Falling into Infinity is amazing

[The Stray Seed]

In response to the OP:

YES, it is absolutely mind blowing for me. I like all songs on it.

[PixelDream]

'Trial of Tears' is soooo good. It's what 'Scarred' is to Awake: The epic track where the musical strength of the album is showcased one more time in the most wonderful way. Both tracks feature my favorite JP solos, but lately I have to give the edge to the TOT solo. That one is just completely out-of-the-box fusion frenzy. He's really painting with beautiful colors. I'd love for him to do stuff like that again.

By the way, JM's bass is DEEP under that solo, damn.

[Konrad]

'Trial of Tears' is soooo good. It's what 'Scarred' is to Awake: The epic track where the musical strength of the album is showcased one more time in the most wonderful way. Both tracks feature my favorite JP solos, but lately I have to give the edge to the TOT solo. That one is just completely out-of-the-box fusion frenzy. He's really painting with beautiful colors. I'd love for him to do stuff like that again.

By the way, JM's bass is DEEP under that solo, damn.

[XB0BX]

Trial of Tears and Scarred are the only classic tunes on 2 otherwise bland albums that don't have any other memorable songs.

[Rodni Demental]

[abydos]

Trial of Tears and Scarred are the only classic tunes on 2 otherwise bland albums that don't have any other memorable songs.

I usually don't like responding with pictures but...

[XB0BX]

I don't like either of those albums. Both are extremely disappointing given the 2 legendary albums that they're sandwiched between.

[Shadow Ninja 2.0]

Terrible opinions.

Bant.

[CharlesPL]

Happy 17th Anniversary FII.

[adamack]

I'd say there are only two bad songs on the album, but in varying degrees.  Trial of Tears is "bad" because it just doesn't go anywhere.  I hate the lyrics, the song is poorly constructed, James sounds really annoying and the guitar solo is just wanking.  You Not Me is just AWFUL, plain and simple. 

All the other ones are just awesome songs.  (notice I said the "S" word.... SONGS).  Not just vehicles to show how well Petrucci can trade off with a really fast keyboard player. 

Finally, someone who shares my opinion about TOT.

I've tried time after time to like this song, but it just doesn't do anything for me. Nothing against the song. I just have a different taste.

I really want to like it, especially because it is going to be taking up 13 minutes on the new DVD.

As for the rest of FII, I find it a great album overall, but probably my least favorite DT album in the JLB era.

     - Lines In The Sand is a straight rocker. It has this bluesy rock vibe to it that no other DT song really has. I can't really explain it. And it's awesome.

     - Peruvian Skies has so many sick riffs. I love it because it doesn't really involve much intricacy, but instead showcases a ton of simple, but killer riffs.

     - Anna Lee is beautiful. It is a contemporary-ish ballad, but I think I counted like 19 chord changes in the chorus alone. So, maybe not so "contemporary". The arrangement is awesome.

     - Hell's Kitchen is one of my favorite instrumentals from DT. It is an epic (and I hate that word) 4 minutes.

     - Hollow Years is another beautiful song. I especially love the version from Budokan. It shows how good DT can be at making standard, more contemporary music.


Other than that though, I don't ever listen to anything else.

New Millennium, You Not Me, Burning My Soul, Take Away My Pain, and Just Let Me Breathe are LITERALLY my 5 least favorite DT songs of all time.

I do enjoy some parts of Trial Of Tears (It's Raining chorus, etc.), and that song is not as bad as the others just listed. But it is still near the bottom.

I'm happy for those who love it though. Maybe some day I will grow to like it more as well.

[Rodni Demental]

Wow, it's 17 years old? Crazy stuff.

I was never a huge fan of Trial of Tears, until the bridge section caught me (is it The Wasteland section?), had a very Jethro Tull feel to it with the guitars and something just clicked. Also the "stream of consciousness" section is an amazing vocal moment. Too bad all that stuff happens really late in the song and we have some dragged out verses and chorus' to get there. The chorus is the least interesting part of the song in my opinion but now I'm used to it, it's part of the build up to the good stuff for me now.

New Millennium is actually my favourite songs off of Falling into Infinity next to Lines in the Sand (- very unique song with amazing guitar solo what's not to like). I never quite got the hate for NM, it's a very groovy song with some badass riffage, perhaps it also drags out a big and doesn't get to the point, but it's totally a top 10 song for me.

I even like Burning my Soul, I just wish the vocals were a bit harsher or something I'm not sure maybe Awake James needed to be on here? But there's something holding it back from being as badass of a rocker as it should be. It's alright though.

Oh, and You Or Me's chorus is tenfold better than You Not Me, don't even try and convince me otherwise, I might go into more detail about why I think this but that's probably already been discussed extensively in this thread.

Finally, Anna Lee is underrated and Hollow Years is totally overrated. 

[BlobVanDam]

Oh, and You Or Me's chorus is tenfold better than You Not Me, don't even try and convince me otherwise, I might go into more detail about why I think this but that's probably already been discussed extensively in this thread.

Let's just agree they're both pretty bad.
Actually, I'd still take YNM's chorus any day though. It doesn't really fit the song, but it's better than the weak attempt at the angsty '90s thing.

[erwinrafael]

Since this thread has been revived, I will just post this FII-related post I made in another thread.

"What is the DT sound?

I listened to their albums in chronological order three times last week, and I was surprised that the "DT sound" is actually not the IaW and Awake sound. Some elements of the music from those albums are still heard in the later DT songs, but you can distinctly place the songs as coming from that era. I mean, insert any DT 12 song in an IaW or Awake playlist, and it would not fit.

I believe the "DT sound" that a lot of people refer to actually originated with FII, specifically two songs: Peruvian Skies and Trial of Tears. The approach of keyboard playing is different, of course, but the way they write and structure songs in general, I think, can be traced to these two songs. The way they write ballads nowadays is also more akin to the ballads in FII, especially Anna Lee, rather than ballads like Surrounded from IaW.

Not coincidentally, I believe that what people call the signature MP drum style also took a coherent shape in Trial of Tears. A lot of MP's drum fills can already be heard in Metropolis Pt. 1, but the combo of the fills, the hi-hat work, and the bass drum patterns can be heard coherently in one song in Trial of Tears. I even listened to Trial of Tears and Blind Faith back to back twice, and I smiled at hearing how similar MP's approach was in those two songs. Peruvian Skies also had the Portnoyisms (heh!), but I feel that it was just more pronounced in ToT. Of course, he solidified the style into a signature sound with Metropolis Pt. 2."

[EraVulgaris]

"Falling into Infinity" was actually my first DT album. It was pretty good (good enough for me to check out the bands other stuff), but after I listened to "Scenes from a Memory" and "Images and Words", FII felt somewhat blunt.

A couple of months later, I went back to FII and was happy to find an album in which you can actually hear the bass. It's not my favorite album, but I still like most of the parts. And Hell's Kitchen is simply amazing. 

[Chino]

FII isn't my favorite DT album, but it's the one I play the most.

[vtgrad]

Wow 17-years... I remember driving to Sonic's (an actual record shop; remember those?) in Abingdon VA to purchase that album with lunch money I'd saved (I was a junior in High School).  I almost ran out of gas on the way home!  Most of my money went to music and gas now that I think about it.

TOT is my DT song; anytime someone asks me who DT is, I play TOT for them.  It just recently surpassed ACoS for me as my all-time favorite. 

[Dublagent66]

Yeah, FII is the type of album that makes you remember where you were during it's release.  I remember where I lived, the car I was driving.  Saw DT live for the first time on that tour.  Yeah, that was a good year.   

[RoeDent]

I've just seen that it's FII's 17th anniversary today, so happy anniversary to that album! 2 DT album anniversaries on the same day, wow!

[kirksnosehair]

Add me to the list of people who don't care for "Burning My Soul" or "You Not Me" 


And I think FII is a bit to ballad-heavy, but the good stuff on that album is stellar and the sound is the best they ever had.  Still sounds good 17 years later.   In fact, I'd say it's Dream Theater's best produced album in terms of the sonic qualities.

[Prog Snob]

Add me to the list of people who don't care for "Burning My Soul" or "You Not Me" 


And I think FII is a bit to ballad-heavy, but the good stuff on that album is stellar and the sound is the best they ever had.  Still sounds good 17 years later.   In fact, I'd say it's Dream Theater's best produced album in terms of the sonic qualities.

I definitely agree with all of this.  YNM ranks at the bottom five of my DT list.  I always say that TWIUTB, with better production, was the better choice.

[TAC]

  In fact, I'd say it's Dream Theater's best produced album in terms of the sonic qualities.

No question.

[bl5150]

I didn't notice the sound quality at the time - I was more worried about which imposter band had kidnapped my beloved Dream Theater .   I grew to like it with time 

[CharlesPL]

[Zook]

Would they sound noticeably different?

[abydos]

Having heard the demos, I'm glad the album came out the way it did. I do miss Cover My Eyes and Speak to Me, would have loved to hear those with the awesome production but the album would have gotten very ballad heavy. The rest of the demos have no place on the album as they are inferior to every song on it.

[CharlesPL]

details at https://brookvalerecords.com/

[jammindude]

Wondering how they are going to split this one up.   BMS/HK/LITS don't have any place to split them up really.  But that would make for a pretty long side 1. 

Same thing with the end.   Does ToT go with one song before it, or two? 

I'm sure they've done it, but it just seems like there no decent way to divide this album amongst 4 sides.   

[dream416]

These look awesome!!!!!
Come on Oct.20th   

[Vlasto]

[ Thread starter - 'Falling into Infinity is amazing' ]

...you didn't know that? ....

[Dani Helios]

Terrbile songs: Almost All
Good songs: Trial of Tears

*hides face with hands* "don't hurt me..."

[son_ov_hades]

Wondering how they are going to split this one up.   BMS/HK/LITS don't have any place to split them up really.  But that would make for a pretty long side 1. 

Same thing with the end.   Does ToT go with one song before it, or two? 

I'm sure they've done it, but it just seems like there no decent way to divide this album amongst 4 sides.   

The album is out on vinyl already, Music On Vinyl pressed in last year. The way that one is set up has side B as Hollow Years/Burning My Soul/Hell's Kitchen and the C side is Lines In The Sand/Take Away My Pain/Just Let Me Breathe.

[sneakyblueberry]

I don't like either of those albums. Both are extremely disappointing given the 2 legendary albums that they're sandwiched between.

Hahaha, geeeezus.

[lucky7]

FII isn't my favorite DT album, but it's the one I play the most.

I would have to agree....I could listen to Hell's Kitchen a 100 times and not get bored!

[Kotowboy]

I prefer Falling Into Infinity to Awake.

[Kotowboy]

Terrbile songs: Almost All
Good songs: Trial of Tears

*hides face with hands* "don't hurt me..."

Hell's Kitchen, Lines In The Sand  would like to see you now.