Okay... I first listened to the album back on it's release day in January. Listened, relistened, dissected, analysed, fought, argued, but in the end, there is no denying that this IS a part of Dream Theater history now. Just like Falling Into Infinity, I'm sure I can look back on this album and appreciate it for what it tried to do. Just like in Falling into Infinity, too many factors went in preventing it from being the album it should be, but the end product is still decent and none the less Dream Theater than Images and Words. And I think most of the reasons why I fought it so much is because, It wasn't the prog album it was built up to be. It's a rock opera. And instead of comparing this to The Whirlwind or Clockwork Angels, I should have compared this to something like Bat Out of Hell or American Idiot. It has some good melodies in it, some good moments of prog, a few more ballads than I'm willing to tolerate. Does that make it bad? No! Alright, The Astonishing is not bad. But is it shy of being the most amazing, thought provoking, game changing prog album of all time? Hell yes! It's daring, it's different, but it's not new, and it's not astonishing. too many things work against it to be considered a masterpiece in my book. But in the end, I keep coming back to this and humming the tune for Life Left Behind or growling the vicious warning from lord Nafaryous! (I noticed the proggiest moments are when Nafaryous are in a scene
) Yes songs like Act of Fayth and When Your Time Has Come still make me cringe, but I can look past those moments at get to the moments of greatness this album does have! I still think it's missing that thing that made Dream Theater DT, but it stands as an album on it's own