Dream Theater: The Astonishing (now with moment of betrayal!)

[noxon]

Well, now we know why they need concert halls during the tour, right?

[Laughingplace56]

Really love it. Very different as far as lead singles go, and has a strong Rush/I&W feel. Choir??! Drums sound GREAT both composition and production wise (snare's still a little low, but sounds better), the 2 min instrumental that closes the song out is so good, OMG IM READY FOR THIS ALBUM

[gulranek]

Wow, new DT music! I love it, love the drum sound, it's so much more prominent than on DT12.

Interesting that they didn't invite Eren Basbug for the orchestration...

[alexofsweden]

Hmmm...at 1:24 "timeeee", pretty obvious the vocals are melodyned (for those who does´t know what Melodyne is...kinda like auto-tune, but instead you can edit note/note) This particular part is very bad edit!!  :town Other than that...sounds fantastic, great mix

[Prog Snob]

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/inside-dream-theaters-wildly-ambitious-new-concept-lp-20151203

this link seems as official as any 

but if not ill take it down, not trying to face the ban hammer...

Yes, that is the official premier link.  Discuss away.

That was a really good interview. I really liked what JP said about LaBrie and how much he put into the various character's voices.

[ariich]

Wait, does that mean that the people who posted the leaks were banned for publishing the song just hours before the band itself released it?

Yes.

That's what you get for opening Christmas presents before the family gathers on 25th December to do it all together.

Correct. 

Yup. I will add that, in light of discovering how soon the official release was planned anyway, I reduced the bans to a standard 1 week. But the rules are the rules, and they're really not difficult to follow.

[wolven74]

I'm digging the track. Probably one of the shortest singles they've ever done. Mangini's sound is by far the best of all three albums he's been on. Very intrigued by the NOMACS.

[McNugg]

JP - "I've honestly said this, and I'll say it again: I don't think there's any other singer but James who could have really pulled this off the way that he did. He's going to need some serious therapy — I think there's only one character that doesn't have a singing part, and he played all of them"

That rules out guest singers then.  Thank goodness for that.

[nikatapi]

Sounds good, i like prominent JR, still have issues with the drums and cymbals sound but it's better than DT12 as far as i can tell from a YouTube video.

Very promising start, let's hope it only gets better.

[RoadTrain_of Thought]

Oh, boy. Oh, boy. Oh, boy.

I really like it. It gives me hope this album will be a massive improvement on DT12.

[ResultsMayVary]

What really interested me about this JP interview with Rolling Stone is that they basically used an outside producer through David Campbell, who did A LOT of work on the orchestration. JP, in the interview, even says he changed things around from the demoes DT sent him and sometimes expanded on minimal parts for the orchestra in the demoes.

That is very, very interesting.

[Frankgate]

I was a little disappointed at first
After a couple of spins I got into it.
Not an amazing song but cool enough, love the drumming a lot. Also the "Queen part" and the final instrumentals that remind me a bit of Kansas.

Let's see what the future brings.

[RoeDent]

Currently on my third listen in the last 20 minutes, in between trying to take everything in and just being relieved that something is happening after the sheer madness of the last few hours.

Song is awesome, needless to say. To me, the opening lyrics sound like they would be the first ones sung on the album, meaning that the first 2 tracks would be instrumentals.

[Evermind]

"Cool enough" is probably accurate. I'm not blown away but I kinda like the upbeat vibe of the new single. Nothing astonishing though.

[jakepriest]

I'm not really impressed to be honest. There are some fine vocal melodies, but overall it all comes off as pretty weak. The best part is definitely the instrumental break with the snarling pig towards the end, I really dig that part. The weakest would definitely be the choir part. The drums sound better than DT12 and ADTOE but the snare is still terrible to my ears.

[r3d86]

I don't know if this is a bad behavior, but someone can share lyrics? I'm lost in some parts 

[YtseJamittaja]

Weird choice for single because that's not really memorable song with no chorus. But I love those positive vibes, almost LTE came to my mind !! 

But now I really think this will be good album. I'm getting good old vibes

[Dublagent66]

My expectations have never been lower.  There was once a time in the mid to late 90's that I thought DT would replace Rush as my favorite band of all time.

[T-ski]

nothing groundbreaking with this track, it's pretty much color by numbers Dream Theater.

[EraVulgaris]

Hmmm...at 1:24 "timeeee", pretty obvious the vocals are melodyned (for those who does´t know what Melodyne is...kinda like auto-tune, but instead you can edit note/note) This particular part is very bad edit!!  :town Other than that...sounds fantastic, great mix

God damn, now I can't unhear that.

The song is alright though. Might need some time to grow on me, so far it feels like a very basic DT song.

[Prog Snob]

Just listen to those choirs!

The whole song gives off this nice SDOIT vibe.

That's the same feel I got from it.  It has that About to Crash kind of mood.

Currently on my third listen in the last 20 minutes, in between trying to take everything in and just being relieved that something is happening after the sheer madness of the last few hours.

Song is awesome, needless to say. To me, the opening lyrics sound like they would be the first ones sung on the album, meaning that the first 2 tracks would be instrumentals.

Descent of the NOMACS will probably be some kind of computerized sound effects or some kind of commotion.
Dystopian Overture is obviously an instrumental

[emtee]

From that article you can tell they put a hell of a lot of work into this. Jeez. Huge props to JP. I think this album might be the one that
really brings me back into the fold again.

[MarkFitDT]

I absolutely LOVE the choir on this song.

Yet again, Dream Theater do not disappoint me. Absolutely love the song. Roll on the album!!

[MirrorMask]

JP - "I've honestly said this, and I'll say it again: I don't think there's any other singer but James who could have really pulled this off the way that he did. He's going to need some serious therapy — I think there's only one character that doesn't have a singing part, and he played all of them"

That rules out guest singers then.  Thank goodness for that.

Love this bit, as I love James. We also got final confirmation that Faythe is a female character, as everyone deeply suspected!

That interview got me pumped. Clearly they did not half-assed any aspect of it. The shows will be legendary and so the album!!! (I hope hehe!)

Also, he made that comment about someone showing up expecting to hear Pull Me Under... he said the album is maybe 130 minutes long, that leaves time at least for an encore of some sorts at the shows... they're bound to play something else, isn't it? or it is really just the album and that's it? probably he used Pull Me Under as a prime example of a well known song that you'd expect from a "normal" DT show.

[ResultsMayVary]

At least to me, it sounds like the only music being played at the shows will be the new album. That's the implication I'm getting from his comment about fans expecting Pull Me Under.

[rumborak]

I liked it I must say. Most pressing concern of mine right now, this is very wall-of-sound still.

[DreamerTV]

THAT CHOIR

As far as the ending, i guess we'll appreciate it better when put inside the flow of the concept.


Great, great vibe.

[Shadow2222]

Wow. Excellent song.

Comparing recent singles, it is miles better than The Enemy Inside and On the Backs of Angels, and I really liked those songs.

[wideworldofmike]

Spite myself CAN'T STOP LISTENING. The rolling stone interview has me so pumped up.

[Bertie_Wooster]

This sounds a lot like Trent Gardners "The absolute man"
I have wanted DT to make an album like that for many years.

[Enalya]

JP - "I've honestly said this, and I'll say it again: I don't think there's any other singer but James who could have really pulled this off the way that he did. He's going to need some serious therapy — I think there's only one character that doesn't have a singing part, and he played all of them"

That rules out guest singers then.  Thank goodness for that.

Wow that's really cool, thanks for sharing
I dig the track so much, I hunger for more 

[BlackInk]

Drums sound alright, a lot better than DT12, but still not as good as most of MP's stuff.

As I said before, it has a pretty retro vibe. Someone mentioned I&W, and that's a feeling I get as well.

LaBrie sounds good, although those pitch correction moments some have already pointed out are pretty embarrassing.

NOMACs being AIs gives some more credit to my theory that they end up a third party, one that both the rebels and the empire will need to join forces to defeat.

Overall I'd say the track is fine, but nothing really special.

they're bound to play something else, isn't it? or it is really just the album and that's it?

I'd say a pretty definate no. They want to treat this like a show. Image you watching a play, and then after the play is done, the actors play one more scene from a different play. That would be a really weird thing to do.

[chego_voice]

i JUST CRY LIKE A GIRL LISTENING THOSE CHOIRS!



HOLY SH#$% 

[RoeDent]

Apologies if it's already been mentioned in the preceding madness, but there's two new characters mentioned by John Petrucci. Well, one we kind of figured out (Faythe, "a female" - JP) and Arabelle ("an older female").

[ariich]

I liked it I must say. Most pressing concern of mine right now, this is very wall-of-sound still.

Yeah once it gets going it's all fairly high volume, but to me (and based on the youtube stream) it didn't seem ridiculously so. Normal-loud as it were, rather than loud-loud. Can't tell a great deal from this about how the album will end up sounding, as there's clearly going to be quite a bit of variety across it.

And yeah, I dig it. Choir section definitely my favourite part.