I walked away from DT when Black clouds came out. They were my favorite band in the world, but it was time. SC had come out and I was like "that was ok I guess, but I'm curious what they do next" and then Black clouds came out and that was it.
1. A nightmare to remember- already turned off by the pun. Not a bad song, but of course there's that one part we all know about, which was
absolutely 100% not for me, at least not from DT.
2. Rite of passage is so so for me.
3. Wither is decent
4. Shattered fortress. I like the AA suite, but this entry revisits old themes too much. I would rather just listen to the song they originated from.
5. Best of times- Not a bad song, but its stuck on an album I don't care for, so I just don't really listen to it.
6. The count- 2/3 incredible, 1/3 cheese. The opening blew my mind when I first heard it and even brought a tear to my eye. It was beautiful and then it goes into the smoking on his pipe section where it gets fast and heavy (and not in a good way) with MP singing quite a bit. (And I like MP's backup vocals, but not when they are so overt) and then the song goes back to being beautiful agains. A scarred jem, a flawed masterpiece to me personally and that bothered me.
So I am already off-put by this lopsided album and Then I saw them live for this album and they all looked miserable except MP, so I was like fuck it. I'm done, and didn't listen to DT until all the shit went down and then when ADTOE came out, my love for dream theater came right back and I love them again just as much as I ever did
And I am happy to say that they aren't the only band to be able to win me back, which is a great feeling.