DT15: A View From The Top Of The World (Timeline for DT15)

[darkshade]

8 = Octa
vm = because just 'v' doesn't give you that 'mmmm' at the end. Everyone likes a 'mmmm' at the end.

[Dream Team]

Criticizing album artwork is so 2005 it's not funny. Lowest hanging fruit for all the art majors here.

[Setlist Scotty]

It annoys me all the weird ways people abbreviate Octavarium.

8M. 8VIUM. 8VARIUM

I have literally not once seen any of these before.


I go 8V.

Pretty much what Timmy said, tho I go lowercase v = 8v

Talking about abbreviations, I always hate that the self-titled album is always referred to as DT12 - IMO, it should be s/t, but personal opinions are like....

As for the new one, it's not that difficult to type. I'll go with AVFtTotW. It's 8 letters, the same as TOWHtStS, which I've never seen anyone complain about typing out. 

[Dedalus]

It annoys me all the weird ways people abbreviate Octavarium.

8M. 8VIUM. 8VARIUM

I have literally not once seen any of these before.


I go 8V.

Pretty much what Timmy said, tho I go lowercase v = 8v

Talking about abbreviations, I always hate that the self-titled album is always referred to as DT12 - IMO, it should be s/t, but personal opinions are like....

As for the new one, it's not that difficult to type. I'll go with AVFtTotW. It's 8 letters, the same as TOWHtStS, which I've never seen anyone complain about typing out. 

This is a rarely commented song and the reason clearly is that we are too lazy to type it all up.
We prefer to pretend it doesn't exist. 

[Dedalus]

BTW: I'll go with "the new one" until DT16. 

[Revenge319]

I think AVFTTOTW is easy enough to type out. Personally I'll just abbreviate "A View From the Top of the World" as such.

[PetFish]

VTW

[The Letter M]

I think AVFTTOTP is easy enough to type out. Personally I'll just abbreviate "A View From the Top of the World" as such.

Ah yes, A View From The Top Of The Porld. Amazingly typed out abbreviation. 

It annoys me all the weird ways people abbreviate Octavarium.

8M. 8VIUM. 8VARIUM

I have literally not once seen any of these before.


I go 8V.

Pretty much what Timmy said, tho I go lowercase v = 8v

Talking about abbreviations, I always hate that the self-titled album is always referred to as DT12 - IMO, it should be s/t, but personal opinions are like....

As for the new one, it's not that difficult to type. I'll go with AVFtTotW. It's 8 letters, the same as TOWHtStS, which I've never seen anyone complain about typing out. 

I've never seen anyone mix uppercase and lowercase in abbreviations before. To me, abbreviations just look better when they're all caps, especially when they're abbreviating a title, which typically uses all caps for first letters of every word anyway, and making them all caps is just easier to type anyways, without having to switch back and forth.

If using the whole AVFTTOTW doesn't work out for most people, I think we could just condense it to AVFTT, of if you want to type stuff out, maybe just "A View..." as a written-out short-hand?

At least most of the band's other albums have largely agreed upon abbreviations for their album titles:
WDADU
IAW (although I've seen I&W, but considering the album title doesn't use the ampersand, but the word "and" instead, it would be wrong)
FII
SFAM (despite cutting out the full title of Metropolis Part 2, which would technically make it MP2SFAM)
SDOIT (though I've seen 6DOIT)
TOT
8VM (my personal favorite, though 8V works just as well)
SC
BC&SL (using the ampersand because the full title uses it and not the word "and", so BCASL would be wrong)
ADTOE
DT12 (it's pretty self-explanatory, though I could see why many would use ST or S/T, since that's usually the most accepted abbrevation for self-titled, but lots of bands whose self-titled isn't their debut usually give those albums nicknames - The Beatles' White Album, Genesis' Shapes)
TA
DOT (or D/T, or d/t as seen in the artwork)

I'm just thankful that most of the song title abbreviations on AVFTT aren't repeats of past song title abbreviations - IM, SG, TT, ATM - the only ones that might get confusing would be TA but I think most of us would be able to separate that from The Astonishing, or "The Answer" from that same album, given proper context, and the same goes for ATC ("Answering The Call" vs. "About To Crash" from SDOIT). I don't think the others share their abbreviations with other songs.

-Marc.

[Dedalus]

I think AVFTTOTP is easy enough to type out. Personally I'll just abbreviate "A View From the Top of the World" as such.

Ah yes, A View From The Top Of The Porld. Amazingly typed out abbreviation. 

-Marc.

[Revenge319]

I think AVFTTOTP is easy enough to type out. Personally I'll just abbreviate "A View From the Top of the World" as such.

Ah yes, A View From The Top Of The Porld. Amazingly typed out abbreviation. 

-Marc.

How did I not notice that?! P and W aren't even close together on a keyboard! That's hilarious.

[Setlist Scotty]

I've never seen anyone mix uppercase and lowercase in abbreviations before.

You mean you don't read my posts?!?  *sniff* 

Seriously, I *always* mix case when abbreviating: WDaDU, AFiL, SSeeker (not to be confused with SShell or SSons  ), LFaGA, TOWHtStS, OaMoT, IaW, TtT, UaGM, LtL, CiaW, LSOaD, SDVest (as opposed to SDVu), ACoS, PSkies (compared to PShift), HYears (versus HYou), etc. I know some like to differentiate Trial of Tears from Train of Thought by doing the song in mixed case (ToT) while the album is all uppercase (TOT) but not me. 

[Cool Chris]

As for the new one, it's not that difficult to type. I'll go with AVFtTotW. It's 8 letters, the same as TOWHtStS, which I've never seen anyone complain about typing out. 

This is a rarely commented song and the reason clearly is that we are too lazy to type it all up.
We prefer to pretend it doesn't exist. 

I have never learned that acronym, to say nothing of ever using it. Probably because I have never once talked about that song on this forum.

[nobloodyname]

Never got this insistence for abbreviations. Are you all taxed by the letter? How can it possibly save time, especially when - as you should be (linguistic pedant alert) - switching between capitals and lower case?

My official stance is I prefer the Metallica way of doing it, if has to be done, ie just using one one word where possible: Puppetz, Bellz, Sanitarium, Harvester, and erm... One.

/oldmanshoutingatclouds

[RoeDent]

Cos it's quicker, simple as.

If we do want a shorter abbreviation, how about VTW? Get the important words in there.

[systemartic]

more artworks from the dreamtheater.net

[Wim Kruithof]

I might be a classic (or newby, depend on opinion) arround here, or have plenty of time next to you'll, but I probably will use 'a View from the top of the World', as it is called. All those abbreviations consuming half of the time I've been on the forum, figuring out which track is meant.

[nikatapi]

I like parts of the new artwork, feels like classic DT.

But, i can't ignore how lazy is the photoshopping, from different resolutions between the elements, to shadows missing, just feels super-lazy and quickly thrown together.

[Jinx]

Random one but hasn't this been the longest gap between their 'epics' now?

ACOS - SDOIT (7 years)
SDOIT - 8V (3 years)
8V - ITPOE (2 years)
ITPOE - TCOT (2 years)
TCOT - IT (4 years)
IT - AVFTTOTW (8 years)

[MirrorMask]

About the album abbreviation: I grew up hearing people talking about Master and Justice, when discussing Metallica. I'm fine with View, rather than Top of the World. If anyone refers Mangini's start with the band as "Dramatic" I immediately know what album they're talking about, as in "yeah, new album is good, I still like Dramatic a bit better", you know what someone is talking about.

[Zydar]

Random one but hasn't this been the longest gap between their 'epics' now?

ACOS - SDOIT (7 years)
SDOIT - 8V (3 years)
8V - ITPOE (2 years)
ITPOE - TCOT (2 years)
TCOT - IT (4 years)
IT - AVFTTOTW (8 years)

I think so, yes. I hope it's worth the wait. Both TCOT and IT was a bit underwhelming for me.

[Seppe76]

When the first single in you opinion? 

[MirrorMask]

After all the excitement of the news, I realized that we won't get this album until late October.

Iron Maiden spoiled us announcing a week earlier an album that will be released in a month, we have to wait THREE months now!

[emtee]

The varied artwork gives a sense of a book with short stories. I'll be interested to learn what the overarching theme of the album is.

[Wim Kruithof]

By the announcement on there own official website Dream Theater has two pictures of the album art. On the background the spider is on the giants boot, scrolling down to the 'official album picture', he is'nt on the boot. Easter egg?

[Zydar]

From some of the song titles I get a feeling of a return to the fantasy stuff from Systematic Chaos (The Alien, Invisible Monster, Sleeping Giant, Awaken The Master).

[IDontNotDoThings]

I think "adventure" could be the theme for the album, with a lot of the songs seeming to deal with mythical/supernatural topics. Someone earlier in the thread mentioned that Answer The Call could be referring to a call to action & I think they're onto something. I also think that the title track at the end could have the vibe ofe "we went through all this just to be able to get this view & what a beautiful view it is", & I think that'd be a nice way to wrap up the concept.

[MirrorMask]

From some of the song titles I get a feeling of a return to the fantasy stuff from Systematic Chaos (The Alien, Invisible Monster, Sleeping Giant, Awaken The Master).

Maybe they're all metaphors. One could feel like an alien in a difficult society, and the invisible monster can be depression, anxiety, a bad relative....

I'm not saying you're wrong, you could be right, but after all the "unthered angel" was no actual angel, and maybe the alien won't be an actual alien (even though there's a UFO picture so, who knows). Or maybe you're half right and there's a song about abductions but Invisibile Monster is about depression, who knows.

[Zydar]

You make a good point, they can be methaphorical. I guess I'm just being too literal

[Wim Kruithof]

Maybe they're all metaphors. One could feel like an alien in a difficult society, and the invisible monster can be depression, anxiety, a bad relative....

Interesting... I am also curious to see if there is a strong connection between the Sleeping Giant and Awaken the Master. And I assume Covid will have a place somewere in here too. The tracklist is very interesting and I can't wait to get my hands on this vinyl.

[Architeuthis]

Seen on Reddit

That.. made me actually laugh out loud!!

Maybe we'll get some good bootlegs from this tour.. 🤪🤘

[OptionalPlayer]

I got my ticket for the Toronto show!!!

Amex presale?

[Peter Mc]

From some of the song titles I get a feeling of a return to the fantasy stuff from Systematic Chaos (The Alien, Invisible Monster, Sleeping Giant, Awaken The Master).

Awaken The Master is the only one which really made me think of SC style fantasy stuff.  Sleeping Giant is obviously a common phrase but the artwork does seem to be taking a quite literal approach to it so who knows?

[Schurftkut]

sleeping giant seems to me to be about Gulliver's travels

[rab7]

Random one but hasn't this been the longest gap between their 'epics' now?

ACOS - SDOIT (7 years)
SDOIT - 8V (3 years)
8V - ITPOE (2 years)
ITPOE - TCOT (2 years)
TCOT - IT (4 years)
IT - AVFTTOTW (8 years)

Yes but only because the gap from Astonishing to D/T was so long.  If we go by album, it's only been two albums between Self-titled and AVFTTOTW with no epic, and The Astonishing was one massive epic anyway

[Ayeegit]

By the announcement on there own official website Dream Theater has two pictures of the album art. On the background the spider is on the giants boot, scrolling down to the 'official album picture', he is'nt on the boot. Easter egg?

They also just released this image on Facebook yesterday, featuring said spider... interesting.