Parasomnia Timeline Thread

[TAC]

With James finishing vocals, I'm really curious (like everyone) to see where he is at. We know what will be brought to the table musically. The Wild Card is always the Pirate. I am going to ASSume whatever he recorded will be something he will be able to comfortably sing live. But, has he taken stock of how he's sounded on recent tours and did something to address that before recording vocals for this album? Or is he just singing the songs, and will figure out what to do with them live for consistency later?

I'm excited for DT's new release. They all want it to be great with MP back in the band. But the tunes also need to be pulled off live, and JLB has to be comfortable. It just makes me wonder if he's dialed it down in the studio, so that he can sing them with more consistency than the last couple of tours.

IMO, he's been pretty dialed down in the studio since before MP left. It has always been my biggest general complaint about their albums (except for The Astonishing, where James shines) is that they've never truly taken advantage of what James can do.

I think they probably made the best album they could including vocals. That's not to say that there may or may not have been an instance where they were at a crossroads at a certain line or part and possibly dialed a specific part back, but I don't generally think it happened across the board.

[Schurftkut]

as long as they keep the effects, at least modulationwise, to a minimum

[Samsara]

re: vocals - I knew they were done with the vocals. I should have said "since he finished the vocals."

I agree with TAC that the last couple of records, they've gotten it down with JLB. But I guess I'm hoping the new songs are delivered more consistently, night after night on stage (within reason, it's a human instrument, after all).

[Stadler]

I'm not quite sure what you think I'm saying beyond the fact that 6 of the 7 longest songs in the catalog ranked in the top 25 in both countdowns.  One can reasonably conclude further that those songs are popular with the folks at DTF (and I don't think there's a big disconnect between everyone here and the subset who participated in the countdowns).

As far as what you're saying, I agree that there is bias in favor of the concept of longer songs and that such bias is unwarranted if the only information known is the length of the song.  I don't really recall the buzz preceding the release of Octavarium (the album).  I strongly suspect that I knew nothing about the album until I had it in my hands, but I assume that it was announced ahead of time that the title track was 24 minutes.  I also assume that people got excited about that fact.  However, if you're saying (and I'm not sure you are) that people are still biased toward liking the song because of its length (i.e., they're ranking the songs high BECAUSE they're long), I'm highly skeptical of that.  Once you've actually heard a song, it can be evaluated on its merits above and beyond its length.

That's exactly what I'm saying. Even if we have the benefit of hearing those songs, I think there's probably some level of subconscious bias; we know that repetition breeds familiarity, and I thik we might give more attention and scrutiny to the longer songs. I don't know; I'm just musing out loud.  To be clear, at the end of the day it doesn't matter a whit; we like what we like and there need be no defense of that.

[Samsara]

READ my last post. Happy to fix my OP if folks don't bother to read replies.

*meant for those folks nitpicking at my initial usage of "finishing vocals" as opposed to "finished vocals." My op has since been edited.

[hefdaddy42]

That's exactly what I'm saying. Even if we have the benefit of hearing those songs, I think there's probably some level of subconscious bias; we know that repetition breeds familiarity, and I thik we might give more attention and scrutiny to the longer songs. 

I don't. 

[Puppies_On_Acid]

and I thik we might give more attention and scrutiny to the longer songs.

To me a good song is a good song, whether it's 2 minutes long or an hour long. Granted, I think longer songs have the opportunity to breathe and evolve naturally and because of their length they demand more scrutiny to fully form an opinion on them. I think that's just the nature of the beast. In any art medium, if it's bigger, longer, or more complex it requires more time and attention to fully understand or appreciate it. 

[King Postwhore]

Over analysis is over analysis. 

[TAC]

Over analysis is over analysis. 

The longer the analysis the better.

[Dream Team]

With DT, I tend to think I'll probably like a longer song because they do so much with it, unlike Maiden where they just bloat it to death. Of all DT songs of 10+ minutes, there are only a couple that I don't care for.

[TheHoveringSojourn808]

soooo when's the album coming out? haven't checked in here in a while

[CraftyCaleb2483]

soooo when's the album coming out? haven't checked in here in a while

Ah yes, we've heard from the band recently, I think it was about 2 months ago, I think they mentioned the release date being about this time next year  

[CraftyCaleb2483]

Jokes aside, we haven't heard from the band in a very long time, so you have about as much clue as we all do!

[Schurftkut]

patiently waiting for the documentary to drop....

[hefdaddy42]

Over analysis is over analysis. 

Well 

[King Postwhore]

Well

Well...

[Zydar]

Well...

[hefdaddy42]

I mean...

[King Postwhore]

Well, well.

[wizard]

Perhaps we'll have some informations, concerning the future album, at the end of September 2024.

In effect, two American Dream Theater's admirers produce a podcast, dedicated to the band, and called "Talking Into Infinity". They announced a bonus episode, planned for September 21th, at 3 o'clock PM (American Hour). Perhaps this wants to do something, regarding the futur album. Now look, that's just an hypothesis.

[Schurftkut]

they have 300subs, i'd think they would choose bigger channels

[Wim Kruithof]

My wife asked me why I laughed. Well, your well.

[TheHoveringSojourn808]

James please give us a new album

[Jamesman42]

I'm working on it.

[CraftyCaleb2483]

I'm working on it.

[Puppies_On_Acid]

I'm working on it.

Wait, are you actually James LaBrie? Is your roulette holding up the album release? Forget the roulette!!!

[Jamesman42]

Wait, are you actually James LaBrie? Is your roulette holding up the album release? Forget the roulette!!!

Yes, I thought you guys al knew.

We will release all album details once the roulette is done!!!! 

[Puppies_On_Acid]

Yes, I thought you guys al knew.

We will release all album details once the roulette is done!!!! 

On second thought, roulettes come first

[CraftyCaleb2483]

Yes, I thought you guys al knew.

We will release all album details once the roulette is done!!!! 

Ok, the song length limit for all remaining rounds is now 30 seconds. Even though I'm not running that roulette

[ZirconBlue]

Well

That's a deep subject (as my Mom used to say).

[pg1067]

Would've been amusing to get an announcement about the new album yesterday, given that it was the anniversary of MP's announcing he was leaving.

[Glasser]

Would've been amusing to get an announcement about the new album yesterday, given that it was the anniversary of MP's announcing he was leaving.

 

[Wim Kruithof]

In October '23 they've announced the return op Portnoy, in January there was the 'back in DTHQ for #16-propaganda' and now in September there's still a total silence. Simply cruel. Please, give this dogg a bone to chew on...

[DreamerTV]

They don't plan their communication based on how "cruel" the wait might feel for a fan

It's very likely that, with just over a month left until the start of the 40th-anniversary tour, and the first one after reuniting with MP, we are close to a period filled with content from the band.
Whether it's about the new album or just aimed at boosting ticket sales (which have been very good but still far from the sold-out shows that were talked about weeks ago), we can't know for sure. Of course, if the schedule has gone as planned, and we do get at least one song from the new album performed during this first leg, it's easy to imagine that it's just a matter of days before we get information about the first single – and thus the album name and a tracklist. I wouldn't expect much more than that for now, though, because, given how things have unfolded, it's likely they'll want to leverage the new album's promotion to support a second tour (thus turning it into the promotional tour for it). Otherwise, it's hard to imagine they'd tour for over a year and a half just for the anniversary - i would imagine a whole summer of festivals in 2025 and then back with an headline tour for the new album starting in the fall.

[CodyWanKenobi]

If memory serves they released OTBOA just a few days before their first show with Mangini (I was at Disneyland that day and I made my wife, who was my girlfriend at the time, completely stop what we were doing and I sat next to the Walt/Mickey "Founders" statue so I could hold my phone to my ear and listen to the song lol), so it's totally not out of the realm of possibility that they release a single before the tour, even if it's within a week.

That being said, InsideOut clearly does things differently than Roadrunner, so maybe I'm just wishfully thinking.