Who mentioned anyone being afraid? I’m just saying if fans knew the album was going to be in the style of a Broadway musical rather than a traditional album format, they may have been more prepared for what they got. Many would still have disliked it but they likely wouldn’t have been so angry about it as they knew what was coming.
I don’t recall JP using the term rock opera prior to the album’s release, maybe he did. All I know is that as a huge fan who was intently and hungrily eating up any news we got, I was not expecting musical theatre from this album. I was expecting a full on prog metal DT double disc concept record. Even the singles released were more traditional DT fare.
I’m not suggesting bands cannot change things up without pre-warning fans but, if people are expecting a new DT album and you are giving them the soundtrack to a musical theatre show, I think they may have avoided some of the backlash by telling people that. Just say “I’ve always loved musicals and it’s been an ambition of mine to write something in that style. It’s still Dream Theater but it’s something really different for us as it’s not a traditional rock album, it’s like DT does Broadway and I hope our amazing fans will embrace it. It has been a hugely ambitious undertaking and we’re really proud of what we’ve done. James, in particular did an incredible job as he has to sing all the different characters. We will be playing the whole thing every night on the upcoming tour and it will be our most ambitious stage production ever. I can’t wait to get out there and play it for people.
If I read that, before the album came out, I’d still be super excited but would be intrigued too and then, when I heard it, even if I hated it, I would have immediately thought “now I get what he meant”. Rather than the more angry reaction of someone expecting a traditional DT concept album.
Like I said I loved it when it came out so it was all good for me.
He did do just that...
https://search.blabbermouth.net/news/dream-theater-official-the-astonishing-album-trailer/
Not nearly to the extent Peter MC was talking about though.
I don't think JP expected this reaction from fans, and likely figured the fans would understand it's a Rock Opera, due to him saying " I wanted this not only to be a concept album, but really to write a full show"
I got that they were doing a Rock Opera, from the way he was describing the story, characters, plot, maps, etc. You must not have been paying much attention to not expect this.
How would JP have known the fans wouldn't be happy with the way these songs are arranged, soft opener and climatic outro to transition the story and plot?
JP gave his reasons to why the songs are arranged the way they are. Which is to showcase the story like an Opera, I've been to Operas and these songs are structured in the same way, where the song is the Scene of the play. The Liner Notes showcases this to the bone with telling where the Scene takes place, it reads like a play script. All these are even before you can hear the album.
AS I SAID. I have no idea what fans Expectations were for this album. JP explained what this album was going to be, the band even had a dedicated site to the album, All revealing the album is not your usual concept album. JP even explained the writing process they took to create the songs, and it isn't how they usually write songs. They actually composed with the story, in his own words...
"Jordan [Rudess, keyboards] and I wrote the music as really a prog-metal score to the story. We didn't sit down and say, 'Let's write a song, here's the first chorus, whatever.' We would go through the story and say, "What's happening here, where is it taking place?" We had to make sure the mythology was right, the timeline was right. And that carried through on every level."
From that, you can gather, the songs are not going to be in the usual Dream Theater structures. The way they were structured is what JP feels should be the score music behind the characters dialogue. Maybe showing their sadness, their contempt, using the music to show the characters emotion. All things like that he explained.