*Official* The Astonishing discussion thread

[bosk1]

Anyone else waiting patiently for Nicky Spanjaards to cover a song off The Astonishing?

Who?

Starlord.

[oceanic156]

I feel like I've had enough listens to The Astonishing now to be able to judge it and consider it in the context of DT's discography.

As a piece of music, I really think this is the most impressive thing they've ever composed. Very consistent, very beautiful, deceptively complex.

As for the album's storytelling... I think it's mediocre. The lyrics and pacing are a little clumsy and occasionally amateurish. For me, that's really not a big deal- I honestly find it refreshing that it's not a self-serious 'dark' or 'gritty' story. I wonder if it could have been improved had they brought in someone else to storyboard JP's idea, although that might have had other negative consequences.

Taken as a whole, I'd now put this in my top 3 DT albums, and as a concept album I enjoy this more than SFAM. Awake and I&W are still the top 2 for now.

I find something to enjoy in every song on the record, but there are a few moments that jar with me:

- The crying at the beginning of Losing Faythe. I like the song, but that stock sample (or whatever it is) sucks.
- The 'children laughing' sample during Act of Faythe. Something about it is really out-of-place and off-putting.
- The BCYHM? melody. It's not bad, it just strikes me as bland and kind of hamfisted.
- The placement of 'Begin Again'. It's a decent song, but has more mundane, unnecessary lyrics about 'new beginnings' and throws the record's pacing in the 2nd act.
- Fading out one of JP's finest ever solos in A New Beginning. Why?
- The closing track (Astonishing) is just.... OK. Feels a little too sluggish, kind of a disappointing closer for me.

But beyond that.... this is really, REALLY good music. With a bit of editing and some better lyrics this would be one of my all-time favorites. As it is, it's still something I thoroughly enjoy listening to.

[Thematt202]

My 15 month old daughter headbangs to the start of Dystopian Overture with a massive grin on her face.   Every time!

Can you please get this on video?!

I'll see what I can do!

[dparrott]

This tour might do JLB's voice in for good.  At least in the past there have been long instrumental breaks.

[kaos2900]

After listening to this a crap ton over the past 2 weeks I'm going to not touch it the next week or 2 and give it a few more spins.

[ResultsMayVary]

Anyone else waiting patiently for Nicky Spanjaards to cover a song off The Astonishing?

Who?

Starlord.

Starlord, man. Legendary outlaw? Guys?

[Peter Mc]

This tour might do JLB's voice in for good.  At least in the past there have been long instrumental breaks.

I'm not so sure, it's going to be just over a 2 hour show which is fairly standard for a lot of established bands and he has an intermission in the middle to recover which is unusual. There's also still quite a lot of non-singing parts apart from the two overtures and NOMAC tracks. Lots of orchestration and piano moments with no singing. Even something like Heavens Cove has a fairly lengthy instrumental intro. We'll soon see though, I'll be there on Thursday night.

[TH1RT3EN]

Anyone else waiting patiently for Nicky Spanjaards to cover a song off The Astonishing?

Who?

Starlord.

What an awesome reply

[RoeDent]

This tour might do JLB's voice in for good.  At least in the past there have been long instrumental breaks.

I'm not so sure, it's going to be just over a 2 hour show which is fairly standard for a lot of established bands and he has an intermission in the middle to recover which is unusual. There's also still quite a lot of non-singing parts apart from the two overtures and NOMAC tracks. Lots of orchestration and piano moments with no singing. Even something like Heavens Cove has a fairly lengthy instrumental intro. We'll soon see though, I'll be there on Thursday night.

Lots of the songs have instrumental intros well over a minute long (eg. ASITS, BCYMH, ALLB). That's plenty of time for JLB to run backstage and have a quick swig of whatever he swigs on during concerts.

[mike099]

This tour might do JLB's voice in for good.  At least in the past there have been long instrumental breaks.

I'm not so sure, it's going to be just over a 2 hour show which is fairly standard for a lot of established bands and he has an intermission in the middle to recover which is unusual. There's also still quite a lot of non-singing parts apart from the two overtures and NOMAC tracks. Lots of orchestration and piano moments with no singing. Even something like Heavens Cove has a fairly lengthy instrumental intro. We'll soon see though, I'll be there on Thursday night.

I am waiting for the first live show fan reviews on Thursday.  Have a great time!!

[Kotowboy]

This tour might do JLB's voice in for good.  At least in the past there have been long instrumental breaks.

I'm not so sure, it's going to be just over a 2 hour show which is fairly standard for a lot of established bands and he has an intermission in the middle to recover which is unusual. There's also still quite a lot of non-singing parts apart from the two overtures and NOMAC tracks. Lots of orchestration and piano moments with no singing. Even something like Heavens Cove has a fairly lengthy instrumental intro. We'll soon see though, I'll be there on Thursday night.

Lots of the songs have instrumental intros well over a minute long (eg. ASITS, BCYMH, ALLB). That's plenty of time for JLB to run backstage and have a quick swig of whatever he swigs on during concerts.

Hot water & honey I believe.

[Prog Snob]

My 5-year-old son started singing along to "bow down to Nafaryus" while it was playing in the car.

My life is complete.

I've been there. My five-year-old daughter has asked for Wither and Bridges in the Sky. Most recently she was asking for Untouchable by Anathema.

[KevShmev]

Anyone else waiting patiently for Nicky Spanjaards to cover a song off The Astonishing?

Who?

Just googled him.  I will ask again: who??

[Prog Snob]

I think he was a former forum member who did vocal covers.

[Adami]

Anyone else waiting patiently for Nicky Spanjaards to cover a song off The Astonishing?

Who?

Just googled him.  I will ask again: who??

https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=16692.0

[theanalogkid7]

I had forgotten about Nicky Spanjaards.... thank you Tick.

[Lucien]

So I'll treat them all to sonic ecstasy... BUM. BUM BUM. budududududuududud BUM. BUM BUM BUM.

absolutely love that moment

[Scorpion]

So I think my cut down version of this album sits comfortably in the top half of their discography for me (not quite sure where), and that's not a bad place to be.

That said, I still think that the full album is too ponderous and the story is too cheesy and predictable to make me listen to songs that I don't really dig for the sake of keeping the story intact.

My cut version is sitting a comfortable 4/5 for me, while the whole thing is a low 3/5 I'd say.

[genome]

[Enigmachine]

No. There isn't actually much resemblance there.

[Dream Team]

So I'll treat them all to sonic ecstasy... BUM. BUM BUM. budududududuududud BUM. BUM BUM BUM.

absolutely love that moment

I was thinking about this. I assume WYTHC is the song he sings publicly in front of Nafaryus? If so, it seems underwhelming to me. I think a different song should have been used to blow Nafaryus away. Maybe I'm misinterpreting the scene.

[genome]

I like the bit in TPTD, before the big riff.

IT'S
NOT
TOO LATE

I
WON'T
BETRAY
HIIIIM

And the sub bass kicks in on the "him". It shakes my house.

[Enigmachine]

So I'll treat them all to sonic ecstasy... BUM. BUM BUM. budududududuududud BUM. BUM BUM BUM.

absolutely love that moment

I was thinking about this. I assume WYTHC is the song he sings publicly in front of Nafaryus? If so, it seems underwhelming to me. I think a different song should have been used to blow Nafaryus away. Maybe I'm misinterpreting the scene.

I think the intention wasn't to 'blow him away' as such. WYTHC works as something to bring out the emotion in Nafaryus ('notably moved by Gabriel's song') rather than to impress him.

[ariich]

So I'll treat them all to sonic ecstasy... BUM. BUM BUM. budududududuududud BUM. BUM BUM BUM.

absolutely love that moment

I was thinking about this. I assume WYTHC is the song he sings publicly in front of Nafaryus? If so, it seems underwhelming to me. I think a different song should have been used to blow Nafaryus away. Maybe I'm misinterpreting the scene.

I think the intention wasn't to 'blow him away' as such. WYTHC works as something to bring out the emotion in Nafaryus ('notably moved by Gabriel’s song') rather than to impress him.

Yeah exactly. And it's a really nice song.

[mikemangioy]

Besides, the people in the story haven't heard anything, except NOMAC stuff.
(Yeah Nafaryus had the iPod when he was a child, but maybe hasn't listened to the stuff that's in it since he was crowned, so the song might even bring back some memories to him from his childhood, moving him even more.)

[Crow]

i've listened to this like... 7 times in total? and i don't think i'm going to be interested enough to come back much more than that. it's a decent album but an exhausting listen that i don't think is quite worth the time it takes to sit through, even if you break it in half

[DarkLord_Lalinc]

Mike Portnoy / Nafaryus was more striking.

More dramatic.

More real.

[rab7]

Besides, the people in the story haven't heard anything, except NOMAC stuff.
(Yeah Nafaryus had the iPod when he was a child, but maybe hasn't listened to the stuff that's in it since he was crowned, so the song might even bring back some memories to him from his childhood, moving him even more.)

I had a theory that the entire DT Discography was on that ipod, including The Astonishing, so Nafaryus was definitely reminded of this exact song.

[MirrorMask]

Well, but there's no hint whatsoever that it could be the case, and it doesn't make much sense to have an album from the past that talks about what would happen to those characters.

I second mikemangioy's point of view, the point is not When Your Time Has Come vs. today's music, the point is that people never heard any kind of music AT ALL, so the contrast and the emotion was overwhelming.

[Kotowboy]

[rumborak]

I second mikemangioy's point of view, the point is not When Your Time Has Come vs. today's music, the point is that people never heard any kind of music AT ALL, so the contrast and the emotion was overwhelming.

While I agree that that notion is portrayed in some parts of the story, I feel the lyrics of TGOM paint a different picture. "People just don't have the time for music any more.
And no one seems to care" is not something you say when people have never heard music. Similarly, it's hard to believe that the while population is unaware of the existence of music when the whole royal household has been growing up with music players and Gabriel randomly finds a functioning (!) guitar.

[Enigmachine]

While I agree that that notion is portrayed in some parts of the story, I feel the lyrics of TGOM paint a different picture. "People just don't have the time for music any more.
And no one seems to care" is not something you say when people have never heard music. Similarly, it's hard to believe that the while population is unaware of the existence of music when the whole royal household has been growing up with music players and Gabriel randomly finds a functioning (!) guitar.

I think that implies that people weren't taking notice of the music and made do with the NOMAC sounds, so they were entranced when it was just Gabriel, with a guitar, singing with no distractions and realised what they were missing.

[DarkLord_Lalinc]

I second mikemangioy's point of view, the point is not When Your Time Has Come vs. today's music, the point is that people never heard any kind of music AT ALL, so the contrast and the emotion was overwhelming.

While I agree that that notion is portrayed in some parts of the story, I feel the lyrics of TGOM paint a different picture. "People just don't have the time for music any more.
And no one seems to care" is not something you say when people have never heard music. Similarly, it's hard to believe that the while population is unaware of the existence of music when the whole royal household has been growing up with music players and Gabriel randomly finds a functioning (!) guitar.

You're looking way too much into that.

[TheOutlawXanadu]

If the internet has taught me anything, it's that virtually all fantasy/science fiction stories have, at least, something resembling a plot hole, as hilariously pointed out by the "How It Should Have Ended" video series on YouTube. That kind of thing doesn't bother me at all anymore.

[CoT67]

So I'll treat them all to sonic ecstasy... BUM. BUM BUM. budududududuududud BUM. BUM BUM BUM.

absolutely love that moment

I was thinking about this. I assume WYTHC is the song he sings publicly in front of Nafaryus? If so, it seems underwhelming to me. I think a different song should have been used to blow Nafaryus away. Maybe I'm misinterpreting the scene.

Well he could have just played Dance of Eternity if he wanted to impress him... that is if he could pull it off with a beaten up acoustic and his voice  to imitate the beatbox cover guy