Dream Theater's "The Astonishing" - What We Know So Far

[Enigmachine]

To take a page from robwebster's way of doing things, I will try and compile all of the known info about the new album at the moment.

(MOD EDIT: This thread is for facts, not for speculation or other non-helpful posting.  Use this thread for that.)


Album Artwork - Revealed on the 1st of December.





Listening Parties

Norway - 14th of January

Italy - 18th of January

France - 20th of January (in collaboration with the Your Majesty forum)


Reviews

Metal Hammer


Website

The album title was officially confirmed as "The Astonishing" in a post on Facebook and Twitter on the 2nd of November, 2015.


The tracklist, along with other details (including characters, a map, videos and NOMACS as well as 'Places' which is currently locked) is currently being slowly revealed on the offcial album website, unveiled on the 5th of November.

Characters -
Emperor Nafaryus (The Great Northern Empire of the Americas)


Arhys (Ravenskill Rebel Militia) - Revealed on the 23rd of November.


Gabriel (Ravenskill Rebel Militia) - Revealed on the 27th of November.


Evangeline (Ravenskill Rebel Militia) - Revealed on the 7th of December.


Empress Arabelle (The Great Northern Empire of the Americas) - Revealed on the 14th of December.


Daryus (The Great Northern Empire of the Americas) - Revealed on the 22nd of December.


Faythe (The Great Northern Empire of the Americas) - Revealed on the 28th of December.


Xander (Ravenskill Rebel Militia) - Revealed on the 11th of January.


Map -

Discernible Locations -
Upper Far-Left (The Northern Highlands, The Vanishing Forest, Silver Head Mountains)
Middle Left (Endless Isleland, New Maineland, Victory Isleland, Upper Yorke Bay, New Pavonya) - Revealed on the 23rd of November.
Lower Far-Left (Yorkeland, Empress Alley, Crooked Lake, Bullhead Corners, Borderland) - Revealed on the 27th of November.
Upper Far-Right (North Point, Idlehaven, Great Northern Sound, Ravenskill) - Revealed on the 7th of December.
Upper Far-Left (Widow's Peak, The Grand Highway, New Anglya) - Revealed on the 14th of December.
Lower Left (Flat Rock, Sandy Creek, Lower Yorke Bay) - Revealed on the 22nd of December.
Upper Left (The Cave Notch, Prayer Rock Ridge, Withered Hills, Perpetual View, Fort Truth, The Black Plains, Stone Bridge Hollow, Little Eagle Way, Common Highway) - Revealed on the 28th of December.
Lower Far-Right (No Locations) - Revealed on the 11th of January.

Tracklist -

Act I

    1. Descent of the NOMACS
    2. Dystopian Overture
    3. The Gift of Music - 4:07
    4. The Answer
    5. A Better Life
    6. Lord Nafaryus
    7. A Savior in the Square
    8. When Your Time Has Come
    9. Act of Faythe
    10. Three Days
    11. The Hovering Sojourn
    12. Brother, Can You Hear Me?
    13. A Life Left Behind
    14. Ravenskill
    15. Chosen
    16. A Tempting Offer
    17. Digital Discord
    18. The X Aspect
    19. A New Beginning
    20. The Road to Revolution

Act II

    1. 2285 Entr'acte
    2. Moment of Betrayal
    3. Heaven's Cove
    4. Begin Again
    5. The Path That Divides
    6. Machine Chatter
    7. The Walking Shadow
    8. My Last Farewell
    9. Losing Faythe
    10. Whispers on the Wind
    11. Hymn of a Thousand Voices
    12. Our New World
    13. Power Down
    14. Astonishing

Act I: Tracks 1 - 5 revealed on the 5th of November, Tracks 6 - 11 revealed on the 9th of November, Tracks 12 - 17 (dividing the columns) revealed on the 12th of November, Tracks 18 - 20 revealed on the 16th of November.
Act II: Tracks 1 - 3 revealed on the 16th of November, Tracks 4 - 14 revealed on the 23rd of November.

Videos -

Album Trailer - Revealed on the 11th of January.


Confirmed Personnel

Dream Theater -

    James LaBrie – lead vocals
    John Petrucci – guitar
    Jordan Rudess – keyboards
    John Myung – bass
    Mike Mangini – drums, percussion

Guests-

    David Campbell – Orchestrations
    Eric Rigler – Bagpipes

Production -

    Jie Ma – artwork (Found on https://www.behance.net/jiema37)
    Richard Chycki – Engineering and Mixing


Release Date

January 29th release date confirmed.


Label

Roadrunner Records


Recording Schedule

Dream Theater enter the studio in February, with initial plans to release the album in the Fall.

Recording broken up by 30th anniversary tour in June + Delay to early 2016.

James LaBrie begins recording vocals on the 6th of August.

Recording ends on the 25th of September.

Mixing process begins on the 13th of October.

Mixing process close to end on the 29th of November.

Mastering comes to an end on the 10th of December.


Interviews

Rolling Stone Interview with 'The Gift of Music' debut.
-Jan 29th release date.
-Recurring Themes with atypical song structures.
-David Campbell collaboration bringing a full orchestra and multiple choirs as well as some unorthodox instruments.
-Process took about two and a half years with a year to finish the story.
-Length around two hours and ten minutes.
-Campbell often elaborated beyond simple orchestrations as in 'The Answer'.
-James Labrie plays seven different characters.
-New characters, Faythe and Arabelle mentioned.
-Elaborate stage show.


Additional Info / Confirmed by noxon

-Eric Rigler plays Bagpipes on the album.
-There will be a Tango Part.
-NOMAC tracks are rhythmical noise.
-Track length will be shorter and will be similar to albums like 'The Wall' and 'Tommy' (as well as the general approach).
-More vocally driven.
-Track lengths are visibly shown as .
-Piano and orchestrations will have more prominance than usual.
-Akin to Falling into Infinity, Scenes from a Memory, Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence and Octavarium mixed together.
-Act of Faythe is a ballad.
-Less technical and more melodic than usual.


Pre-Order Info

https://www.dreamtheater.net/preorder
-Digital Album
-Standard 2 CD Set
-Limited Edition Deluxe Box Set
-Vinyl Box Set
-Ultimate Bundle


Other Updates

August 3rd
Jordan Rudess "Fans Will Find What We Have Been Working On Interesting".

September 4th
John Petrucci "This new album is definitely not like anything else we've done before" (To Rich Wilson). - (https://www.reddit.com/r/Dreamtheater/comments/3ka7e8/the_prog_interview_john_petrucci_some_info_on_new/ for those who don't want to sign up to the site)

September 17th
John Petrucci "The new album will be a further progression of the band's creative identity" (To Revolver Magazine).

October 23rd
The Great Northern Empire vs The Ravenskill Rebel Militia page.

November 2nd
Faction Emails from Commander Arhys and Emperor Nafaryus.

November 5th
Twitter accounts from Commander Arhys and Emperor Nafaryus become active and link to the official album website.

November 18th
Email from Arhys with NOMAC blueprints.


Feel free to tell me what I'm missing or edit this post if you can.

[YtseJamittaja]

Thanks to Enigmachine for the facts 

[ori.elias5]

It is much easier now thank you!!

[hefdaddy42]

And let's not get this thread cluttered up with speculation or other non-helpful posting.  Use this thread for that.

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

Was looking for a thread like this, thx! 

[ReaperKK]

Great thread, I don't come to the DT side of things often so it's nice to have all the information all in one area.

[Evermind]

Thanks to Enigmachine for the facts 

Indeed. A very useful thread, thank you Enigmachine.

[taylorimpromptu]

Can we PLEASE limit this thread to updates only and save the conversational dialogue for the other thread?

Mods, can you back me up here?

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

Can we PLEASE limit this thread to updates only and save the conversational dialogue for the other thread?

Mods, can you back me up here?

I agree.

[ariich]

Can we PLEASE limit this thread to updates only and save the conversational dialogue for the other thread?

Mods, can you back me up here?

Absolutely. I have deleted all the crap.

[pcs90]

Very glad someone  created this thread, much easier to follow. Thank you!

[ThatOneGuy2112]

Thank you!

While I appreciate the speculation, (that other thread has become a blast to read through for other reasons too ) we really needed a thread like this to cut the bullshit.

[Enigmachine]

While the map has of course been added, I wonder if it would be worth adding in the names of the places on the map, as there's a good chance they will hold some relevance to the lyrics. From what I can make out with my ageing eyes, so far we can see:

- The Northern Highlands
- Silver Head Mountains
- The Vanishing Forrest (I think..)

Just a thought anyhoo.. 

I've added it. Thanks for the appreciation guys! I felt that while info could be found in the other thread, sometimes you would have to wade through some jokey, irrelevant posts and intense speculation to get to some solid info. While that's fine, I thought that it was a good idea to have a thread that, while it won't always be up to date to the minute, will always consist of reliable and official information.

[jayvee3]

While the map has of course been added, I wonder if it would be worth adding in the names of the places on the map, as there's a good chance they will hold some relevance to the lyrics. From what I can make out with my ageing eyes, so far we can see:

- The Northern Highlands
- Silver Head Mountains
- The Vanishing Forrest (I think..)

Just a thought anyhoo.. 

I've added it. Thanks for the appreciation guys! I felt that while info could be found in the other thread, sometimes you would have to wade through some jokey, irrelevant posts and intense speculation to get to some solid info. While that's fine, I thought that it was a good idea to have a thread that, while it won't always be up to date to the minute, will always consist of reliable and official information.

Awesome mate, love your work on the thread 

[BlobVanDam]

To echo what's already been said, nice work on compiling all of this info! It's very thorough and clearly presented, and quickly cuts through the speculation and rumours directly to confirmed information.

[hefdaddy42]

Pruned a few other posts from the thread.

Again, not a thread for speculation, joke posts, or other silliness/douchebaggery.

[Bertielee]

Yeah, very good job, Enigmachine! And the map grows bigger when clicking on it!

B.Lee

[CDrice]

I'm not sure if it's worth adding to your awesome post, but both Emperor Nafaryus and Commander Arhys have twitter accounts. Right now they only have a link to the astonishing website, but maybe they'll become active at some point in the future.

Emperor Nafaryus: https://twitter.com/emperornafaryus
Commander Arhys: https://twitter.com/CommanderArhys

Great thread by the way 

[Enigmachine]

I'm not sure if it's worth adding to your awesome post, but both Emperor Nafaryus and Commander Arhys have twitter accounts. Right now they only have a link to the astonishing website, but maybe they'll become active at some point in the future.

Emperor Nafaryus: https://twitter.com/emperornafaryus
Commander Arhys: https://twitter.com/CommanderArhys

Great thread by the way 

I have added these as well as the emails sent on Nov 2nd. Thanks for reminding me!

I've also removed the TBA sections to clean the post up a bit. I have also added the Sept 4th JP interview with Rich Wilson.

[Enigmachine]

Updated to include the tour announcement and the confirmation of a double album.

[sfam2112]

Could this thread be stickied? Is that a kosher request?

[LCArenas]

Now THIS is something I really like. IIRC the last "What We Know So Far" was stickied in order to avoid unnecessary question threads, maybe they could do the same thing this time?

Thanks, enigmachine!

[BlobVanDam]

Stickied threads are great in theory, unfortunately the second you sticky a thread, nobody notices it anymore.
As long as the thread is still being actively posted in (which it should for now given the official Astonishing site is being updated a couple of times a week), it's probably better off this way for now.

[Rodni Demental]

Stickied threads are great in theory, unfortunately the second you sticky a thread, nobody notices it anymore.

So true  , I couldn't even tell you what the stickied threads are on the main page atm but I could probably name about 4-5 or so threads that have been quite active for last few months. I probably scanned them when I first came here but that's about it...

[Zydar]

I notice threads because it shows that they have new unread posts in them. Doesn't matter to me if they're stickied or not.

[Lucien]

refollowing, since my first post in here was speculative and therefore swiped 

[hefdaddy42]

Could this thread be stickied? Is that a kosher request?

Yes, it is.  But...

Stickied threads are great in theory, unfortunately the second you sticky a thread, nobody notices it anymore.
As long as the thread is still being actively posted in (which it should for now given the official Astonishing site is being updated a couple of times a week), it's probably better off this way for now.

...we'll go with this for now.

[Bertielee]

Other titles for Act I :

18. The X Aspect
19. A New Beginning
20. The Road to Revolution

And beginning of Act II :

1. 2285 Entr'acte
2. Moment of Betrayal
3. Heaven's Cove

I like those titles a lot.

B.Lee

[Enigmachine]

Other titles for Act I :

18. The X Aspect
19. A New Beginning
20. The Road to Revolution

And beginning of Act II :

1. 2285 Entr'acte
2. Moment of Betrayal
3. Heaven's Cove

I like those titles a lot.

B.Lee

Added them. Holy crap there could be 40 tracks on this album with a total time over 150 minutes! 

[Beowulf]

Awesome.  Thanks!

Definitely following this thread.

[Mladen]

20 songs just on first disc alone?

Nobody was even remotely close in the speculation threads. 

[MirrorMask]

Would it be too much long and distracting from the other more concise info to group here also the mails coming from the Empire and the Rebel Militia? as well as their tweets...

[bosk1]

Would it be too much long and distracting from the other more concise info to group here also the mails coming from the Empire and the Rebel Militia? as well as their tweets...

Good idea.  If somebody wants to do that, that would be great.

[Enigmachine]

I added the new Arhys email.

Would it be too much long and distracting from the other more concise info to group here also the mails coming from the Empire and the Rebel Militia? as well as their tweets...

I'm pretty sure I already added it in the 'Other Updates' section. Unless you mean that you want them in a seperate section.

November 2nd
Faction Emails from Commander Arhys and Emperor Nafaryus. - https://view.e.atlanticrecords.com/?j=fe86167873650c7a7c&m=fe9d12707467067e76&ls=fdf515707260057b7c107570&l=ff63107677&s=fe36157571640578711772&jb=ff981576&ju=fe5e177675640d7e7d10&eml=2015November2/2861879/6013233&etsubid=154015432&r=0 / https://view.e.atlanticrecords.com/?j=fe8a167873650c7a70&m=fe9d12707467067e76&ls=fdf515707260057b7c107570&l=ff63107677&s=fe36157571640578711772&jb=ff9c1671&ju=fe5e177675640c757316&eml=2015November2/2861875/6013233&etsubid=154015432&r=0

November 5th
Twitter accounts from Commander Arhys and Emperor Nafaryus become active and link to the official album website. - https://twitter.com/CommanderArhys / https://twitter.com/emperornafaryus

[ZKX-2099]

Why is this thread not pinned?