These Walls Appreciation Thread

[TheOutlawXanadu]

The other day, These Walls came up on a playlist, and I was floored by how awesome of a song it is. It's one of those tracks that I don't listen to often as it's not a "classic", so to speak, so it always sounds fresh. It's also one of the few Dream Theater songs that most of the people I've played it for have really enjoyed, so I think it's got some mass appeal to it as well.

Let's take a moment to appreciate this very underrated song!

[mikeyd23]

Great song, easily one of my favorites from 8V.

[Scottjf8]

Tear down these walls for meeeeeeeeeeee

[MirrorMask]

Great song, easily one of my favorites from 8V.

This.

I like the restraint about the song: no long solos, no flashy stuff, no proggy detours, just their songwriting skills at service of a concise song with a great and emotional chorus. One of their very best "easy" songs.

[goo-goo]

Probably in my top 5 DT songs. I love the Gilmouresque solo. I wish Petrucci played more solos in this vein where less notes is more. But overall, the lyrics, the music, make it a great song.

[Kotowboy]

Really nice wide production too.

[Adami]

Good song.


Really good song.

[gzarruk]

Great song, easily one of my favorites from 8V.

Indeed.

[Dublagent66]

Always liked it.  Been a while.  See what you made me do?  Had to go listen to it.   

[Madman Shepherd]

I loved that they pulled the song out on the ADTOE tour.  Never really appreciated it before.  Great live tune. 

[Kotowboy]

The coda with the orchestra hits is GOLD.

[TheCountOfNYC]

One of the best from 8vm. It's so underrated.

[erwinrafael]

Probably in my top 5 DT songs. I love the Gilmouresque solo. I wish Petrucci played more solos in this vein where less notes is more.

Like The Bigger Picture.

[nikatapi]

One of my favorite songs from DT. Rudess and Portnoy really do some great stuff there.

[rumborak]

I loved playing that song live. The main riff was simple but so enjoyable to play.

[SeRoX]

One of my fav. Love the live version.

[JaceTestify]

Song that got me into drumming...

[wolfking]

It could be a top 10 DT song for me, love it, perfect.

[pcs90]

Agreed, it really is a great song. What's really great is even though it's simple and restrained, there's still a lot of little details to listen to.

[Nick]

Aside from the title track of Octavarium, which I still feel is the band's best song, this is the only other song from the album I'd rate as truly excellent. It had both immediate grab and staying power. And while the other tracks from the album always had at least one or two nagging problems I've never felt anything negative about this track.

[bosk1]

I loved playing that song live. The main riff was simple but so enjoyable to play.

How did you guys play it?  Did you have a baritone guitar, or did you just have one that was de-tuned, or what?

[Adami]

I loved playing that song live. The main riff was simple but so enjoyable to play.

How did you guys play it?  Did you have a baritone guitar, or did you just have one that was de-tuned, or what?

He simply looks at his guitar and says "I am Rumborak. You will bow to my wishes" and the guitar generally takes care of the rest.

[bosk1]

Makes sense.

[Adami]

Makes sense.

Which explains how he can play songs in drop D, standard C and 7 string stuff on a 6 string Petrucci (without tuning it) which, when he bought it, was just a squire strat.

[rumborak]

Axe-FX (my effects unit) to the rescue on that one actually. I seriously used the detune functionality, playing the whole tune downtuned. You have to be a bit more precise than usual to make it not become mush, but luckily that wasn't too bad for These Walls.

Same thing for SOC btw, which I also played detuned, by a half step.

[JLa]

Always loved this song, instant favourite when Octavarium was released. Had to go listen to it again now - flawless as always. MP's drumming is magnificent on this, but all band members shine, really. They even found room for a guitar solo, who would have guessed that?! 

Octavarium was the last DT album I truly loved. These Walls played a strong part in that.

[bosk1]

Axe-FX (my effects unit) to the rescue on that one actually. I seriously used the detune functionality, playing the whole tune downtuned. You have to be a bit more precise than usual to make it not become mush, but luckily that wasn't too bad for These Walls.

Same thing for SOC btw, which I also played detuned, by a half step.

Oh, okay.  I have often wondered why, for practical reasons, guitar players don't do that more often.  I mean, it seems to me that the technology is there for it to make sense.  But hardly anyone uses that approach.  But not being much of a guitar player myself (and not being up on gear, beyond guitar, amp, and simple effects), I don't know what the limitations are.  Pretty cool that that's how you did it.

[rumborak]

Honestly, I think it's a combination of misplaced pride ("I won't pollute my signal path with this digital trickery!") and ineptitude with their own equipment. I always got a kick out of the disappointment in guitarist's eyes when they asked me after a gig about my equipment (because they liked the guitar sound), only to be told that it was 100% digital

[Mosh]

JP's guitar sound is so processed that a digital signal doesn't really make a difference IMO.

I play songs like These Walls on a 7 string tuned down. Makes way more sense to put it down a whole step than to have a regular guitar modified IMO.

[TAC]

I need Google Translate's Guitar to English function just to get through this damn page.

[JaceTestify]

Always loved this song, instant favourite when Octavarium was released. Had to go listen to it again now - flawless as always. MP's drumming is magnificent on this, but all band members shine, really. They even found room for a guitar solo, who would have guessed that?! 

Octavarium was the last DT album I truly loved. These Walls played a strong part in that.

Agreed

[YtseJamittaja]

Here's a piano version I made couple of years ago, still one of my favorite songs from Octavarium and top10 song from the whole catalog
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHWzSomkHgM

[MirrorMask]

That's quite good!

[WDADU]

I think this is my favourite song off Octavarium. Heavy, melodic, no flashy unisons, etc. Just a straight-up rock song. And Portnoy shines all throughout. One of Mike's best performances, in my opinion.

[pcs90]

Here's a piano version I made couple of years ago, still one of my favorite songs from Octavarium and top10 song from the whole catalog
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHWzSomkHgM

Would love to have a MIDI file of the piano to sequence it with nicer sounds and maybe make a full piano arrangement...with this slower style I think it could work really well.