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

[emtee]

I finally had the opportunity to hear all 3 new songs on a killer system last night. HOLY CRAP!! For the first time
since MM joined, they managed to make his drums sound killer. They now share equal billing with all the other
instruments. The production is amazing. I'm really digging all 3 songs. For me, this mix is the best since 8V and on
par with their best sounding albums. I haven't felt this way about new DT songs for a LONG time.

On a side note, man oh man would I like to hear what ADToE would sound like with this mix.

[Max Kuehnau]

I finally had the opportunity to hear all 3 new songs on a killer system last night. HOLY CRAP!! For the first time
since MM joined, they managed to make his drums sound killer. They now share equal billing with all the other
instruments. The production is amazing. I'm really digging all 3 songs. For me, this mix is the best since 8V and on
par with their best sounding albums. I haven't felt this way about new DT songs for a LONG time.

On a side note, man oh man would I like to hear what ADToE would sound like with this mix.

ADTOE has a good mix and master on the Hdtracks version IMHO, you can give it a go if you want.

[Evermind]

Lots of promo copies received for reviews I see....

Promo copies were given out like sweets at Halloween, though. I think I'll claim to operate a legitimate music website in time for the next album cycle. The majority of 'professional' reviews I've seen for Distance Over Time are so amateur in tone and language, it's laughable.

Now, do I think everyone's got a promo copy? No. Of course not. But still.

Well, the "majority of 'professional' reviews" are, in fact, written by the people who are fans of the metal scene in general, like most of us here. People out there are doing it out of their love for this kind of music, not receiving any benefits—except the early access to the albums and a bit of exposure (which, as we all know, is apparently the new universal currency right now, except it doesn't pay any bills)—and a lot of them also have English as their second or even third language.

I'm not sure why I even decided to participate in a debate in DT part of the forums, that was a stupid decision.

[dream75]

So here's a question for you: Without having heard the album yet, how high do you think it could possibly rank among your favorite DT albums? For me, I think if it's really good it could crack the top 5. But beating the likes of SFAM, 6DOIT, IAW, and Awake would be quite a feat.

Well, my current ranking is this:
#1. Images & Words
#2. Black Clouds & Silver Linings
#3. Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence
#4. The Astonishing
#5. Systematic Chaos
#6. When Dream & Day Unite
#7. Awake
#8. Octavarium
#9. Scenes From A Memory
10. Dream Theater
11. A Dramatic Turn Of Events
12. Train Of Thought
13. Falling Into Infinity

I could see DOT fitting nicely in between TA & SC. We'll see though. 

BCSL second and SFAM ninth ?? 

[Progmetty]

It's kinda funny but whenever people discuss BC&SL, Nightmare and Tuscany are usually the first tunes that pop up everybody's heads. For me I heard BC&SL and immediately think of the bebot solo on Passage hehe
Then if I keep thinking of BC&SL, I'll think of the beautiful sedation section..
Then I'll think of "Hey a minute man" section and the folk parody song.
And if I keep at it I'll think of the mash-up of the first four AA songs into an okay song.
It's all probably connected to being on DTF, these were things we were discussing around here on release week of BC&SL.
I like BC&SL okay, I've never felt it had it's own "era" per se, I've always likened the SC/BC&SL to Metallica's Load/Reload, ReLoad doesn't have an individual era to me. But also since I felt that BC&SL followed the format of SC pretty closely, save for the breaking of the epic into two halves. I probably also feel that way because of how the single releases had a very similar vibe, Constant/Forsaken and Passage/Wither just felt so related by blood.
/barely-warranted-rant

[Architeuthis]

Is it just me, or is this thread getting derailed a bit? Very unusual around here.   

[Max Kuehnau]

standardised procedure around here

[JRuless]

Songs heard: 3
Reviews read: many
Excitement level: Extremely high

I love this band.

[TAC]

Is anyone bored enough that they could post links of all of the reviews in a single post?

[JRuless]

Is anyone bored enough that they could post links of all of the reviews in a single post?

Google is your friend. Distance over time review. Search options: last week/month

[TAC]

Google? That's the internet, right?

[lovethedrake]

A nightmare to remember and count of Tuscany are definitely two of the best songs since six degrees imo and shattered fortress has awesome stuff but the rest of album leaves much to be desired.

[Adami]

I think the only song on BCSL that I like all the way through is Whither.

I really don't like TCOT outside of a moment here or there. Never truly understand the praise that song got. Even beyond the lyrics, not a fan of most of it. The music under the build up near the end is nice, but it's too little too late.

[SystematicThought]

My prediction is that the 5:00-5:10 mark of Pale Blue Dot is gonna make us all lose our shit with how awesome it is.

My second prediction is that we're gonna all want to go and speed down the highway with Viper King blasting. The Van Halen description has me excited

[TAC]

I consider The Best Of Times and The Count Of Tuscany both Top 15 DT songs.

[jakepriest]

I think the only song on BCSL that I like all the way through is Whither.

Funny, cause that's the only song I skip on BCSL.

[kiszol]

I think BCSL is an excellent album. IMHO only SFAM and SDOIT are better and maybe TOT but I usually change the order of the two every few months.

Nightmare, Best of Times and The Count are all pretty good, with The Count in the TOP5 and the other two in the TOP20 I think. The rest of the album is not bad either, The Shattered Fortress has an epic last 5 minutes and I think Wither is a nice ballad. Only ROP is subpar for me but there are worse DT songs than that. And if you don't like Wither and TSF well, the first three epics I mentioned are already around 50 minutes music all combined... Great album!

[Architeuthis]

This storm of BC & SL is a epic derailment.
"Help us Obi-Bosk-Kenobi, you're our only hope!" 

[Pound4aBrown]

My prediction is that the 5:00-5:10 mark of Pale Blue Dot is gonna make us all lose our shit with how awesome it is.

My second prediction is that we're gonna all want to go and speed down the highway with Viper King blasting. The Van Halen description has me excited

I get more of a Deep Purple vibe from Viper King

[Dedalus]

BC & SL is a epic derailment.

[CodyWanKenobi]

Was just thinking it's funny how 3 of the 4 MM era albums have titles that (pretty much) start with the letter "D" (iTunes automatically lists A Dramatic Turn Of Events as "Dramatic Turn Of Events" for me in the same way that it lists The Astonishing as "Astonishing". Not sure about you guys).

[rumborak]

One thing that's peculiar is that song 2 and 3 start on the left channel only.

[IDontNotDoThings]

(I put my thoughts on BC&SL in the BC&SL thread for those curious)

[Adami]

One thing that's peculiar is that song 2 and 3 start on the left channel only.

Only because DT are a 1 guitar player band. But their albums often have a dual guitar player recording style. So left side is (often) rhythm side. So starting there makes sense. Adds dynamics to it when both sides kick in.

[KevShmev]

One thing that's peculiar is that song 2 and 3 start on the left channel only.

Only because DT are a 1 guitar player band. But their albums often have a dual guitar player recording style. So left side is (often) rhythm side. So starting there makes sense. Adds dynamics to it when both sides kick in.

Van Halen used to do that a lot as well, where the guitar kicking off the song would be in just one channel, and then when the whole band comes in full force in both channels, it would make for a great dynamic shift.  Very effective technique, when done properly.

[BeatriceNB]

One thing that's peculiar is that song 2 and 3 start on the left channel only.

Only because DT are a 1 guitar player band. But their albums often have a dual guitar player recording style. So left side is (often) rhythm side. So starting there makes sense. Adds dynamics to it when both sides kick in.

As far as I can tell, JP uses both channels, with many layers (DT12 is heavily layered when it comes to guitars, pretty sure Behind The Veil has 5, even more, guitars at some point). Panning a guitar in the intro is a common thing in Metal, and I guess DT "copied" that from Metallica; it adds a nice "explosion" effect to the song.

[Bertie_Wooster]

In Extreme's waiting for the punchline album the guitar is only hearc on one side during the entire
Album and it sounds really cool

[bill1971]

Was just thinking it's funny how 3 of the 4 MM era albums have titles that (pretty much) start with the letter "D" (iTunes automatically lists A Dramatic Turn Of Events as "Dramatic Turn Of Events" for me in the same way that it lists The Astonishing as "Astonishing". Not sure about you guys).

It's lists for me as Da Astonishing

Not really

[TAC]

 

[pcs90]

Some thoughts on the album...I don't want to go into too much detail, but I've made some references to past songs to give an idea of the style some songs / sections sound like.

Barstool Warrior: This is probably the track that stands out to me the most on first listen. You get some prog, a beautiful guitar solo which reminds me of the one in TBOT except in 6/8 (actually several,) and James gives a great performance. This will be a favorite for many, I think. It has a nice climax near the end similar to The Bigger Picture, and the piano / guitar interlude in the middle is gorgeous.

Room 137: I'm not sure what to make of this one, honestly. It's definitely a different sound for DT. Very dark and almost psychadelic in places. For whatever reason, it's definitely not what I expected from MM, lyrically. I'm not sure what that's supposed to mean but wasn't sure what else to say. Probably my least favorite track on the album, though it does have some cool parts and it's by no means bad, just a personal taste thing probably.

S2N: Frantic is the first adjective that comes to mind to describe the verses of this one. The guitar solo has a jam vibe to it, like LTE. Keyboard solo at the end is held down by a nice heavy riff, similar to TDEN but this solo is much better and the song doesn't just fade out.

At Wit's End: This one has a lot of different sections. I enjoyed it, but it's one of those tracks that will take several listens to fully get, I think. My only complaint is how the song ends. It fades out during the guitar solo, there's a gap of silence and then it cuts to a short clip of the band playing softly from the original jam recordings. I would have rather them extended the guitar solo further and/or found another way to drop the song down at the end instead of fading to silence and cutting to a totally different mix.

Out Of Reach: It's a nice ballad. Just to follow the trend of reviewers skipping over this track, I'll do the same Honestly though there's just not much to say (please don't assume this means it's bad, because it isn't.)

Pale Blue Dot: The comments about the guitars not driving the song from a few pages back are spot-on. Yes, you hear guitars, but the keys and drums are more upfront in the mix so they have a stronger presence. Very proggy instrumental section and a nice slower guitar solo later on. Like Barstool Warrior, I think this track will be another fan favorite from the album.

Also I would like to make special mentions to Mangini's drumming and drum sound in the mix. It is so much easier to hear all that he does on this album compared to others (particularly because you can actually hear the cymbals clearly,) and the drums don't sound overly processed. They still have a precise sound because that's just how MM plays, but it's a huge improvement and he's on fire -- MM fans will be very happy, I think.

[Pound4aBrown]

super early preferences

S2N
At Wit's End
Pale Blue Dot
Fall Into The Light
Barstool Warrior
Room 137
Untethered Angel
Paralyzed
Out Of Reach

Solid album, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't missing a 12-15 min epic though.

[JRuless]

Guys,

Am I living in a different timeframe?
It seems like the album is released...

[SystematicThought]

Guys,

Am I living in a different timeframe?
It seems like the album is released...

I was thinking the same thing.

[lonestar]

*ducks to avoid the hammer*

[Bertielee]

I consider The Best Of Times and The Count Of Tuscany both Top 15 DT songs.

To each his own, but I don't like them. Granted, there are things that are outstanding inside each song, but as a whole, they're not for me. And the choruses of both are not good, like, at all.

B.Lee

Note : excited as hell for the new album! I haven't listened to any of the singles released and you guys have my mouth water in expectation with your descriptions. Damn, 4 days to go still!