New Album “Distance Over Time’, First Set of 2019 Tour Dates announced!

[lovethedrake]

I love this song, this is one of the best and most inspired DT tracks in quite some time IMO outside of the obvious Metallica influence. 

I wish the middle section went on for 5 more minutes.  So beautiful .

[Ruba]

I really like the opening riff of FITL, really gets your hopes up but sadly the song doesn't exactly live up to them. It's a way better song than Untethered Angel anyway.

The calm instrumental part is definitely the star of the song. Maybe they should've just taken it, fleshed it out a little and released as an instrumental, like Hell's Kitchen.

Also, JP is apparently using standard-tuned 6-string. No complaints from me.

The middle part kind of reminds me of Metallica Unforgiven, which is not a complaint at all. Its a cool sound.

The opening guitar pattern reminds me of Street Spirit (Fade Out) by Radiohead.

[Pax]

Anyone else cringed at 4:00 section because of parallel octaves between lead guitar and acoustic?  How could educated musicians make such a big harmony related mistake?

Otherwise, I enjoyed most of the song, it has some great progressions (reminding me of Opeth) and is very well written, keeps getting dramatic, and just at the point you think it is going to evolve at something amazing, keyboard solo brings you back to the original mood. Just like with UA, the song had a huge potential, but they chose to overcompress it instead.

[genome]

First impressions... I like it, but the Metallica influence is maybe a little too strong for me. Especially the middle instrumental section... it's good, it felt like a bit of a tribute, in the same way The Looking Glass is to Rush. Don't get me wrong, I love Metallica, but I'd rather DT did their own thing.

The chorus was probably my favourite part, a creative and unique chord progression, really beautiful.

[EPIC Outro]

I love The Astonishing, but FITTL is heavier than that entire album, and that's a good thing. I love this new track! It will slay live.

The lyrics have a very poetic Myung feel. Does anyone know if he did lyrics here?

[IDontNotDoThings]

Anyone else cringed at 4:00 section because of parallel octaves between lead guitar and acoustic?  How could educated musicians make such a big harmony related mistake?

[JLa]

Anyone else cringed at 4:00 section because of parallel octaves between lead guitar and acoustic?  How could educated musicians make such a big harmony related mistake?

Didn't they drop out from Berklee? 

I have a feeling they knew exactly what they were doing in that section, and every other section.  I didn't think anything special there, went back and had another listen now, I have no issues with it. Just out of curiosity, because I don't have a degree in music theory and don't know these things - why do you "cringe" at 4:00? What's so wrong? What do you think they should have done differently?

[Art]

Another cool song, love the riff, love the quieter middle section.

[Zydar]

Does anybody have a clue to the lyrics in the first verse? Found something here that someone's done by ear.

https://genius.com/Dream-theater-fall-into-the-light-lyrics

[Öxölklöfför]

Anyone else cringed at 4:00 section because of parallel octaves between lead guitar and acoustic?  How could educated musicians make such a big harmony related mistake?

Do you mean that they should've made the harmony more "difficult" just because they have the knowledge on how to do it?

Maybe they thought of other harmonies in that section, but chose to go with the octave, because they thought that it served the song better. At least i hope that "serve the song" is a more important focus to them than "let's make a really odd harmony here to show our ability". 

[Fritzinger]

I love The Astonishing, but FITTL is heavier than that entire album, and that's a good thing. I love this new track! It will slay live.

The lyrics have a very poetic Myung feel. Does anyone know if he did lyrics here?

If I recall correctly, yes he did.

[MirrorMask]

Anyone else cringed at 4:00 section because of parallel octaves between lead guitar and acoustic?  How could educated musicians make such a big harmony related mistake?

Didn't they drop out from Berklee? 

[EPIC Outro]

The lyrics have a very poetic Myung feel. Does anyone know if he did lyrics here?

If I recall correctly, yes he did.

Awesome. Glad Myung has been well represented over the last few albums.

[Peter Mc]

First impressions are that this is VERY Metallica influenced but still sounds like DT overall. Vocal melody is a little weak for me but there didn't seem to be much singing in it anyway. Instrumentally, I really liked it, awesome riffs and outstanding drumming and the middle melodic section really worked. The only thing that sounded out of place at times was the keyboards, not sure the 70's style organs work with a modern sounding metal song although JR's solo is pretty good. I also agree with some who've said that it would have been nice to have some vocals in that middle melodic section.

Overall I liked it a lot.

[DreamerTV]

This is just great, and the climax in that middle section is outstanding.

I'm far more enthusiastic about this than the previous one.

[Woodworker1]

What stands out to me is Petrucci's guitar sound; it is the best I have heard in a long time.

[Pax]

Anyone else cringed at 4:00 section because of parallel octaves between lead guitar and acoustic?  How could educated musicians make such a big harmony related mistake?

why do you "cringe" at 4:00? What's so wrong? What do you think they should have done differently?

I'll try to explain it easily. When you have two voices playing perfect consonances (fourth, fifth, octave or any of these displaced by octave(s)) in parallel motion, the supposed-to-be different voices sound dependent to each other. To a (educated) musician, it's very obvious when you hear it, but it would probably also sound better to you if there was a ''correctly written'' version for you to compare. That is an example of a bad voice leading (voice leading - progression of individual melodic lines and their interaction to create harmonies) because the voices are not progressing individually; it basically ''kills'' the purpose of the second voice (acoustic guitar in this case). Reason for this dependence lies in acoustics - octave is the 1st overtone of fundamental note, fifth is 2nd (and fourth is just inversion of fifth), so they are very closely related to the fundamental.
Sometimes, these consecutive perfect intervals are created on purpose (like power chords, or unisons between keyboard and guitar in many DT solos) but in these cases, these either aren't really two different voices (power chords), or it's written like that on purpose to create a specific tension that needs to be resolved (like jumping from unison to tritone interval between keyboard, guitar and bass in Octavarium (at 17:00)). In this case, however, we're having just a normal song so consecutive octaves are completely unjustified (since some people said they did it on purpose). It would be just like a song like spirit carries on stops before chorus, JLB farts into the microphone, and the song continues. They wouldn't do it on purpose because it's not in the spirit of the song. This time, however, I'm sure it slipped unintentionally.

Do you mean that they should've made the harmony more "difficult" just because they have the knowledge on how to do it?

It's not the point of making it more difficult, they could've actually made the acoustic guitar play just chords instead of the melody and it would've fitted better. You would fail a harmony exam if you wrote a voice leading like this. For the rest of the answer, refer to my answer to the previous question in this comment

[Lonk]

Just listened to it once and will say I like it a lot. The only thing is I wish they would've expanded the melodic section a little more(maybe even end the song with that).

[LightCurves]

like it way better than the first single.

[lucasembarbosa]

Absolutely loved the choices of sound from JR!! Organ solo killing it again

Busy, creative and great sounding drums! 

[nikatapi]

Enjoyable song for sure.
Same as Untethered Angel in terms of vocal melodies, sound a bit bland and boring to be honest.

The middle section is very nice, especially when it builds up, but the transision to the keyboard solo is killing the mood.
So good to hear Myung so powerful.

[Öxölklöfför]

Anyone else cringed at 4:00 section because of parallel octaves between lead guitar and acoustic?  How could educated musicians make such a big harmony related mistake?

why do you "cringe" at 4:00? What's so wrong? What do you think they should have done differently?

I'll try to explain it easily. When you have two voices playing perfect consonances (fourth, fifth, octave or any of these displaced by octave(s)) in parallel motion, the supposed-to-be different voices sound dependent to each other. To a (educated) musician, it's very obvious when you hear it, but it would probably also sound better to you if there was a ''correctly written'' version for you to compare. That is an example of a bad voice leading (voice leading - progression of individual melodic lines and their interaction to create harmonies) because the voices are not progressing individually; it basically ''kills'' the purpose of the second voice (acoustic guitar in this case). Reason for this dependence lies in acoustics - octave is the 1st overtone of fundamental note, fifth is 2nd (and fourth is just inversion of fifth), so they are very closely related to the fundamental.
Sometimes, these consecutive perfect intervals are created on purpose (like power chords, or unisons between keyboard and guitar in many DT solos) but in these cases, these either aren't really two different voices (power chords), or it's written like that on purpose to create a specific tension that needs to be resolved (like jumping from unison to tritone interval between keyboard, guitar and bass in Octavarium (at 17:00)). In this case, however, we're having just a normal song so consecutive octaves are completely unjustified (since some people said they did it on purpose). It would be just like a song like spirit carries on stops before chorus, JLB farts into the microphone, and the song continues. They wouldn't do it on purpose because it's not in the spirit of the song. This time, however, I'm sure it slipped unintentionally.

Do you mean that they should've made the harmony more "difficult" just because they have the knowledge on how to do it?

It's not the point of making it more difficult, they could've actually made the acoustic guitar play just chords instead of the melody and it would've fitted better. You would fail a harmony exam if you wrote a voice leading like this. For the rest of the answer, refer to my answer to the previous question in this comment

You know, if one needs to compare with a "correctly written version" to find an "error" in a song, it doesn't seem like a problem at all.

I've listened to this section quite a few times now, and can't hear something that strikes me as "wrong". (And while I'm not an educated musician, I have played music for about 20 years, and have perfect pitch, so I usually can spot things that sound as an actual mistake.)

I wonder if you'd have spotted this if you weren't educated. If not, it seems that education in this case has a negative effect on actually enjoying music for what it is.

(After all, DT's main goal here is to create music that's enjoyable for themselves and their fans, not to win a harmony contest)

[erciccio]

Anyone else cringed at 4:00 section because of parallel octaves between lead guitar and acoustic?  How could educated musicians make such a big harmony related mistake?

why do you "cringe" at 4:00? What's so wrong? What do you think they should have done differently?

I'll try to explain it easily. When you have two voices playing perfect consonances (fourth, fifth, octave or any of these displaced by octave(s)) in parallel motion, the supposed-to-be different voices sound dependent to each other. To a (educated) musician, it's very obvious when you hear it, but it would probably also sound better to you if there was a ''correctly written'' version for you to compare. That is an example of a bad voice leading (voice leading - progression of individual melodic lines and their interaction to create harmonies) because the voices are not progressing individually; it basically ''kills'' the purpose of the second voice (acoustic guitar in this case). Reason for this dependence lies in acoustics - octave is the 1st overtone of fundamental note, fifth is 2nd (and fourth is just inversion of fifth), so they are very closely related to the fundamental.
Sometimes, these consecutive perfect intervals are created on purpose (like power chords, or unisons between keyboard and guitar in many DT solos) but in these cases, these either aren't really two different voices (power chords), or it's written like that on purpose to create a specific tension that needs to be resolved (like jumping from unison to tritone interval between keyboard, guitar and bass in Octavarium (at 17:00)). In this case, however, we're having just a normal song so consecutive octaves are completely unjustified (since some people said they did it on purpose). It would be just like a song like spirit carries on stops before chorus, JLB farts into the microphone, and the song continues. They wouldn't do it on purpose because it's not in the spirit of the song. This time, however, I'm sure it slipped unintentionally.

Do you mean that they should've made the harmony more "difficult" just because they have the knowledge on how to do it?

It's not the point of making it more difficult, they could've actually made the acoustic guitar play just chords instead of the melody and it would've fitted better. You would fail a harmony exam if you wrote a voice leading like this. For the rest of the answer, refer to my answer to the previous question in this comment

I honestly think you are over analyzing this.
Musically, to most ears (including me) it sounds just fine.
And I think it was intentional, and not a mistake.
I "hear" that parts just as electric guitar "dubbing"the acoustic, and not as an attempt to "harmonize" that section, that is kept intentionally simple.
Overall it's sort of a Morricone approach...

[noxon]

Besides, this track being firmly rooted in Metallica land is basically emulating some of the stuff Metallica often does - and that "solo doubling the acoustic guitar" thing is right out of that book.

Which Metallica themselves stole from Ennio Morricone

[erciccio]

Besides, this track being firmly rooted in Metallica land is basically emulating some of the stuff Metallica often does - and that "solo doubling the acoustic guitar" thing is right out of that book.

Which Metallica themselves stole from Ennio Morricone

Exactly my thought.

Even the last short solo is very Kirk Hammet-ish (on an higher level of accuracy and on weird odd times)

[Shooters1221]

Anyone else cringed at 4:00 section because of parallel octaves between lead guitar and acoustic?  How could educated musicians make such a big harmony related mistake?

why do you "cringe" at 4:00? What's so wrong? What do you think they should have done differently?

I'll try to explain it easily. When you have two voices playing perfect consonances (fourth, fifth, octave or any of these displaced by octave(s)) in parallel motion, the supposed-to-be different voices sound dependent to each other. To a (educated) musician, it's very obvious when you hear it, but it would probably also sound better to you if there was a ''correctly written'' version for you to compare. That is an example of a bad voice leading (voice leading - progression of individual melodic lines and their interaction to create harmonies) because the voices are not progressing individually; it basically ''kills'' the purpose of the second voice (acoustic guitar in this case). Reason for this dependence lies in acoustics - octave is the 1st overtone of fundamental note, fifth is 2nd (and fourth is just inversion of fifth), so they are very closely related to the fundamental.
Sometimes, these consecutive perfect intervals are created on purpose (like power chords, or unisons between keyboard and guitar in many DT solos) but in these cases, these either aren't really two different voices (power chords), or it's written like that on purpose to create a specific tension that needs to be resolved (like jumping from unison to tritone interval between keyboard, guitar and bass in Octavarium (at 17:00)). In this case, however, we're having just a normal song so consecutive octaves are completely unjustified (since some people said they did it on purpose). It would be just like a song like spirit carries on stops before chorus, JLB farts into the microphone, and the song continues. They wouldn't do it on purpose because it's not in the spirit of the song. This time, however, I'm sure it slipped unintentionally.

Do you mean that they should've made the harmony more "difficult" just because they have the knowledge on how to do it?

It's not the point of making it more difficult, they could've actually made the acoustic guitar play just chords instead of the melody and it would've fitted better. You would fail a harmony exam if you wrote a voice leading like this. For the rest of the answer, refer to my answer to the previous question in this comment

You know, if one needs to compare with a "correctly written version" to find an "error" in a song, it doesn't seem like a problem at all.

I've listened to this section quite a few times now, and can't hear something that strikes me as "wrong". (And while I'm not an educated musician, I have played music for about 20 years, and have perfect pitch, so I usually can spot things that sound as an actual mistake.)

I wonder if you'd have spotted this if you weren't educated. If not, it seems that education in this case has a negative effect on actually enjoying music for what it is.

(After all, DT's main goal here is to create music that's enjoyable for themselves and their fans, not to win a harmony contest)

Sheesh, have to jump in here as I can't believe I just wasted time reading that. I too have a music education and have composed plenty of orchestration through the years and the problem here is that you might not have learned that music is judged by the listener and the imperfect human ear. As much as you might think that 'it could've/shouldve' been done a certain is just missing the point of music since pretty much the old blues days. That part of the song is fine, to me. They pretty much know what they're putting out there, as JP stated in the SC dvd. It works better when you put the knowledge away in the closet and 'feel' it. JMO.

[Peace and Love]

Anyone else cringed at 4:00 section because of parallel octaves between lead guitar and acoustic?  How could educated musicians make such a big harmony related mistake?

Didn't they drop out from Berklee? 

I have a feeling they knew exactly what they were doing in that section, and every other section.  I didn't think anything special there, went back and had another listen now, I have no issues with it. Just out of curiosity, because I don't have a degree in music theory and don't know these things - why do you "cringe" at 4:00? What's so wrong? What do you think they should have done differently?

"It says in my 400 year old text book that this kind of music is "wrong" - so nobody should ever try it, even if it sounds good to most people"

[Peace and Love]

On topic, absolutely love the song! Two things that really stood out to me:

- Love MM's entry into the mid-section, very tasty indeed
- Even dedicated DT fans like the ones on this forum somehow invariably forget what the experience of listening to new DT music is like. Go back and look at any thread to do with any new song's release - it's always the same! "I don't like this song much, this transition doesn't make sense, it's disjointed, etc. etc.". DT songs always take time to grow on you, and to "get used" to their unusual song construction. It's always been that way, it's why the most beloved classic DT songs still elicit the same disjointed, all-over-the-place reaction from new listeners. So why should brand new DT songs be any different? I already love Untethered Angel and this song is really growing on me as well.

[noxon]

Here's the link to the official animated video for the song;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFxH4kky6z4

[Addy]

Anyone else cringed at 4:00 section because of parallel octaves between lead guitar and acoustic?  How could educated musicians make such a big harmony related mistake?

why do you "cringe" at 4:00? What's so wrong? What do you think they should have done differently?

I'll try to explain it easily. When you have two voices playing perfect consonances (fourth, fifth, octave or any of these displaced by octave(s)) in parallel motion, the supposed-to-be different voices sound dependent to each other. To a (educated) musician, it's very obvious when you hear it, but it would probably also sound better to you if there was a ''correctly written'' version for you to compare. That is an example of a bad voice leading (voice leading - progression of individual melodic lines and their interaction to create harmonies) because the voices are not progressing individually; it basically ''kills'' the purpose of the second voice (acoustic guitar in this case). Reason for this dependence lies in acoustics - octave is the 1st overtone of fundamental note, fifth is 2nd (and fourth is just inversion of fifth), so they are very closely related to the fundamental.
Sometimes, these consecutive perfect intervals are created on purpose (like power chords, or unisons between keyboard and guitar in many DT solos) but in these cases, these either aren't really two different voices (power chords), or it's written like that on purpose to create a specific tension that needs to be resolved (like jumping from unison to tritone interval between keyboard, guitar and bass in Octavarium (at 17:00)). In this case, however, we're having just a normal song so consecutive octaves are completely unjustified (since some people said they did it on purpose). It would be just like a song like spirit carries on stops before chorus, JLB farts into the microphone, and the song continues. They wouldn't do it on purpose because it's not in the spirit of the song. This time, however, I'm sure it slipped unintentionally.

Do you mean that they should've made the harmony more "difficult" just because they have the knowledge on how to do it?

It's not the point of making it more difficult, they could've actually made the acoustic guitar play just chords instead of the melody and it would've fitted better. You would fail a harmony exam if you wrote a voice leading like this. For the rest of the answer, refer to my answer to the previous question in this comment

You know, if one needs to compare with a "correctly written version" to find an "error" in a song, it doesn't seem like a problem at all.

I've listened to this section quite a few times now, and can't hear something that strikes me as "wrong". (And while I'm not an educated musician, I have played music for about 20 years, and have perfect pitch, so I usually can spot things that sound as an actual mistake.)

I wonder if you'd have spotted this if you weren't educated. If not, it seems that education in this case has a negative effect on actually enjoying music for what it is.

(After all, DT's main goal here is to create music that's enjoyable for themselves and their fans, not to win a harmony contest)

Totally agree. While I try to always respect theory, at the end of the day it should serve the musician, not the other way round. I hear this section more as building the bigger sonic landscape using layered sounds. It's just octaves. Obsessing over things like this is pointless. Most of us don't care about such details or they don't have the knowledge to even notice. Nothing here sounds dissonant or wrong or whatever. DT could have done the section differently but probably chose not to. Just turn off overanalyzing-theory-nerd-mode and enjoy the song!

[RodrigoAltaf]

New video: https://www.sonicperspectives.com/news/dream-theater-release-lyric-video-for-new-single-fall-into-the-light/

[Pound4aBrown]

Another VERY uninspired song  This song could be straight from The Astonishing(ly boring album). Aside from the awesome middle section (by JP & JR), this song is another loser. Two for two bad ones so far. My hopes have faded.

Sometimes I wonder if I am even listening to the same song as some of you on here.
Sorry your hopes are dashed.

[Adami]

Oddly, I'll say the same thing I said about UA. Very meh song with a very cool middle section.

[kaos2900]

Man, this a love at first listen. Love the heaviness. Love the bass lines. And they finally found a good drum sound!

[cramx3]

I really like this after one listen.  I liked UA but this is probably better right off the bat.  Just a more dynamic song.  Awesome riffing, some changes as you go along although I woulnd't call it disjointed at all.  I'd say the different sections flowed from one another pretty well and usually with some really awesome music way, like that climax at the end  Sure, I get a Metallica vibes at times from this, but it doesnt feel like a "rip off" so I have no issues with that.

Anyone's opinion throwing the term "uninspired" around really just is going to get ignored in my mind.  The guys locked themselves up in a cabin and clearly put their best effort into making an album their fans would enjoy.  I'm not really sure what's "uninspired" about that since it was a departure of how they would normally do things.  They didn't just go through the motions.  If you don't like it, that's fine, but there's nothing "uninspired" here.

Here's the link to the official animated video for the song;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFxH4kky6z4

Thanks, the first search results on youtube come to someone who just posted a worse sounding version of the song (at least for me).