Burning My Soul (Demo) -- Appreciation

[Scorpion]

The song works much better without Hell's Kitchen tacked in. And I actually like BMS. But Hell's Kitchen works so beautifully as an instrumental, and it doesn't fit BMS at all.

Basically this. BMS is a nice song, but HK doesn't fit it at all, and HK is godlike on its own. Plus, the transition from HK to LitS is orgasmic, so that alone justifies the split of these two songs.

I think pretty much every single change made to the demos of FII was definitely for the better, with this probably being top of the list.

Here, however, I have to disagree. Both the demo version of TAMP and LITS are better than the album version imho, for TAMP because of the arrangement and for LITS because of the lack of Doug Pinnick's backing vocals.

[BlobVanDam]

I think pretty much every single change made to the demos of FII was definitely for the better, with this probably being top of the list.

Here, however, I have to disagree. Both the demo version of TAMP and LITS are better than the album version imho, for TAMP because of the arrangement and for LITS because of the lack of Doug Pinnick's backing vocals.

I don't like TAMP either way, so this makes zero difference to me, and I love Pinnick's vocals. Never understood all the hate he gets for it in the slightest.
On top of that, the cuts made to Hollow Years made it flow much better and made it a stronger ballad, BMS had much better flow without the instrumental bit tacked in, Hell's Kitchen was much better as a standalone instrumental track without the dead weight of BMS holding it back, YNM is not very good either way, although listening to it now, I actually prefer the album version rather than the rather dated sounding demo chorus. Aside from that, there's very little difference.
Overall, I'd say the album ended up for the best, and there's not a single thing in the demos that I ever think "gee, I wish they'd left that in there".

[MoraWintersoul]

...there's not a single thing in the demos that I ever think "gee, I wish they'd left that in there".

Raise The Knife? If they put literally ANY of the songs that got cut out in place of NM/YNM, I would have serious difficulties determining whether I like FII more than their top albums. This way, it's definitely a wonderful album, but sits at no#5 on my list.

I don't particularly dislike BMS the way it is, but Hell's Kitchen is too damn good to be stuck inside it, so I don't appreciate the demo.

[Scorpion]

I think pretty much every single change made to the demos of FII was definitely for the better, with this probably being top of the list.

Here, however, I have to disagree. Both the demo version of TAMP and LITS are better than the album version imho, for TAMP because of the arrangement and for LITS because of the lack of Doug Pinnick's backing vocals.

I don't like TAMP either way, so this makes zero difference to me, and I love Pinnick's vocals. Never understood all the hate he gets for it in the slightest.
On top of that, the cuts made to Hollow Years made it flow much better and made it a stronger ballad, BMS had much better flow without the instrumental bit tacked in, Hell's Kitchen was much better as a standalone instrumental track without the dead weight of BMS holding it back, YNM is not very good either way, although listening to it now, I actually prefer the album version rather than the rather dated sounding demo chorus. Aside from that, there's very little difference.
Overall, I'd say the album ended up for the best, and there's not a single thing in the demos that I ever think "gee, I wish they'd left that in there".

Well, I don't entirely disagree, 'cause you are right in many cases, I just wanted to point out the two cases where I disagree. I'm completely with you on Hollow Years, and HK as well.
The inclusion of Raise the Knife and Speak to Me instead of YNM, NM and JLMB would have improved the album significantly, though - then I could listen to it without having the need to skip tracks. Don't get me wrong, FII is pretty awesome, and the highs are probably the highest highs that DT ever recorded, but some tracks I simply cannot bear listening too - I even deactivated them in iTunes, so that I automatically skip them when listening to the album.

[BlobVanDam]

...there's not a single thing in the demos that I ever think "gee, I wish they'd left that in there".

Raise The Knife? If they put literally ANY of the songs that got cut out in place of NM/YNM, I would have serious difficulties determining whether I like FII more than their top albums. This way, it's definitely a wonderful album, but sits at no#5 on my list.

That's the only song that I like the demos, although I still only think it's ok, and the other two long songs on the album are much better imo. The only songs I'd consider swapping from FII are TAMP and YNM (yes, I prefer BMS and I love JLMB), which would only *just* make enough room for it, and personally I don't think it would make it a stronger album anyway.
In fact, I think I'd rather them just ditch TAMP and YNM and leave it at that, with no additions. I'm a big fan of the album as is, as you can probably tell.

[Ben_Jamin]

Looking back and taking the subject into account. Hells Kitchen, is trying to portray the calm of the intense producer contributions.

[Sketchy]

I personally like both versions, pretty much equally. Without HK, BMS is a fun track with a great intro, and HK is a very beautiful instrumental which I have huge amounts of love for. However, with HK, BMS has that lovely brooding bit which then EXPLODES into the loudness and also has an unexpected break in the centre of it which then builds back into the rest of the song in an epic way.

[MoraWintersoul]

I'm a big fan of the album as is, as you can probably tell.

I'm a big fan of it too, but I tend to skip the first two songs entirely out of all parent-child-relations-songs, TAMP is the most beautiful to me, perhaps behind only Another Day. I didn't really connect to it until my dad died a year and a half ago, and I must say, from that point onwards, the general calm-but-painful vibe of the song and some of the lyrics started hitting home.

Not that you need experience in the subject matter to connect to a song if it's well written of course, just describing the way it was for me

[Kwyjibo]

If you ask me Hell's Kitchen and Burning My Soul don't go well together. BMS is a nice (not great) rocker and Hell's Kitchen only a meh instrumental. Combining them feels forced because in my ears there's no connection. HK actually drags BMS down.

To be fair I don't know the demo version but I saw them playing BMS with an inserted HK live and it didn't work in favour of the songs.

And while we're at it, Falling Into Infinity is a great album as it is.

[Dream Team]

While I think the BMS album version is one of DT's worst songs, it kicks ass on the Bucharest DVD.

[Pelata]

I don't get the hate for BMS or FII in general...I think everything flows very well on FII, there's not a "bad" song on any of it. It was different than the DT output prior to it, but in actuality, WDADU, I&W and Awake are all different from each other too...I don't see the problem.

New Millenium, LITS (LOVE Pinnick on this one), Hollow Years, BMS, Trial Of Tears, TAMP...I really do love the whole album.

[Jamariquay]

I will say that I think Falling Into Infinity has a much better flow than many other Dream Theater albums. Images and Words is one of them, actually.

[KevShmev]

I don't get the hate for BMS or FII in general...I think everything flows very well on FII, there's not a "bad" song on any of it. It was different than the DT output prior to it, but in actuality, WDADU, I&W and Awake are all different from each other too...I don't see the problem.

New Millenium, LITS (LOVE Pinnick on this one), Hollow Years, BMS, Trial Of Tears, TAMP...I really do love the whole album.

I don't think FII gets a lot of hate.  You Not Me and Burning My Soul are both fairly disliked, and many seem to always have one or two others they aren't wild about, but the majority of the album is pretty well-liked by most, I think.  Sure, some get hung up on how it could have been had the band gotten their way, but it still turned out pretty damn good the way it is.

[Setlist Scotty]

I just listened to this song again, and my God, what an utter trainwreck the demo is.  It totally sounds like two songs randomly throw together, with transitions seemingly happening for no reason and whatnot.

You may that that it sounds like two songs randomly thrown together, BUT if that was the first version you heard, as was the case with me and numerous other older fans (via the Fix for 96 and Euro 97 shows or bootlegs of said shows), I'd wager that your feelings might be a bit different in that regard.

It certainly is the case for me - I love the demo version. But I also love the ending to HK as it appears on the album; BMS on the album, not so much due to it's straight-forward nature.

[KevShmev]

That is possible, but given that many of us often fall in love with the first version we hear of a song (whether it be a live version, a demo, the released studio version, whatever), I could argue that you became attached to the first version you heard, like so many of us do with songs over the years (for example, no other version will ever for me top the live version of Rush's Red Sector A from the A Show of Hands VHS, since it was what I heard first, I didn't hear the studio original till probably a year later).  Same thing with you and the demo of Burning My Soul here.  I get it.

[?]

I like both BMS (yes! ) and HK but I feel they don't work together so it was a good decision to separate them.

[Ruba]

Portnoy as a talk box  .

It's good, but two separated songs are better.