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

[rumborak]

Wild speculation: JR will play guitar live during that multilayered guitar section.

[adastra]

Damn! I love that leadsound by Rudess on Fall into The Light!
Nice song! 
Only downside I can find is that the chorus doesn't feel like a chorus to me.
It's more like a pre-chorus that tries to build up for something.

Yeah!

[goo-goo]

Damn...this is great. It feels inspired and organic. I'll abstain from listening to it again and wait for the full album. Haven't been pumped up for a DT release since SFAM.

[gfiore88]

Am I the only one that hear "the best of times" vibes on the chorus?
When LaBrie sings "Too much love is not enough for us...I was once too blind to see" I remember something like "...The fleeting winds of time...Flying through each day...All the things I should have done...But time just slipped away" 

[Kilgore Trout]

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.

It's an orchestration trick, not a harmonic mistake. The solo guitar is simply playing a slighty altered version of the acoustic part. The purpose of the lead voice is to add a different tone to the one that was already here, and to build into the "solo" that comes after that part. You might consider it's a cheap trick, but there is no mistake here, and it's pretty obvious that it is done on purpose.

[bosk1]

Wow.  Really, really cool song.  The tease about JP coming up with the main riff on the G3 tour makes sense now that I'm hearing it.  JP definitely had the heaviest set of the three on that tour, and the riffing, with it's unique combination of heaviness, movement, groove, and resolution into huge, epic sounding chord progressions is signature JP.  Good stuff! 

Am I the only one that hear "the best of times" vibes on the chorus?
When LaBrie sings "Too much love is not enough for us...I was once too blind to see" I remember something like "...The fleeting winds of time...Flying through each day...All the things I should have done...But time just slipped away" 

Interesting.  I didn't pick up on any similar vibe on first listen.  But now that you mention it, yeah, I can see where you made that connection. 

[mikeyd23]

First impression - I like this song a lot. Probably more than UA.

Specific thoughts -

Love the heavy riffing in the intro, I also love that MM basically plays the riff with three different grooves. That is something MP did a lot (change the feel while the band repeats a riff) and I miss it at times from MM era DT. The intro is MM doing this very well, good to hear.

The "teaser" riff that comes in at about 33 seconds into the song sounds way cooler in context. JP's guitar tone is really, really nice here. JM's bass tone is also strong and present.

I like the snare build up into the verse. James' vocals sound better here than UA, less effects for sure. The verse melody is okay, nothing great, but solid.

I like the choruses, definitely took a few listens, but I'm cool with them. The piano in the choruses is really nice. JR's sounds on the first two tracks from this album are really good.

The staccato section that builds into the chill section is pretty cool too, once again good sounds from JR.

The middle section is beautiful, the transition into it is a little weird, but once we get into it, all is forgiven. I like MM's fill to enter that section around 2:40. Simple, but nice. The guitar melody line that comes in there is a prime example of why JP is underrated in terms of his emotion and melodic sense as a guitarist, beautiful stuff.

The build back into the keys solo sounds a little weird, like they just were trying to put a keys solo there, the solo itself is fine though. Once again, sounds like a legit organ (which I think JR used) - good sounds from him.

The thrown in riff at 6:15ish makes me laugh, so good, so short.

Outro shredding is fun.

Overall, I really like this song. Down to the palm mutes at the end. The drums sound good here, probably the best studio sound MM has got with DT. JP's guitar sounds better than ever. JM has a good cutting tone and sits in the mix pretty well in this one. Like I mentioned several times, JR's sounds are really good as well. Something about the vocal mix is still weird, too layered or something. James' performance is really good, the vocal production has something going on I don't like, not sure what it is.

I'm definitely looking forward to this album! 

[RoeDent]

Certain parts brought to my mind Breaking All Illusions, if only in overall mood. The way the middle section starts fast, then slows down for the main "solo" before the fast music returns.

[TH1RT3EN]

Am I the only one that hear "the best of times" vibes on the chorus?
When LaBrie sings "Too much love is not enough for us...I was once too blind to see" I remember something like "...The fleeting winds of time...Flying through each day...All the things I should have done...But time just slipped away" 

The chorus actually reminded me of The Great Debate's chorus. What brought The Best of Times to my mind was a part of the acoustic section (sounds a bit like TBoT's acoustic intro in my opinion).

[lonestar]

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.

Am I the only one that thinks this post reads like a Donald Trump tweet?

[abydos]

Probably. It's not even mildly entertaining so I don't know how you can see the similarities.

[rab7]

Probably. It's not even mildly entertaining so I don't know how you can see the similarities.

I see it. Capitalization for emphasis, parentheses, and the word "loser", though not directly calling anyone a loser.

All it's missing is a typo or two, or an uninspired nickname like "Machine Mike"

[abydos]

But it doesn't even contain one single "Sad"!

[Mladen]

I liked it. The riffs are very cool and the guitar tone is fantastic. I think the chorus is infectious, especially the first one that was cut short as a tease. I found the instrumental section brilliant, even the part that builds up to the keyboard solo.

I'm not crazy about the vocal melodies in the verses, even though James sounds great. They feel like they were a last minute afterthought. Another bit that irks me is the transition into the last chorus, although it is counterbalanced by the amazing outro.

[T-ski]

Chorus is by far the weakest part of the song.

I don't feel Myungs lyrics lend themselves to the more aggressive style of DT's music.

[Anxiety35]

Overall, I dig it.

Positives -
It doesn't sound like anything DT has already done and that's a good thing. One of my praises for DT in the early years is that from their debut all the way to Octavarium, each album stood alone and were very unique from one another.
Sound quality. I have it on iTunes and everything is crisp and has depth. The drum sound is the best of the MM era. Good to hear JMX more prominent in the mix.
The song breathes and has a good groove. There's some odd time groove!
The opening section (up to the 51 second mark) makes me smile.
The middle section. It builds and has an excellent climax. Best thing I've heard from them in a while.
Rudess' hammond solo. Guess we will be hearing a lot of hammond on the album?
JP's solo and then the descending scale at the end.

Negatives-
I don't see how the entire song fits together. Maybe I'm not getting it yet.
I wish the opening section were found again somewhere later in the song.

What to watch for...
This song played live.

First impression scoring - 7.5 out of 10.

[lonestar]

Probably. It's not even mildly entertaining so I don't know how you can see the similarities.

I see it. Capitalization for emphasis, parentheses, and the word "loser", though not directly calling anyone a loser.

All it's missing is a typo or two, or an uninspired nickname like "Machine Mike"

Right? 

[mikeyd23]

I don't feel Myungs lyrics lend themselves to the more aggressive style of DT's music.

That's interesting. I think the lyrics fit the music fine. On the surface, they do strike me as very JM-style lyrics, very introspective.

[Pound4aBrown]

I love this song.
Then again, I have only listened to it like 4 times, maybe I should overthink it and change my mind?

[porcacultor]

Honestly surprised by the complaint on the lead guitar and acoustic guitar playing the same thing an octave a part. Isn't that quite common in Western musical idioms? Not that Dream Theater should do what's common and familiar... but can't they?

All in all, I really dug this song. It's going to lend itself greatly to live performances. Great, soaring chorus that I can't understand why some people hated.

Loving this new album with each new song!

[Ninjabait]

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?

I'm a classically trained musician and my answer is no. I wouldn't describe it as a mistake either, since it's so obviously intentional for arrangement purposes. What's going on here is something called heterophony, where there are 2+ variations of the same melodic line playing at the same time. This section isn't trying to be polyphonic at all, and it's not fair to the music to try to judge it on something it's not even trying to do. This fits the style of the section, which is drawing from Metallica and Ennio Morricone (as noxon mentioned), who frequently did this very same thing.

Another thing: parallelisms are only "mistakes" in certain contexts, most of them academic. Parallel 5ths/8ths/Unisons in a Fugue or section of counterpoint would be a gigantic no-no because it weakens the independence of the individual lines. But in a section that's not striving for incredibly complex counterpoint, parallelisms are not causing any problem. Even in sections of counterpoint, parallelisms can be acceptable (and *gasp* even Bach, the undisputed master of counterpoint, did them sometimes!) so long as they don't weaken the independence of the individual lines. Parallels are a tool that can be used. Beethoven used Parallel 5ths in his Pastoral Symphony to conjure up a feeling of rustic folksiness, and the Romantics used Parallel Octaves to make a melodic line thicker and more important so much it's almost a cliche (a wonderful, wonderful cliche). Furthermore, in certain harmonic techniques like planing and parallel motion, parallelisms are not only allowed, they're almost required.

Music theory isn't a set of rules, as your basic theory classes may make you believe. It's more a set of guidelines to achieving a certain sound, and it varies from genre to genre. The theory for jazz, for instance, has a lot of things that would not apply in a classical setting, and vice-versa. Hell, even different periods of classical music have different sets of guidelines to achieve certain sounds. An Alberti Bass would sound really out of place in a Baroque, Romantic, or Modernist piece, and tone clusters would not work in a Bach-esque Prelude or a clean-cut classical sonata. Music theory describes the techniques being used to create a song so that it can be prescribed to create something similar in that style, or to allow performers to have a better time interpreting a piece. It's not the "rules of music" as you so clearly believe.

[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?

I'm a classically trained musician and my answer is no. I wouldn't describe it as a mistake either, since it's so obviously intentional for arrangement purposes. What's going on here is something called heterophony, where there are 2+ variations of the same melodic line playing at the same time. This section isn't trying to be polyphonic at all, and it's not fair to the music to try to judge it on something it's not even trying to do. This fits the style of the section, which is drawing from Metallica and Ennio Morricone (as noxon mentioned), who frequently did this very same thing.

Another thing: parallelisms are only "mistakes" in certain contexts, most of them academic. Parallel 5ths/8ths/Unisons in a Fugue or section of counterpoint would be a gigantic no-no because it weakens the independence of the individual lines. But in a section that's not striving for incredibly complex counterpoint, parallelisms are not causing any problem. Even in sections of counterpoint, parallelisms can be acceptable (and *gasp* even Bach, the undisputed master of counterpoint, did them sometimes!) so long as they don't weaken the independence of the individual lines. Parallels are a tool that can be used. Beethoven used Parallel 5ths in his Pastoral Symphony to conjure up a feeling of rustic folksiness, and the Romantics used Parallel Octaves to make a melodic line thicker and more important so much it's almost a cliche (a wonderful, wonderful cliche). Furthermore, in certain harmonic techniques like planing and parallel motion, parallelisms are not only allowed, they're almost required.

Music theory isn't a set of rules, as your basic theory classes may make you believe. It's more a set of guidelines to achieving a certain sound, and it varies from genre to genre. The theory for jazz, for instance, has a lot of things that would not apply in a classical setting, and vice-versa. Hell, even different periods of classical music have different sets of guidelines to achieve certain sounds. An Alberti Bass would sound really out of place in a Baroque, Romantic, or Modernist piece, and tone clusters would not work in a Bach-esque Prelude or a clean-cut classical sonata. Music theory describes the techniques being used to create a song so that it can be prescribed to create something similar in that style, or to allow performers to have a better time interpreting a piece. It's not the "rules of music" as you so clearly believe.

This ia a great comment indeed, thanks

[Ninjabait]

Also my thoughts on the song:

Great, good, awesome, amazing, fantastic. Just when I'm like "this song can't possibly be any better" the band's just like "hold my barbecue".

Pros:
-Awesome intro riff
-Those freaking heavy riffs that sound like they're from a great melodeath song
-The drumming
-The drum sound being good still
-The middle section
-Honestly, the verses and choruses are really good
-That fake out where it starts up the thrash riff to get you thinking that the chorus is coming back and then PSYCH! Solo time.
-Speaking of the solo, the guitar part during the solo is straight up fire
-The outro guitar solo
-The middle section
-The last couple of notes. It's a creative version of the "guitar chugs to end the song" trope that I haven't heard before
-That section with the arpeggios and the piano melody
-The way JR subtly supports the song most of the time
-The lyrics seem pretty good, but I haven't really dug into them yet
-The way the keyboard parts subtly build in complexity throughout the song
-How melodic and tuneful the whole song is while still being super heavy
-DT being a better Metallica than Metallica
-Crazy drum solo at the end (Top 5 drum solos for me tbh)
-The middle section

Cons:
-Um I'll have to keep y'all posted on this.

[me7]

Thank you Ninjabait for writing this thorough explanation

[hefdaddy42]

OK, I have listened twice, so I haven't analyzed the lyrics or anything.

But I really liked the song!  The riffs are fun and aggressive, the mellower instrumental section is cool, the drums kicking the band out of that are great, and Jordan's lead patch is TASTY.  And the drums at the end!  I liked this one better than Untethered Angel.

Two thumbs up for me.  Can't wait to see it live.

[rab7]

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?

*snip* fantastic rebuttal

This was amazing. Honestly when I fell in love with DT in 2010, I expected so much more of this type of arguing when looking at forum posts.

I don't understand a lot of it, as my deepest level of music theory was the first 2 weeks of high school AP Music Theory (simple/compound meter and major scale triads was as far as I got), but I love reading about it nonetheless

[SeRoX]

Is it just me or anybody waits some melodic vocals from James in the middle section. I was like "Come on, where is James?"  It would be truly magical but as it is it's still great. 

[mikeyd23]

Two thumbs up for me.  Can't wait to see it live.

Yeah, this one will be a good, energetic live tune.

[DT89]

I transcribed the guitar parts: https://youtu.be/yIWrgrE0FCM

[Peter Mc]

Is it just me or anybody waits some melodic vocals from James in the middle section. I was like "Come on, where is James?"  It would be truly magical but as it is it's still great. 

I said the same, the acoustic guitar reminds me a bit of the quiet part of The Killing Hand and would've loved something similar vocally building up to the heavier guitar melody.  Still great as it is though.

[Shooters1221]

Wild speculation: JR will play guitar live during that multilayered guitar section.

Me likely!

[KevShmev]

Downloaded it from iTunes first thing morning, threw it my phone, and then listened to it on the way to work and then again a few minutes ago on the ear buds while doing some paper work at my desk. 

I can't decided what I think about it yet.  There is a lot to like, but not sure how cohesive it is, and none of the vocal melodies stuck with me (sitting here, I cannot remember any of them).  I know some are having issues with the effects being used on JLB's voice, but I am guessing they need to do a fair amount of studio magic with it more often than not to get it to sound how they want it to.

More listens to come...

[genome]

I transcribed the guitar parts: https://youtu.be/yIWrgrE0FCM

Nice work.

I'm constantly baffled how you guys manage to do this in less than 24 hours... 

[bosk1]

I know some are having issues with the effects being used on JLB's voice, but I am guessing they need to do a fair amount of studio magic with it more often than not to get it to sound how they want it to.

I don't think so.  The vocals were relatively clean (effects-wise) on the last three albums and sounded just fine.  It reminds me a lot of the effects used in parts of Beyond This Life.  It didn't bother me then, and doesn't bother me know.  If it's me mixing the album, I think I would have gone for the effects-free approach of the last three albums.  But, again, it's not that big a deal.  I obviously didn't get to record and mix the album, and I'm not going to waste time critiquing the album I might wish they made rather than enjoying the album they did make. 

[bill1971]

Downloaded it from iTunes first thing morning, threw it my phone, and then listened to it on the way to work and then again a few minutes ago on the ear buds while doing some paper work at my desk. 

I can't decided what I think about it yet.  There is a lot to like, but not sure how cohesive it is, and none of the vocal melodies stuck with me (sitting here, I cannot remember any of them).  I know some are having issues with the effects being used on JLB's voice, but I am guessing they need to do a fair amount of studio magic with it more often than not to get it to sound how they want it to.

More listens to come...

I pre ordered the album when Un Tethered Angel came out, I wonder why this song didn't download automatically for me on Amazon Music, I see it available to buy. Anyhow great song!