Guess what your preference ranking & the TONE STYLE will be of the 8 songs

[Shadowmangini]

Then come back in four months and see how accurate you were. What song do you anticipate you'll like best by title and length alone?

~PREFERENCE RANKING PREDICTION~
Dead Asleep (11:06)
Bend The Clock (7:24)
The Shadow Man Incident (19:32)
A Broken Man (8:30)
Night Terror (9:55)
In The Arms Of Morpheus (5:22)
Midnight Messiah (7:58)
Are We Dreaming? (1:28)

That's my guess based on title hype and track-lengths! I expect there to be heavy debate over which of the two 10+ minute songs is better.


Now as for the styles of each, I expect obviously the two 10+ minute songs will be suites that are both heavy and soft in different parts. We know that Night Terror is a heavier progressive metal song, and we're pretty much confirmed that Are We Dreaming? is an interlude. That leaves four mystery songs: Bend the Clock, A Broken Man, Midnight Messiah, and In the Arms of Morpheus.

I imagine the opener will be either instrumental entirely, or overture-like (not necessarily with recurring melodies but show-opening in grandiosity). "A Broken Man" seems too early in the album to go ballad, so I expect something that's lower tempo but still really heavy and swelling. This leads me to believe "Midnight Messiah" will be the ballad of the album, and "Bend the Clock" will be the most off-the-wall, unlike-anything-they've-ever-done song.

[pg1067]

Wait...what...

We're supposed to guess how much we'll like each song based solely on names and lengths?  Seriously?

[BeatriceNB]

My guesses are that there's no ballad per se (like in the previous album), but Are We Dreaming? is going to be either an a cappella track, or piano + vocals only.

As for favourite songs, definitely the epic because it has to be the most diverse and ambitious song on the album... hopefully.

[TAC]

There's gonna be a bitchin' track, I just know it.

[illusionist]

Bend the clock sounds like a heavy 8 string guitar prorgy (prog orgy) to me

[TheBarstoolWarrior]

I'm thinking there are no ballads. Maybe there's a mid tempo song instead.

[WilliamMunny]

My guesses are that there's no ballad per se (like in the previous album), but Are We Dreaming? is going to be either an a cappella track, or piano + vocals only.

As for favourite songs, definitely the epic because it has to be the most diverse and ambitious song on the album... hopefully.

I really, really hope that on an album centered around sleeping, there'd be at least one dreamy, snoozy moment (a la "Lifting Shadows".

[hefdaddy42]

My guesses are that there's no ballad per se (like in the previous album), but Are We Dreaming? is going to be either an a cappella track, or piano + vocals only.

As for favourite songs, definitely the epic because it has to be the most diverse and ambitious song on the album... hopefully.

I guess that's right.  But for me, Transcending Time fulfilled the "ballad" slot, even though it's not a ballad.

[Shadowmangini]

There has to be a ballad because they work so well with modern LaBrie's range!

[wolfking]

I'm not sure why, but I think The Shadow Man Incident might be an epic of some sort.

[Dedalus]

I'm not sure why, but I think The Shadow Man Incident might be an epic of some sort.

My bet is for something like Repentance (expanded)

[hefdaddy42]

I'm not sure why, but I think The Shadow Man Incident might be an epic of some sort.

Could it be the song length (19:32)?

[Shadowmangini]

It isn't likely at all but, what if The Shadow Man Incident is the first ever "epic ballad"? I mean some people consider "Trial of Tears" to be sort of like that but honestly that's more of a lower tempo normal epic to me. Think about how "Space Dye Vest" is a balladesque way of ending a record. Now imagine if Space Dye Vest were 19 minutes. What if The Shadow Man Incident is slow and soft and melancholic all the way through and yet melodically and intricately designed into suite form, making it an epic and not just a "long length ballad"?

I started the post saying "it isn't likely at all" for a reason! This would happen only in the occasion where the rest of the album is significantly heavy, it would probably mean getting all the metal and heaviness out of the way early on, kind of like how Awake has its heaviest moments in tracks 1-8 and then 9, 10 and 11 are softer (Scarred has some huge heavy moments but think about Lifting Shadows and Space Dye bookend it)

[hefdaddy42]

Now imagine if Space Dye Vest were 19 minutes.

That would be awful

[Shadowmangini]

Oh yes, it most certainly would. Because it was the same motif in general through the whole song. That's why the concept of having a longer soft song broken up into suites would be the only way for this concept to work.

[BeatriceNB]

Now imagine if Space Dye Vest were 1 What if The Shadow Man Incident is slow and soft and melancholic all the way through and yet melodically and intricately designed into suite form, making it an epic and not just a "long length ballad"?

Something like Shine On You Crazy Diamond, I think?