*Official* The Astonishing discussion thread

[SebastianPratesi]

When BC&SL and DT12 were released, it took me a week to get a copy where I live (I wasn't waiting for ADTOE, so I don't know how early it was available here). 'First World Problems', I guess

So, on the 30th of last month I entered a record store I frequently visit, and happened to stumble upon 3 copies of the album. Such a nice surprise!

[AlanCheung]

Hi everyone!
This is my first post here :-)
Here's my solo cover video from the new album The Astonishing, check it out!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvuiVKc2A6A

[RoeDent]

I think this has come up before, and folks have floated the theory that it's a misprint -- it's meant to be Arhys, and it's the spoken lines at the beginning of "A Better Life."

That makes much more sense.

[Calvin6s]

Hi everyone!
This is my first post here :-)
Here's my solo cover video from the new album The Astonishing, check it out!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvuiVKc2A6A

Nice job.

[Peter Mc]

Has anyone drastically changed their opinion either negative or positive with multiple spins under the belt?

My only change really is that I was a little disappointed in Act 2 originally, I remember saying that, if there was no Act 1 and Act 2 on it's own was the new DT album, I would be pretty disappointed.  I now love Act 2, it's possibly overtaken the first disc for me.

[Prog Snob]

Has anyone drastically changed their opinion either negative or positive with multiple spins under the belt?

Yes. While the first few spins left me a bit underwhelmed, I'm now finding it to be an amazing album. The lyrics are still a bit mediocre at certain points, but the orchestration is brilliant.

[cramx3]

Has anyone drastically changed their opinion either negative or positive with multiple spins under the belt?

Yes. While the first few spins left me a bit underwhelmed, I'm now finding it to be an amazing album. The lyrics are still a bit mediocre at certain points, but the orchestration is brilliant.

Essentially this.  The more listens, the more I enjoy it.  Although I think I might have reached my point of where I totally get it and am no longer enjoying it more on each listen, but it certainly took awhile to get here.

[Prog Snob]

Has anyone drastically changed their opinion either negative or positive with multiple spins under the belt?

Yes. While the first few spins left me a bit underwhelmed, I'm now finding it to be an amazing album. The lyrics are still a bit mediocre at certain points, but the orchestration is brilliant.

Essentially this.  The more listens, the more I enjoy it.  Although I think I might have reached my point of where I totally get it and am no longer enjoying it more on each listen, but it certainly took awhile to get here.

I had said earlier that I don't think it'll crack my Top 5. ADTOE is at number five and to me the sounds on that remind me of Images and Words so it'll be hard to pass that. The Astonishing could wind up right after it. 

[wolven74]

I love this album, but I'm to the point where I get the story, so now I can skip tracks. When I get to that stage, I can appreciate more songs. Songs like Heaven's Cove, Begin Again were kinda background tracks for me. They filled in the story, but otherwise they really didn't stand out. Now, there are parts of both songs that grab me. I'm curious what the beginning of Heaven's Cove is, story wise. Is it just outdoor atmosphere noises? I also really dig the ending groove of Beginning again. I thought that song was really kinda a bummer, being slower. Then the upbeat faster ending came in, and I thought: That's what this song needs. Beginning again seems more upbeat than a slow song indicates.

[DreamerTV]

seriously, how great is Dystopian Overture?

It's fucking glorious.

[hefdaddy42]

seriously, how great is Dystopian Overture?

It's fucking glorious.

Yeah, it's pretty top notch.

[SebastianPratesi]

I'm curious what the beginning of Heaven's Cove is, story wise. Is it just outdoor atmosphere noises?

Pretty much, I assume. Heaven's Cove is a sort of open-air amphiteater, and the track takes place at the start of that dramatic night (before any character arrives). You can hear some insect sounds, and some wind (I guess those few metallic sounds are produced by the effect of the wind over some objects). At 0:17/0:18 I hear another short metallic sound which I'd say is a NOMAC watching the place (because there's a similar NOMAC sound at the beginning of "The Path That Divides").

On the topic of "Heaven's Cove": any of you could explain why "Begin Again" comes in between "Heaven's Cove" and "The Path That Divides"? Because it doesn't make sense to me: according to the booklet, "Begin Again" takes place over the day, at the Emperor's Palace, but "Cove" and "Path" are at night in the amphitheater. Any theories?

[DarkLord_Lalinc]

seriously, how great is Dystopian Overture?

It's fucking glorious.

Yeah, it's pretty top notch.

It's their best overture since Scenes. Easy.

[Lax]

On the topic of "Heaven's Cove": any of you could explain why "Begin Again" comes in between "Heaven's Cove" and "The Path That Divides"? Because it doesn't make sense to me: according to the booklet, "Begin Again" takes place over the day, at the Emperor's Palace, but "Cove" and "Path" are at night in the amphitheater. Any theories?

I swapped them in my playlist because I currently listen A LOT to heaven's cove + the path that divides + walking shadow + my last farewell, but I don't skip begin again because of the christmas theme that I like

My theory is that maybe you have to alternate emotions in the opera, avoiding two/three stressfull songs back to back.

[erwinrafael]

Mangini's latest FB post:

"I'm happy to see a huge number of new people coming to this page via the new likes since this tour started. It means you really get the magnitude of what we're doing combining the album with the show and given all the obvious risks, especially when a fan has not actually heard, or should I say felt us play this live. I can tell the acoustics and smallest details of the drums are being heard given the design of the venues. That's really awesome !! Given mostly drummers "like" drummers pages, that's usually the foundation of my posts. 3 nights here in Amsterdam. Fun. Looking forward to all the cities we'll hit this year. And yes, we clearly want to visit places not yet booked. Us band guys do not do the booking. We know that people feel personally snubbed... please don't. We WANT to go everywhere, but it does not sometimes work out that the touring organization can feasibly do it. This is a massive production the likes of any arena act and we're only playing for 1/4 of the people of an arena in these venues suited for our show. It is not easy to work that out."

[Cyclopssss]

You guys HAVE to go see this show live if you get the opportunity. It's easily the best concert experience I've ever encountered in my entire life. So glad I decided to buy a ticket and its SO worth the money.

Its a total sensory experience.

[Gappie]

seriously, how great is Dystopian Overture?

It's fucking glorious.

Yeah, it's pretty top notch.

I saw them perform the song live two days ago. Wow, very very good. A little bit slower than the album version but spot on.

[Logain Ablar]

I saw them perform the song live two days ago. Wow, very very good. A little bit slower than the album version but spot on.

It might have seemed slower, seeing it live, but I wouldn't think the tempo would be different if they were syncing to a backing track for all the orchestral bits and pieces.

[BlobVanDam]

Yep, they're using the studio tempos for the entire show to keep the video/light show synced. Studio tempos don't always translate with the same energy live.

[Kotowboy]

I imagine the show would last over 130 actual minutes since they'd have pauses between songs i'd imagine ?

[Peter Mc]

Not really any pauses that I remember apart from intermission obviously.  No between song banter from JLB, at least not on opening night.

[Cyclopssss]

There are some short pauzes between songs, for instance when JP changes guitars or to accoustic. Other then the occasional 'Are you with us?' or "are you ready?' from James, there's no banter.

[ariich]

I imagine the show would last over 130 actual minutes since they'd have pauses between songs i'd imagine ?

It is longer, yeah. Firstly for pauses between songs, secondly for the slightly extended ending for AND, and also for the introduction before Descent, which lasts a couple of minutes.

[keys76]

Spoke to JP after last night gig in Amsterdam and he told me a somewhat dramatic story about the recordings. They intended to have the Nomacs parts shorter than they turned out to be. So after mastering he received a call where he was told that Act 1 wouldn't fit on one disc. Since everything with regards to artwork and tracklists were already published they had to make a hard decision to cut the guitar solo of New Beginning. That's why it fades out. Originally the solo lasted 3 to 4 minutes longer!
But.......during the live shows you will witness the full guitarsolo how it was intented to be. Hands down one of the most beautiful solos ever.

Thoughtt you might like this info.

[bosk1]

Spoke to JP after last night gig in Amsterdam and he told me a somewhat dramatic story about the recordings. They intended to have the Nomacs parts shorter than they turned out to be. So after mastering he received a call where he was told that Act 1 wouldn't fit on one disc. Since everything with regards to artwork and tracklists were already published they had to make a hard decision to cut the guitar solo of New Beginning. That's why it fades out. Originally the solo lasted 3 to 4 minutes longer!
But.......during the live shows you will witness the full guitarsolo how it was intented to be. Hands down one of the most beautiful solos ever.

Thoughtt you might like this info.

Oh, wow.  Cool info.  Funny how little logistical SNAFU's like that can end up influencing the final product, and most of the time, the public would have no clue about why it ended up the way it did.

[genome]

Spoke to JP after last night gig in Amsterdam and he told me a somewhat dramatic story about the recordings. They intended to have the Nomacs parts shorter than they turned out to be. So after mastering he received a call where he was told that Act 1 wouldn't fit on one disc. Since everything with regards to artwork and tracklists were already published they had to make a hard decision to cut the guitar solo of New Beginning. That's why it fades out. Originally the solo lasted 3 to 4 minutes longer!
But.......during the live shows you will witness the full guitarsolo how it was intented to be. Hands down one of the most beautiful solos ever.

Thoughtt you might like this info.

Nice! Thanks for sharing. It was great live, on Friday it got a big standing ovation.

[MirrorMask]

Even if the tracklist wasn't already published, I guess the format of the story would have doomed them anyway... it would have made no sense to have The Road to Revolution as opener of the second disc for example.

Didn't Metalica have to cut out the last minute of Load for example? the live version of A New Beginning will go down as the "uncut" version hehe!

[Logain Ablar]

Spoke to JP after last night gig in Amsterdam and he told me a somewhat dramatic story about the recordings. They intended to have the Nomacs parts shorter than they turned out to be.

Cool little nugget. When you say they intended to have the nomacs parts shorter, does that mean they extended them on purpose? Not sure I understand that bit. 

[MirrorMask]

He probably meant longer.

[Logain Ablar]

He probably meant longer.

That's what I was thinking. If they were originally longer and had to be trimmed back to fit..

[bosk1]

Spoke to JP after last night gig in Amsterdam and he told me a somewhat dramatic story about the recordings. They intended to have the Nomacs parts shorter than they turned out to be.

Cool little nugget. When you say they intended to have the nomacs parts shorter, does that mean they extended them on purpose? Not sure I understand that bit. 

I took it the opposite of how you did.  I understood him to mean that they were originally planned to be shorter such that everything intended to be on disk 1 would have fit.  But once all the sounds were mixed and finalized, those NOMAC tracks ended up being a bit longer than he thought they would have been, which messed everything up. 

If that is the case, yeah, they could theoretically have re-recorded the NOMAC tracks.  But if it was very late in the production process, even doing that could have caused a chain reaction in the process that could have ended up bumping the release date, which they did not want to do given the shows planned.  It was probably much easier to take an existing song that is already mixed and mastered and fade out the ending.

[Kotowboy]

Even if the tracklist wasn't already published, I guess the format of the story would have doomed them anyway... it would have made no sense to have The Road to Revolution as opener of the second disc for example.

Didn't Metalica have to cut out the last minute of Load for example? the live version of A New Beginning will go down as the "uncut" version hehe!

Yes. Hence " The Outlaw Torn ( Unencumbered by manufacturing restrictions ) " version .

[Logain Ablar]

I took it the opposite of how you did.  I understood him to mean that they were originally planned to be shorter such that everything intended to be on disk 1 would have fit.  But once all the sounds were mixed and finalized, those NOMAC tracks ended up being a bit longer than he thought they would have been, which messed everything up. 

If that is the case, yeah, they could theoretically have re-recorded the NOMAC tracks.  But if it was very late in the production process, even doing that could have caused a chain reaction in the process that could have ended up bumping the release date, which they did not want to do given the shows planned.  It was probably much easier to take an existing song that is already mixed and mastered and fade out the ending.

Ah right - I get you. So perhaps a 3rd party was involved in generating the nomac sounds, and when they came back they were longer than expected, so something else had to give.  Makes perfect sense

[bosk1]

I'm not sure it was a third party.  I think it was all Jordan.  But those NOMAC sounds consist of several different tracks of Jordan playing a bunch of different sounds.  I imagine it wasn't really clear exactly how long they would be until whoever was in charge of mixing them mixed all the various tracks together to produce the final version of each of those.

[Logain Ablar]

So it's Jordan's fault that a perfectly good guitar solo got faded out, is that what we're saying? Tut tut.