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

[RMGadelha]

Wouldn't it be amazing to get a new track now, considering that the album is now officially done?

[noxon]

Silly american dates. Threw me off. I thought it said 12th of october

[Gonz]

The album was done a week ago.

[bosk1]

The album was done a week ago.

Um...I think we established that about 5 posts ago. 

That actually is a bit late if the scheduled release date is still planned for 1/29.

[noxon]

Well, the press release they released yesterday:

https://www.dreamtheater.net/news/historic-north-american-headline-tour-165576

had this in it:

DREAM THEATER
THE ASTONISHING
RELEASE DATE: JANUARY 29TH

So they're still communicating that as the release date.

[Simonski]

These lyrics are full of errors. Vocals that doesn't fit, at all... Seriously: Why would you think you can trust an Argentinian fan page to give the right lyrics? Can they even speak English down there? Lionel Messi certainly can't (Though he lives in Spain..)

[RMGadelha]

These lyrics are full of errors. Vocals that doesn't fit, at all... Seriously: Why would you think you can trust an Argentinian fan page to give the right lyrics? Can they even speak English down there? Lionel Messi certainly can't (Though he lives in Spain..)

They are full of errors, yeah, but I know plenty of South Americans (myself included) who can speak English perfectly. That was a bit harsh in my opinion.

[noxon]

I think it's really hard to transcribe lyrics, especially when James goes high - he's not the greatest enunciator while singing high notes.

[bosk1]

Seriously: Why would you think you can trust an Argentinian fan page to give the right lyrics? Can they even speak English down there? Lionel Messi certainly can't (Though he lives in Spain..)

That is completely inappropriate and unnecessarily confrontational.  It is fine to point out that there are errors, but no need to insult groups of people en masse.  Please read the forum rules and plan to abide by them if you want to continue to have posting privileges here.

[RaiseTheKnife]

MASTERING IS DONE! THE ALBUM IS OFFICIALLY DONE!

It's interesting that DT released The Gift of Music before the overall masters were actually finished. I guess that they didn't want to drag people on for too long without hearing anything so maybe as soon as the master for TGoM was finished, they began preparing for its reveal.

In the last album cycles the early release allowed the band an opportunity to make last minute tweaks, mostly likely influenced by fan reactions/griping.  So not surprised it was released before mastering, and perhaps it is a bit of a compliment or sign of respect to the DT community.  Hopefully the mastering does not compress the sound too much.

[Darkstarshades]

A big announcement suggested something special, not something they do every tour. It also didn't warrant the buildup given that it's just adding more tour dates to the ones they'd already announced.

I don't know, but I guess this forum is missing the point here. This tour, with all The Astonishing played live and with all the stage production, now will be extended to USA. It's not simply to announce more tour dates. I doubt when DT will be promoting this album in South America, Asia etc they will do this way. I guess they will do a more regular kind of show, playing only a few parts of The Astonishing and with the regular show production.

That would piss me off harder than anyone can imagine.

[RMGadelha]

A big announcement suggested something special, not something they do every tour. It also didn't warrant the buildup given that it's just adding more tour dates to the ones they'd already announced.

I don't know, but I guess this forum is missing the point here. This tour, with all The Astonishing played live and with all the stage production, now will be extended to USA. It's not simply to announce more tour dates. I doubt when DT will be promoting this album in South America, Asia etc they will do this way. I guess they will do a more regular kind of show, playing only a few parts of The Astonishing and with the regular show production.

That would piss me off harder than anyone can imagine.

That would not be the first time though. I remember during MP's era that they would bring a more compact version of his drumkit to South America.

Also, tickets here (at least in Brazil) are really expensive even on their normal gigs. I imagine how much they would be with the full show...

[BlobVanDam]

It's interesting that DT released The Gift of Music before the overall masters were actually finished. I guess that they didn't want to drag people on for too long without hearing anything so maybe as soon as the master for TGoM was finished, they began preparing for its reveal.

I just hope TGOM wasn't pre-mastered, because it sounded good! I don't want it ruined with more compression.

[ResultsMayVary]

I get home from work and all the pre-sale for the Cincinnati show on the DT website are sold out. Really hoping there'll be more tickets when the public ones go on sale on Tuesday.

[dparrott]

I think it's really hard to transcribe lyrics, especially when James goes high - he's not the greatest enunciator while singing high notes.

True dat.  And English is my only language! haha

[ariich]

It's interesting that DT released The Gift of Music before the overall masters were actually finished. I guess that they didn't want to drag people on for too long without hearing anything so maybe as soon as the master for TGoM was finished, they began preparing for its reveal.

I just hope TGOM wasn't pre-mastered, because it sounded good! I don't want it ruined with more compression.

This was my exact thought as well. Don't screw it up, DT!

[RoeDent]

They've had around 2 months of promo and hype building already, even before the masters were completed. Now the album's done, it might as well be out there sooner rather than later.

[Estiui]

Have you guys checked out VRA's cover of TGoM? DAT CHOIR at the end, it gave me more than goosebumps...

[Zydar]

Have you guys checked out VRA's cover of TGoM? DAT CHOIR at the end, it gave me more than goosebumps...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veaKJ_tJqw0

Nice

[SuperTaco]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veaKJ_tJqw0

Nice

I'm blown away. It's basically a perfect cover.

[Mladen]

My God, that was beautiful...

[Vandalism]

Great video! But Can he whahibrido pickingant???

[YtseJamittaja]

Wow! That brilliant as always!! That choir! 

[V_R11]

Holy crap that's awesome!  Wish I was that talented

[DarkLord_Lalinc]

That was an awesome cover of course, but it only made me appreciate James LaBrie even more. That's a very good singer, but all the different 'character' parts sound just the same. JLB's performance does sound more dynamic, more varied and with more depth.

[RoeDent]

I think TGOM is sung entirely by Arhys. The Empire "masses" can't sing "People just don't have the time for music anymore" as they don't know what music even is. The NOMACs are all they've ever known.

We might all be referring to the lyric booklet for the first few listens to the album, to try and work out who's singing what.

[MirrorMask]

We might all be referring to the lyric booklet for the first few listens to the album, to try and work out who's singing what.

I hope it will be clearly stated, as it happened with SFAM that even had italic lyrics for the stuff happening in the past.

[olddtfan51@gmail.com]

Have you guys checked out VRA's cover of TGoM? DAT CHOIR at the end, it gave me more than goosebumps...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veaKJ_tJqw0

Nice

Those guys nailed it .

[RMGadelha]

Everything top notch, I just didn't like the vocalist much. I'm also glad he sung The Songbird instead of The sun bursts, and Shepherd instead of Should Give.

[fischermasamune]

I think TGOM is sung entirely by Arhys. The Empire "masses" can't sing "People just don't have the time for music anymore" as they don't know what music even is. The NOMACs are all they've ever known.

We might all be referring to the lyric booklet for the first few listens to the album, to try and work out who's singing what.

I think it started with a neutral narrator, and at some point, probably in "We're living day to day" (depending if it's "Across the vast North Empire" or "I cross the vast North Empire"), it shifted to Arhys.

By the way, I had a dream where the total duration of the album was 2 hours and 13 minutes. Was it based on real information that now I can't recover/remember?

[Darkstarshades]

I think TGOM is sung entirely by Arhys. The Empire "masses" can't sing "People just don't have the time for music anymore" as they don't know what music even is. The NOMACs are all they've ever known.

We might all be referring to the lyric booklet for the first few listens to the album, to try and work out who's singing what.

I think it started with a neutral narrator, and at some point, probably in "We're living day to day" (depending if it's "Across the vast North Empire" or "I cross the vast North Empire"), it shifted to Arhys.

By the way, I had a dream where the total duration of the album was 2 hours and 13 minutes. Was it based on real information that now I can't recover/remember?

I dreamed that exactly, except that Astonishing lasted 23 minutes haha

[MirrorMask]

By the way, I had a dream where the total duration of the album was 2 hours and 13 minutes. Was it based on real information that now I can't recover/remember?

Petrucci estimated the length of the album at 2 hours and 10 minutes.

[Thematt202]

That cover was amazing. 

I'm really intrigued by the isolated choir part at the end.  I could easily imagine another track being built around that melody.  Anyone think that we may hear this in a different context later in the album?

[hefdaddy42]

Have you guys checked out VRA's cover of TGoM? DAT CHOIR at the end, it gave me more than goosebumps...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veaKJ_tJqw0

Nice

Holy crap

[Darkstarshades]

What did you do to Hef? Who are you?