Love this album!
At first it needed to grow on me a bit and I skipped around a lot. The first ones I would revisit were: Our New World, Dystopian Overture, Moment of Betrayal, The Gift of Music, A Life Left Behind, A New Beginning, 2285 ... Even Descent of the Nomacs and Machine Chatter.
Lately my favorites have been Chosen, X Aspect and Losing Faythe. It's the powerful crescendos and melodies I love on these.
There are snipits that don't do it for me still... The Answer, Lord Nafaryus,.. I love the guitar on Savior In The Square, but I don't like the "We have come to hear you sing". interruption..
My biggest criticism: The Astonishing needs more "cow bell" being the final track with a title like that... With a name like that I thought it would be DTs magnum opus of all time. However, I do think it sounds good, I just expected more. Same applies to Hymn of 1000.
As a whole the album is awesome and I can just let it play and play and not get tired of it. Looking forward to seeing it live this Sunday in Baltimore!