildup, KM doing those glorious chords, and then the climax with JP's Lifeson-esque s solo, with some tasty sweeps thrown in. That for me is what embodies DT.

[Raise the Drum]

Scarred intro from Once in a LIVEtime.
Its a very cool atmosphere.
 

[RoeDent]

I was thinking and wondering what the longest instrumental stretch in a DT song is, and I think it might be the beginning of Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence. 7:47, from the start of the Overture through to JLB's first vocal.

The longest instrumental stretch across a DT album is on Train of Thought. After JLB's last line in Vacant, through all of Stream of Consciousness and the long intro to In the Name of God, a total of 13:17.

[hefdaddy42]

Without think about a list, right off the top of my head one of my favorite pieces is Another Hand, and my favorite version of it is from Live at the Marquee.

Same album, different tune: The middle section of A Fortune in Lies. The staccato buildup, KM doing those glorious chords, and then the climax with JP's Lifeson-esque s solo, with some tasty sweeps thrown in. That for me is what embodies DT.

Yep, that is also fantastic. 

That's just a hell of an album.

[Zyzzyva17]

I was thinking and wondering what the longest instrumental stretch in a DT song is, and I think it might be the beginning of Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence. 7:47, from the start of the Overture through to JLB's first vocal.

The longest instrumental stretch across a DT album is on Train of Thought. After JLB's last line in Vacant, through all of Stream of Consciousness and the long intro to In the Name of God, a total of 13:17.

I think you're right on both counts. Other long cross-song stretches are:

End of TBOT + Beginning of TCOT (7:33)
End of Home + TDOE + Beginning of One Last Time (8:35)
End of Innocence Faded + Erotomania + Beginning of Voices (9:20)
End of Octavarium + Beginning of ITPOE (7:43, but kinda cheating)

[Scorpion]

Trial of Tears would definitely be my favourite. Both the guitar and the keyboard solo are among their very best. Another one would be Blind Faith, and In the Name of God.

Yeah, those would be my Top 3.

[aprilethereal]

ITPOE intro and Scarred outro are also awesome

[Randaran]

My top 5, in chronological order:

Take the Time
Blind Faith
Endless Sacrifice
Octavarium (the section between Full Circle and Intervals)
The Dark Eternal Night

Other standouts would be Take the Time and Breaking All Illusions.

[Laughingplace56]

LtL
Scarred outro
Trial of Tears
LitS solo
Home outro
Finally Free murder scene/ outro
The Glass Prison
Blind Faith
Endless Sacrifice instrumental after the back and forth solos. Dat riff
ItNoG (the bass and drum groove is perfect)
TRoAE
Octavarium
ITPoE intro
Constant Motion
TDEN
ITPoE Pt 2
TCoT intro/solo
BitS intro
BAI
StR
IT

............way longer than i expected that list to be xD

But if I narrowed it down to a top 5, it'd be:

The Glass Prison
Learning to Live
Blind Faith
Breaking All Illusions
In the Name of God

[Nearmyth]

DT's instrumental sections are probably my favorite thing about the band... There are so many so I'll just have to list standouts from the discography

Instrumental Sections and their lengths:

Images And Words:
Metropolis Pt.1 - 4:18 - 8:15 (4:01)
Learning To Live - 4:45 - 9:34 (4:49)

Metropolis Pt 2 SFAM:
Fatal Tragedy - 3:50 - 6:50 (3:00)
Beyond This Life - 5:55 - 10:04 (4:09)

SDOIT:
This Glass Prison - 9:41 - 12:52 (3:11)
Blind Faith - 4:59 - 8:23 (3:24)
The Great Debate - 9:27 - 13:45 (4:18)
literally every little instrumental section after each SDOIT disc 2 part is pretty great

Train Of Thought:
Honor Thy Father - 5:02 - 8:44 (3:42)
In The Name Of God - 7:34 - 11:00 (3:26)

Systematic Chaos:
The Ministry Of Lost Souls - 6:34 - 11:19 (4:45)
ITPOE Pt. 2 - 9:17 - 14:35 (5:18) THE RECKONINNGGGGNNSG

Black Clouds & Silver Linings:
A Nightmare To Remember - 8:34 - 13:18 (4:44) minus the portnoy part
The Count Of Tuscany - 0:00 - 4:22 (4:22)

ADTOE:
Lost Not Forgotten - 6:16 - 9:03 - (2:47)
Bridges In The Sky -7:14 - 8:57 - (1:43)
Outcry - 4:43 - 9:06 - (4:23)
Breaking All Illusions - 5:00 - 10:35 - (5:35) Also the longest DT inst. section, besides intros and instrumental songs. Edit: and besides TCOT

There aren't really many staple (as in long) DT instrumental sections in DT12, but ones that stand out to me are:
TEI  4:16 - 5:38 (1:22)
BTV 4:45 - 5:54 (1:09)
STR 3:44 - 4:35 (0:41)
IT 12:19 - 15:52 (3:33)

If I really had to narrow it down though, my tops would probably be Metropolis, LTL, BAI, The Glass Prison, and Beyond This Life

[RoeDent]

My top 5:

Metropolis (4:18-8:15)
Fatal Tragedy (3:50-6:50)
The Great Debate (9:27-13:43)
Octavarium (Between Full Circle and Intervals)
Breaking All Illusions (5:00-10:35)

[Zyzzyva17]

Breaking All Illusions - 5:00 - 10:35 - (5:35) Also the longest DT inst. section, besides intros and instrumental songs.

Actually, that would be
The Count of Tuscany, 8:49 - 14:47 (5:58)
(Of course, half of that is ambience, but that's beside the point)

[Nearmyth]

Breaking All Illusions - 5:00 - 10:35 - (5:35) Also the longest DT inst. section, besides intros and instrumental songs.

Actually, that would be
The Count of Tuscany, 8:49 - 14:47 (5:58)
(Of course, half of that is ambience, but that's beside the point)

Ah that one always slips my mind, probably because it is mostly ambience like you said

[RoeDent]

Actually, that would be
The Count of Tuscany, 8:49 - 14:47 (5:58)
(Of course, half of that is ambience, but that's beside the point)

It still counts. Any reasonably long stretch of music without James singing counts as an instrumental section, whether there's ambience or not. Ambience is music too.

While I'm here, I know it's off-topic, but great sig Nearmyth! 

[Nearmyth]

It still counts. Any reasonably long stretch of music without James singing counts as an instrumental section, whether there's ambience or not. Ambience is music too.

While I'm here, I know it's off-topic, but great sig Nearmyth! 

Thank you sir

Yeah I wouldn't be surprised if I forgot some other sections from other songs as well but I think I'm good. You're right it definitely counts.

[yeah_93]

I'm not a fan of instrumental sections. I particularly despise Outcry's instrumental section. That said, my favorites would be the ones in:

Learning to Live. The dual solo at 9:21 kills me.
In the Name of God. There is literally no part of the song I dislike.
Breaking All Illusions. It's just godly.

[hefdaddy42]

I'm not a fan of instrumental sections.

But you like DT?  Seems like a strange fit.

[yeah_93]

I'm not a fan of instrumental sections.

But you like DT?  Seems like a strange fit.

Well, it depends on the instrumental section. As I said, I don't like Outcry's; mostly because it's just a mess. Sure, it's complex and all, but it doesn't do anything for me. The melodies there are beyond ridiculous. But there are ones that are pretty good, like the ones I mentioned.

[TheCountOfNYC]

I have no real list but I'll throw a few out there that I absolutely love. Beyond This Life, Take the Time, The Count of Tuscany intro, Fatal Tragedy, Octavarium in between Full Circle and Intervals, Metropolis, The Dance of Eternity, Breaking all Illusions, and The Ministry of Lost Souls. Beyond This Life is probably my favorite. The way that whole section progresses has always impressed me. And all songs are studio versions.

[Randaran]

I just listened to TMoLS again. This one is definitely near the top. Love the riffing and the solos, and it fits suprisingly well in the context of the song.

[Rodni Demental]

There's been many great bits mentioned in this thread.

For me, the first ones that always stood out to me and still do are:
- Lines in the Sand
- Blind Faith (triple keyboard solos (piano/organ/synth) + guitar solo, very intense)
- Beyond This Life (guitar solos tears worlds apart)
- New Millennium (very groovy, and that riff in between the guitar solo bridge and the final chorus is all the badass)
- A Rite of Passage (love the riffage, love the really intense speed synth/guitar solo faceoffs, and love bebot)
- Breaking all Illusions (Floyde style organs and that subtle guitar solo that builds, brilliant)
- The Glass Prison (the bit where it just has riff after riff after riff before the ending)

There's probably a lot more that haven't occurred to me straight away; that I still think quite highly of. DTs always excelled at creating well crafted instrumental sections. New album has some cool bits too but these 'instrumental' bits are normally quite short and far and few between. I actually kinda miss the extended instrumental sections to an extent, but I wouldn't want them to compromise on their songwriting style just cause. But I'm all for them writing long extended passage if it turns out anything like TGP or BTL.

[Nearmyth]

Well, it depends on the instrumental section. As I said, I don't like Outcry's; mostly because it's just a mess. Sure, it's complex and all, but it doesn't do anything for me. The melodies there are beyond ridiculous. But there are ones that are pretty good, like the ones I mentioned.

Only part of Outcry I think is a little much is the part at 5:38-5:52. Random shredding + double bass = 
But I think the rest of the melodies actually flow very nicely, despite being complex. It's a flowy-complexity that DT is quite good at imo.