SPOILERS
Sorry if my English isnt that good.. Here goes:
Okey, I`ve listened through this album once. I almost pissed myself when I saw the little carboard paggage in my mailbox after work!
I have to admit, I did listen to a couple of tracks when the whole "website that shouldn`t have streamed the album"-thing unfolded. Im glad that I waited to listen to the whole thing until today.
This album is very hard to take in after just one listen. It`s 34 songs and over two hours goddammit!
But hell.. Im left with so many impressions.
I wont go through every song, and I have to listen to it at least three or four times until I conclude on how well it sits compared to the rest of their catalogue.
My first impression is: WOW. What an album. So much music! So melodic! So..many ballads..
Im a first and foremost a prog-guy. Im happy this isnt the full blown metal-concept-wank-fest-album, but I have to admit that after the first listen I feel that some parts of the album felt kind of slow. NOT bad, but theres a lot of slow, melodic moments. That may not be a bad thing after I`ve listened to it a couple of times, but it was a lot more of that than I expected.
I`ll make a short list of good/not as good moments I noticed during listening.
Not as good (the nitpicking):- After my first listen the album moves a bit slowly at points. Melodically its GREAT, but at some points I wish it was more dynamic, musically. Overall, this album is the softest theyve done, so it`s a bit unusual. This may change however!
- NOMACS - underused in the story? I did not read the lyrics for the entire thing. I had the album playing on the stereo, and at some points I had to leave the booklet. I was almost expecting some kind of Gabriel/NOMAC-battle
They generally didn`t seem as the big threat that I thought after seeing the artwork and reading all the info. The NOMAC
tracks are kind of..irritating. "Descent" is a cool intro, and I like "Power Down". The other tracks are just noise (well..they are noise machines..).
- When your time has come. Isn`t this supposed to be when Gabriel sings to the Empire? Well.. I don`t really care for that song to much. However.. If I lived in a world when I had to listen to those fucking NOMACS all day, that song would probably have been the best song ever..
GOOD:- Diversity: There is SO much to take in. Oh my god.. And stylistically it is so varied. Definitely the most musically interresting since SDOIT.
- James fucking LaBrie. Holy shit.. Im so glad that he finally got HIS album. There is so many amazing vocal-parts, and there is so much singing on this album! I really hope he gets a lot of praise for this, because he totally deserves it,
- Piano. Jordan shines when he plays piano, we all know that, and this album really proves how good he is, without the overwhelming synth-patch-shifting he usually does on DT-stuff.
- Production. The most organic theyve done in years. Yes, you can nitpick and say that the drums sound a bit mechanical, but that has a lot to do with MM`s playing style. The drums fit well in the mix most places. Actually, the two songs I think they are too much "in your face" is "The gift of music" and "Moment of betrayal".
Im also so glad they focused so much on organic instruments. Real strings, real brass, real piano, real B3-organ.. fantastic!
- New stuff. Finally, after so many years of making "DT-sounding albums" they truly experimented with styles. Lord Nafaryus, Three Days and A life left behind sound so refreshing! I cant help myself but laugh when the ending to Three Days hits. Its SO FUCKING GOOD, but at the same time tounge-in-cheek and playful. Three Days is probably my favorite song on the album btw.
There is so much to take in, but this is the notes I made during listening. Just laying on the couch and taking it all in was a true pleasure.
This album is like Dream Theater meets Jesus Christ Superstar meets Disney. Theyve really gone all in.
After the first listen, I give it 8,5/10. It may go up, it may go down. However, the first listen was a true pleasure.