A more suitable name than "Easter Egg"?

[robwebster]

Am I the only one who just considers it the end of Illumination Theory? I mean, it doesn't really stand as its own thing, does it? Does anyone listen to just that? And when I listen to IT I typically leave it on through the silence as a 22 minute piece, considering this part to be the end of the song.

I doubt many listen to it on its own given that it's a short and simple piece, and requires skipping almost 20 minutes of song to even get to, but it is an entirely separate composition. It's the classic hidden track after some silence routine, and according to DT's song chart while writing/recording DT12, is its own entity, not part of IT itself.

Not to mention - when they were writing the End Credits, Illumination Theory was going to be track two! They didn't pop it to the end of the album until after they'd left the studio. It would've sat on the end of a completely different song, I'd guess The Bigger Picture.

Was it actually going to be track 2, or just listed that way on their studio chart? It might not have meant anything. There's no way an epic like that could be 2nd on an album. There's a reason they always stick them near or at the end, because that's where the epic works.

It was actually going to be track two - I think it was listed eighth in the studio chart, so it's definitely not that. It was actually an A&R guy at Roadrunner who convinced them to move it.

"Originally Richard [Chycki, producer] wanted Illumination Theory, the long one, to be the first one [after False Awakening Suite], and we were going with that, but we’d done a mix of The Enemy Inside, and we’d sent it to RoadRunner and everybody loved that song – they were freaking out over that song! So when we had the artwork done and the tracklist done and everything, a guy called from RoadRunner and went, “Yeah, I was thinking about the order, and you guys do whatever you want to do, I’m not gonna step on it, but I’m thinking you might want to change that up,” and I’m so glad that he called, because The Enemy Inside, there’s something about that song. It has energy, and power, and spirit, and it pulls you in, and the chorus is big – it turned out to be the perfect song to lead the album off, after the intro."

https://dtondt.wordpress.com/2013/09/20/2-the-enemy-inside/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NNdWk45TsU

End Credits and Illumination Theory are two separate pieces!

[BlobVanDam]

I actually do vaguely recall that now that you've refreshed my memory.
I think that would have been a bad sequencing decision. The FAS > IT transition could have been nice if it were just the two songs, but as an album, the FAS > TEI transition is such a high energy start to the album, and I think it would have been unbalanced to have this huge epic at the start, then a bunch of more typical songs for the rest. This way, IT feels like the payoff of the album, much as Octavarium did. While the sequencing may seem a bit formulaic at this point for DT, I think there's a reason they usually end up falling back on it, because it works really well.
And the Easter Egg feels like the relaxed release after the big proggy purge, which also works very effectively.

[robwebster]

Absolutely, I agree with you. I listened to them back to back, when I first read that, and although the transition from False Awakening Suite into Illumination Theory works - and Live, Die, Kill works really well as James' big entrance - a lot of the stuff around the middle starts to feel like it's getting in the way. The orchestral section is absolutely glorious as part of a finale, but when it comes between you and the rest of the album, it's a little frustrating. Musically brilliant, but it sets the pace off. They made the right decision in the end. It's a payoff, not an overture.

I do think epics can work in pole position, though. Nightwish did well to kick off an album with The Poet and the Pendulum, and whenever I've tried to join In the Presence of Enemies together, it's always sat better at the start of the album then the end. I think the key is to follow it up with something that won't pale by comparison. ItPoE followed by the Ministry of Lost Souls is a rubbish idea, cos it's both similar and smaller, but ItPoE followed by Repentance sort of works, since Repentance isn't trying to compete.

[BlobVanDam]

I don't mean to say they can't work at the start, but DT's epics usually have such a buildup, and the big conclusive outro, that I think they often demand that position on the album. They have a sense of closure that is difficult to follow up. It's just DT's style of epic writing imo.
Personally, I've always had ITPOE as one song at the end of the album. I've always liked having the shorter, high energy rockers to kick things off, then building up. Sequence the album like a triangle/pyramid, basically.

The easter egg (and I suppose BTS even though I don't like the song itself) work well afterwards probably for the reason you've stated. They're not competing, they're very low key songs, more like softening the transition out of the album, rather than trying to one-up anything that's come before it.

[Kotowboy]

I'm not sure I could enjoy a DT album as much with the epic at the beginning.

You'd just end up skipping it every time.

Luckily with today's technology - you can sequence albums however you want.

[Madman Shepherd]

This sums up why that technology is so important

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1a8SeZ-v-E4

[Nefarius]

Nef doesn't know that you can press STOP when Illumination Theory ends.

I don't listen to IT anyway, so no need to stop.

Greetings...
Nef

[RoeDent]

Something like End Credits or Epilogue would fit it nicely.

[adastra]

Epilogue would work almost perfectly! It would be more perfect if it didn't exist and the album would end after the epicness of IT

Greetings...
ada

[VincentMDO]

spoiler: DT13 will start with the ending of Easter Egg.