Self Titled Album Discussion thread [Expect Spoilers]

[evz]

I'm coming up on finishing my 3rd listen all the way thru.  I am just blown away.  So much emotion in this album...  The Restless Angels section of Surrender to Reason is amazing; listen to all the cool stuff going on under James (and James kills it there as well). 

I feel bad for the people that are not liking it.  This is the DT I've been missing for a long time.

[cosmicwxdude]

 

Ok listening now. Half through Enemy Inside. False Awakening Suite is embarrassingly bad. I already know how how I feel about Enemy Inside - recycling. Its almost over...

[chwik]

Listened to the album 4 times now....WOW, really really digging it! This is inspired DT. For me this knocks ADTOE out the ballpark! And I like ADTOE! This album is definitly in my top rankning of DT albums. On par with I@W, Awake, Octavarium, Scenes, and SDOIT (and might i add FII) for me so far.

And as I am a guitarplayer....JP, WOW, what a palyer!!!!!

[snapple]

Illumination Theory is miles better than Octavarium or In The Presence of Enemies. It's better than The Count of Tuscany. In fact, it's got me back on the "DT Epic pls" train. Fucking A'. I feel like I'm listening to the band I knew they were but, for some reason, they weren't being that band from 2003-2009.

[Dark Castle]

Finally getting a good listen, absolutely love this album, much more than A Dramatic Turn Of Events (Which is a top 5 for me), and I'll need to give it more listens, to let the songs soak into my brain permanently, but I can already tell this is a classic for me.

[DarkLord_Lalinc]

Surrender to Reason is really, really amazing. Might be my favorite song on the record (probably more than Illumination Theory).

[Sketchy]

Two songs in, this is pretty neat. I can see the Pokemon Red and Blue that Wasteland mentioned in another thread.

[wasteland]

Two songs in, this is pretty neat. I can see the Pokemon Red and Blue that Wasteland mentioned in another thread.

I need to high five you but I can't find the emote!

[lateralus88]

Illumination Theory is miles better than Octavarium

This makes no sense to me at all. Don't take that the wrong way, I'm not saying you're opinion is shitty. But strictly speaking in terms of flow and substance, I don't quite understand how this conclusion happens.

Though I'm biased and think that 8VM is DT's best album and the title track is one of my favourite progmetal epics ever.

[Dark Castle]

The easter egg is so gorgeous.

[toro]

On my first listen I was like: "I'm not feeling this shit".
Until I got to the outro of Behind The Veil 
Favorite moment of the album so far.

[Kotowboy]

Two songs in, this is pretty neat. I can see the Pokemon Red and Blue that Wasteland mentioned in another thread.

I need to high five you but I can't find the emote!

[nikostheater]

James is at his best after Awake!

[Mebert78]

"Behind the Veil" is fucking sick.  The orchestration at the beginning are breathtaking.  When the music kicks in it's reminiscent of WDADU. 

[rumborak]

It's actually a pretty good album. I don't see myself listening to it all that much because I don't listen to Dream Theater that much anymore, but it's still pretty decent.

[cosmicwxdude]

 

First listen reactions:
After being pretty underwhelmed by TEI and AFTR I was prepared for quite some disappointment, sadly it wasn't enough. I thought at first AFTR didn't have any really great melodies and instrumental embellishments, now I know they're pretty much the best ones on the entire album.

It didn't actually feel anything like listening to an album. More like a random copy and paste collection of various interludes and breaks that weren't strong enough for previous albums. I absolutely don't see more focus on individual songs. Yes, they're shorter and more repetitive but they feel way more frankensteined than ever before. I also don't see more focus on melodies, not in the vocals, not in the riffs, not in the solo lines, they're like thin lines in the sand (no, don't) washed away by the next wave leaving nothing behind, mostly bland filler, always waiting for something that will never come.

There are a few silent breaks that shine through a stormfront of loudness. Listening to this in better quality and more often will obviously make some of it a little better. But if you played me any ten minute section (except maybe the part in IT after the strings) and I didn't know this was one of my favorite bands I'd probably stopped listening after that, if not earlier.

These are my song by song notes from the first listen:
FAS: a little War Inside My Head vibe, mostly filler [1/5]
TEI: still not a track I dig but nice verse melody [3/5]
TLG: radio interview said something about a riff, no riff, nice solo, filler melodies [2/5]
EM: Inspector Gadget goes Erotomania riff, good old Rudess Scenes patch, Nightmare To Remember halftime feel, boring [2/5]
TBP: nice vocal entry, bland melodies, "water's edge" lyrics, shifted accents ruin chorus, nice solo and bridge, 8VM "someone Like him" nod, sudden break, U2 moment, filler [2/5]
BTV: great intro, nice guitar tone, Metallica moments, Beyond This Life style vocals, useless chorus, rinse and repeat, filler [2/5]
STR: generic intro, useless break, next melody with rhythmic chugga as usual, useless chorus, slightly twelve step suite riff before noisy crap solo [2/5]
AFTR: compared to the rest this is suddenly a very nice song [4/5]
IT: first third did nothing, noise section useless, orchestra sounds nice but sooo neeedy overdose of old Hollywood schmaltz for the sake of schmaltz, second half has nice sections [2/5]

Several of the [2/5] are borderline [1/5] but I didn't want to be cruel to one of my favorite bands.
I almost regret preordering, can this be cancelled?



Greetings...
Nef

[snapple]

Illumination Theory is miles better than Octavarium

This makes no sense to me at all. Don't take that the wrong way, I'm not saying you're opinion is shitty. But strictly speaking in terms of flow and substance, I don't quite understand how this conclusion happens.

Though I'm biased and think that 8VM is DT's best album and the title track is one of my favourite progmetal epics ever.

And I think it's one of the most overrated borefests in DT's catalog. 

[MarkFitDT]

On my first listen I was like: "I'm not feeling this shit".
Until I got to the outro of Behind The Veil 
Favorite moment of the album so far.

I know what you mean lol - too much going on. I stopped at the Bigger Picture and have gone back to the start. Im now stuck at The Looking Glass which flew over my head the first time. OMG this song is amazing. I love it! I love it!!

[lateralus88]

Illumination Theory is miles better than Octavarium

This makes no sense to me at all. Don't take that the wrong way, I'm not saying you're opinion is shitty. But strictly speaking in terms of flow and substance, I don't quite understand how this conclusion happens.

Though I'm biased and think that 8VM is DT's best album and the title track is one of my favourite progmetal epics ever.

And I think it's one of the most overrated borefests in DT's catalog. 

omg stahp bashing dt pls

[7StringedBeast]

Illumination Theory is miles better than Octavarium

This makes no sense to me at all. Don't take that the wrong way, I'm not saying you're opinion is shitty. But strictly speaking in terms of flow and substance, I don't quite understand how this conclusion happens.

Though I'm biased and think that 8VM is DT's best album and the title track is one of my favourite progmetal epics ever.

I don't think any DT song will ever be better than 8V.  But to enjoy IT I would say don't really think of it as a DT epic.  Think of it as just a long song with different movements.  Enjoy each piece for what it is.  I mean, there are KILLER riffs and rhythms going on. 

[dparrott]

I REALLY like 99% of what I´ve heard so far. I´m at work and have headphones on, and I´m clicking randomly at each song to see what grabs my attention first. But people keep interrupting me to talk about work!!! 

That's why I got in extra early! 

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

The hymn in Illumination Theory melted my heart. 

[RodrigoAltaf]

 To me this is their best album since Six Degrees.

[faizoff]

Ugh I've been saying Black Sabbath's Paranoid when I mean War Pigs. The vocal parts after the orchestration ends and bass & drums resume is what reminds me of War Pigs. which is then followed by a kick ass instrumental section with JP leading the way with some killer leads and doubled later.

[snapple]

The hymn in Illumination Theory melted my heart. 

Read that as hymen.

[adace]

Only listened once so far, but I absolutely love it. I have a feeling this will ending up being my favorite DT album since Octavarium or even ToT.

Also, has anyone posted the lyrics yet?

[Nekov]

I'm gonna jump in the boat and say Illumination Theory is fantastic. It got my mind spinning on the first listen and is doing as much on the second one.

[MoraWintersoul]

Didn't like it much or at all, except for The Bigger Picture and The Looking Glass. The rest is stylistically okay and pretty well played (especially by Mangini) but in terms of composition and some of the production choices (sorry about the vagueness, but I fell asleep once typing this message, I'm that tired ) absolutely not my cup of tea.

Would like to congratulate the band about the overall positive response this record seems to be getting so far

[WheyWaffles]

Can we admit to hearing the leaked CDDA since the band has "leaked" the album officially in the form of the stream?

No, that would be against the rules of the forum.

So it can only be insinuated by speaking as though we've heard the actual CDDA without explicitly stating so, as you have.  Got it.

[bosk1]

Simply laughing at someone else's opinion just because you disagree is baiting, plain and simple, and is against forum rules. This is the second time in this thread today that you've done it.  Consider this your warning.  This needs to stop.


And Lat and Snapple:  Last warning before I start handing out bans.

[snapple]

noxon was given a copy. He doesn't have a leak.

[jammindude]

Not sure I get the hate for the ambient section of IT.   To me it is *THE* YES moment of the album.    Sounds so much like a moment in a classic Yes epic it's not even funny.   And I mean that in a GOOD way.  I absolutely love it. 

And then when it comes back in, didn't feel awkward to me at all like some people are claiming.   As a matter of fact, it eerily reminded me of when the bass kicks back in on the "The boy has no potential" section from The Great Nothing by Spock's Beard.   Am I the only one?

[bosk1]

Can we admit to hearing the leaked CDDA since the band has "leaked" the album officially in the form of the stream?

No, that would be against the rules of the forum.

So it can only be insinuated by speaking as though we've heard the actual CDDA without explicitly stating so, as you have.  Got it.

Wrong again.  The forum rules are quite clear that you cannot talk about leaks at all, whether overtly, by insinuation, or whatever.  Bye now.

[RodrigoAltaf]

 I understand how some of you may think this is "recycled DT"...the whole album has a familiar feel to it. They have done most of it before. And yet, somehow these songs do not seem like copy/paste to me. They all sound fresh and very much like a new beginning for DT. It´s something I haven´t felt about a new DT album for a very long time. The last time I remember thinking this way was on ToT, but I didn´t like many songs in it, so that´s why I think this new one is their best since 6DOIT.

[Ħ]

How would you guys rank the album among the others? Obviously this is just at first blush, but here's how I'd have it.

1. Scenes From a Memory
2. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
3. Dream Theater
4. Train Of Thought
5. Images and Words
6. Falling Into Infinity
7. A Dramatic Turn of Events
8. Octavarium
9. Awake
10. Black Clouds and Silver Linings
11. Systematic Chaos
12. When Dream and Day Unite