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

[rumborak]

Listened to TGoM. Sounded like something from 6D but with 3x more drums than necessary.

Listened to MoB. Also sounded like something from 6D, but only twice the drums necessary. Much more to my liking.

All in all, don't care for the drums and the drum sound in particular. The guy's insanely talented and he's playing in DT, so the only possible thing to do is to overplay the shit out of everything to the detriment of a nice grove. But, at the same time the music isn't bad and I'll be damned if I don't want to see the guy play it live.

One particular spot where I was really wishing the drums weren't there was in TGoM 3:24-3:39. Without drums, that section would be prime-rib "An evening with JP and JR" style stuff, which I would have looooved. The drums totally dominate that section though.

[rab7]

Keep in mind that 99.99% of the world don't kniw DT.

700,000 people doesn't seem like much. I think they have much more fans than that.

[BlobVanDam]

"Anyone who still says they miss former drummer Mike Portnoy and prefer him over Mangini is just saying so to be a contrarian." is so obvious... you don´t even need to say it. It´s like saying that water is wet or something like that. 

What a load of garbage.

[Zook]

I haven't commented much about this album since it was announced so if I may comment on the dreaded snare, it does sound way better than the over compressed blanketed snare of DT12, but it's just a tiny bit too loud.

I think TGOM and MOB are great songs.

[dparrott]

I've been dying to listen to samples and I miss them???  Hurry up interwebs!

[wolven74]

Can someone explain to me how MM is overplaying? The sound itself is mechanical yes, but MP overplayed far more often IMO. I think MM is much more tasteful so I'm really confused.

I believe MP hardly ever overplayed and nor for that matter Mangini. I did like Portnoy's creativity and inventiveness more though; he had a much larger repertoire because of his HUGE range of influences. 

I also find Portnoy to 'overuse' his influences quite a bit.

Muse-meets-Yes-meets-PinkFloyd-meets-FrankZappa-meets-Beatles-meets-Metallica-meets-Maiden-meets-U2

Indeed. But, man, even if his bag of tricks had become a little stale, the guy was still capable of fantastic drum parts or in any case, much more to my liking than MM has done for DT up to now.

B.Lee

Edit : I may be able to get The Astonishing at my mocal store as early as Thursday, which leaves me all Thursday evening and since I don't work then, all Friday morning to immerse myself in the experience. Can't wait!

I'm seriously stoked for this album. As I am for every DT album. I want to say this though.... Can we please stop with the MM/MP comparison? Yes, they are different drummers. Yes, they have different equipment--Portnoy played Tama, Mangini plays Pearl--so they're going to sound different. They have different playing styles so no matter how it's produced or mixed, they will never sound the same. I don't think MP is better or worse than Mangini, or vice versa. The debate is old and tired. The band has moved on, as has MP. Can we?

/rant.

Can't wait till Friday!!!!

Carry on.

[ariich]

Not Bandcamp's fault.

Well, clearly their systems weren't adequate at preventing this from happening, so I don't think they're entirely blameless. That said, their response time seems to have been very quick, which I'll give them credit for!

We shall see how quick their response time is to give me my money back.  Ive already filed a paypal dispute.  Man I cant believe I got scammed!

It's an interesting point, I don't know how refunds work with digital downloads. I mean, you presumably did get the mp3s, you just (accidentally) got them from an illegal source. It's not like you can give them back or anything. I'm not sure what the answer is, really. Though I imagine most people who paid through bandcamp in the short time the page was there are probably almost all people who want to support the band and will buy a legit copy if they get a refund.

[Progmetty]

"Anyone who still says they miss former drummer Mike Portnoy and prefer him over Mangini is just saying so to be a contrarian." is so obvious... you don´t even need to say it. It´s like saying that water is wet or something like that. 

What a load of garbage.

I agree, I have a friend who actually told me he misses Portnoy because of how he used to hit his head with his hand while playing and myself as a DT fan -who doesn't miss Portnoy the least bit- thought to myself "Oh yeah.. I do miss Portnoy for that"

[hefdaddy42]

Not Bandcamp's fault.

Well, clearly their systems weren't adequate at preventing this from happening, so I don't think they're entirely blameless. That said, their response time seems to have been very quick, which I'll give them credit for!

We shall see how quick their response time is to give me my money back.  Ive already filed a paypal dispute.  Man I cant believe I got scammed!

It's an interesting point, I don't know how refunds work with digital downloads. I mean, you presumably did get the mp3s, you just (accidentally) got them from an illegal source. It's not like you can give them back or anything.

That's what I was thinking.

[Zantera]

I'm curious which song title is the most accurate for The Astonishing, is it "The Best of Times" or "A Nightmare to Remember"?

I'll probably check it out, but got other albums higher on the priority and a lot of work related things at the moment.

[millahh]

Not Bandcamp's fault.

Well, clearly their systems weren't adequate at preventing this from happening, so I don't think they're entirely blameless. That said, their response time seems to have been very quick, which I'll give them credit for!

We shall see how quick their response time is to give me my money back.  Ive already filed a paypal dispute.  Man I cant believe I got scammed!

It's an interesting point, I don't know how refunds work with digital downloads. I mean, you presumably did get the mp3s, you just (accidentally) got them from an illegal source. It's not like you can give them back or anything.

That's what I was thinking.

the sale was an act of fraud, and the people who bought did so under false pretenses...I'd think that is pretty good ground for reversing the transaction, even though the purchaser has the mp3s.

Also, the money has to go somewhere...either the site gives it to the fraudsters anyway (bad look for the site, as it incentives the behavior, and might even be illegal), the site keeps it (again, bad look for the site, as they would be profiting off of illegal use of their site), or the $ is refunded to the purchaser.  If I'm the site, I'm falling all over myself to give refunds.

[Sacul]

I'm curious which song title is the most accurate for The Astonishing, is it "The Best of Times" or "A Nightmare to Remember"?

I think both are accurate on this case 

[volwrath]

We shall see how quick their response time is to give me my money back.  Ive already filed a paypal dispute.  Man I cant believe I got scammed!

It's an interesting point, I don't know how refunds work with digital downloads. I mean, you presumably did get the mp3s, you just (accidentally) got them from an illegal source. It's not like you can give them back or anything. I'm not sure what the answer is, really. Though I imagine most people who paid through bandcamp in the short time the page was there are probably almost all people who want to support the band and will buy a legit copy if they get a refund.

Probably the most humorous thing about it is that I didn't actually download them yet.  I bought them, and then got pulled to a meeting at work, so was not able to download. 

[Pound4aBrown]

Not Bandcamp's fault.

Well, clearly their systems weren't adequate at preventing this from happening, so I don't think they're entirely blameless. That said, their response time seems to have been very quick, which I'll give them credit for!

We shall see how quick their response time is to give me my money back.  Ive already filed a paypal dispute.  Man I cant believe I got scammed!

It's an interesting point, I don't know how refunds work with digital downloads. I mean, you presumably did get the mp3s, you just (accidentally) got them from an illegal source. It's not like you can give them back or anything.

That's what I was thinking.

the sale was an act of fraud, and the people who bought did so under false pretenses...I'd think that is pretty good ground for reversing the transaction, even though the purchaser has the mp3s.

Also, the money has to go somewhere...either the site gives it to the fraudsters anyway (bad look for the site, as it incentives the behavior, and might even be illegal), the site keeps it (again, bad look for the site, as they would be profiting off of illegal use of their site), or the $ is refunded to the purchaser.  If I'm the site, I'm falling all over myself to give refunds.

Back in Oct there was a fake Death Cube K album put up on Bandcamp, a few people bought it. Once Bandcamp shut the page down, eveyone that bought one got their money back.

[MirrorMask]

"Proudly display your allegiance to your side by using our photo booth. Post your images using ‪#‎TheAstonishing‬"

https://theastonishing.photomusicbooth.com/

Anyone will have a go at it? 

[Bertielee]

"Proudly display your allegiance to your side by using our photo booth. Post your images using ‪#‎TheAstonishing‬"

https://theastonishing.photomusicbooth.com/

Anyone will have a go at it? 

It's tempting. Maybe I'll do it.

B.Lee

[darkshade]

I intend on TA being the first DT album I don't listen to the leak/free stream before release since 8vm. Glad I stuck to it.   

[thosava]

I have made the desicion to stay away from the internet untill my CD arrives in the mail. I will not be tempted to download the album this time. See you on thursday or friday!

[TH1RT3EN]

The question is: will we get another update today?

Well, the marketing schedule has been flexible and has changed on the fly quite a bit, but there is supposed to be something else released before 1/29 according to the last schedule I have, so stay tuned.  Hopefully, it happens.  But even if it doesn't, we will have the album before we know it!

Is this what you were talking about, bosk? If not, publishing a new update is becoming more and more pointless to me as we get so close to the release date

https://theastonishing.photomusicbooth.com/

[bosk1]

Nope.  Not it.

[cramx3]

"Proudly display your allegiance to your side by using our photo booth. Post your images using ‪#‎TheAstonishing‬"

https://theastonishing.photomusicbooth.com/

Anyone will have a go at it? 

LOL just tried this and it's fairly pointless.

[hefdaddy42]

"Proudly display your allegiance to your side by using our photo booth. Post your images using ‪#‎TheAstonishing‬"

https://theastonishing.photomusicbooth.com/

Anyone will have a go at it? 

I would but I don't do instagram.

[RoeDent]

We're running out of days for updates to happen. Tomorrow or Thursday, and that's it.

[Podaar]

At this point I'm anticipating finding out what the clickable eyes of the NOMACS do more than listening to the album.

[hefdaddy42]

At this point I'm anticipating finding out what the clickable eyes of the NOMACS do more than listening to the album.

lol

[Kotowboy]

At this point I'm anticipating finding out what the clickable eyes of the NOMACS do more than listening to the album.

I'm more excited about clicking the eyes than playing the album ! 

January 29th...

Oh boy - here we go - what do they do ?

...play the album.

[ariich]

I bet the eyes do nothing and are not actually clickable after all.

[Shadow2222]

At this point I'm anticipating finding out what the clickable eyes of the NOMACS do more than listening to the album.

I'm more excited about clicking the eyes than playing the album ! 

January 29th...

Oh boy - here we go - what do they do ?

...play the album.

I wouldn't be surprised if each eye links to a stream of each act.

[Kotowboy]

I bet the eyes do nothing and are not actually clickable after all.

The Astonishing prank.

[RoeDent]

I bet the eyes do nothing and are not actually clickable after all.

Well someone on the website design team should make those buttons non-clickable then. Do they even know that the "hand" pointer appears when you hover over the red buttons? It's not my biggest concern, what they are for, but it's a huge red herring to have those buttons clickable for months and then find that they'll never take you anywhere.

[paulstfu]

I'm curious which song title is the most accurate for The Astonishing, is it "The Best of Times" or "A Nightmare to Remember"?

I'll probably check it out, but got other albums higher on the priority and a lot of work related things at the moment.

The Great Debate

[Train of Naught]

I'm curious which song title is the most accurate for The Astonishing, is it "The Best of Times" or "A Nightmare to Remember"?

I'll probably check it out, but got other albums higher on the priority and a lot of work related things at the moment.

I'm gonna go with Slipknot's 'Disasterpiece'

[Pragmaticcircus]

A Disastrous Turn Of Events?? 

[MirrorMask]

At this point I'm anticipating finding out what the clickable eyes of the NOMACS do more than listening to the album.

Haha, something to ask to DT in future interviews.

Meanwhile on FB...... Petruci trolls us all showing off his copy of The Astonishing 

[pdurbin22]

I intend on TA being the first DT album I don't listen to the leak/free stream before release since 8vm. Glad I stuck to it.   

Same here - well, since SC for me anyway. Cannot believe that at midnight on Thursday I'll be listening to 120 minutes of new Dream Theater music for the first time (plus the 10 minutes we've all heard already).