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Dream Theater => Dream Theater => Topic started by: TheOutlawXanadu on August 08, 2011, 02:57:37 PM
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Before BC&SL came out, I led one of these. Basically, we go back and talk about all the Dream Theater studio albums thus far leading to the release of ADToE.
For this, I think it would be really cool if everyone had 200 words and that's it. I'm going to stick to it, at least.
The first studio album: When Dream and Day Unite.
When Dream and Day Unite is one of the most passionate of all Dream Theater studio albums. It's brimming with excitement from beginning to end and I think it's very easy to see how Images and Words followed it. The two have a lot of similarities to me.
WDaDU has at least one quintessential DT song in “Ytse Jam” and arguably even more. It also has some near-killers in “Light Fuse and Getaway” and “Only a Matter of Time”. It has shitty production, no doubt, and Charlie Dominici is not the vocalist James LaBrie is, but still, WDaDU is not deserving of its bad reputation. It seems to be one of the cosmopolitan picks for DT's worst, but I would rank it considerably higher.
Rating: 3 or 3.5 (out of five)
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Cool idea! My rating is 4/4- out of five. I agree with almost everything you said, but you should not have passed over "The Killing Hand", easily the top song off WDADU!
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The only albums better then WDADU imo are I&W, Awake, SFAM and SDOIT but on a good day it could even be tied with SDOIT.
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When Dream and Day Unite, Dream Theaters' debut album, reminds me of an overture of what is to come with Images and Words. Charlie Dominici is the vocalists, and shows he can do these songs pretty good, but also were not suited for what his range was, mainly The Killing Hand. The production is pretty bad, but doesnt distract from the music. The only problems it has are during TOWHTSTS, and LFAGA. The ending song, OAMOT is a great way to end a debut album. A song about setting off in search of a dream, not knowing what the future may hold, but knowing its only a matter of time till you succeed in the dream.
7/10, mainly for the poor production, otherwise it'd be a 8.5
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A good time to tell my college radio story again! :D
In 1989, I was doing the metal show on my college radio station, Bryant College in RI, and one night doing the show, I was looking through the new record bin and I saw this album by a band called Dream Theater. I thought, that's a cool name for a band. I put it in cue and sampled it. Unfortunately when in cue, the keyboards really stood out and the drums sounded very thin. Just sounded kinda artsy to me. That combined with the gay album cover and even gayer band pic prompted me to put it down and never think of it again.
Flash forward to early to mid 1993. In the past 6 months I have discovered this great new band that I saw open for Iron Maiden, and I have now seen 4 times. I become aware that they have a first album, though it has a different singer. I called Worldwide CD in Chicago, (where I always ordered my hard to find CDs from). When WDADU came, I opened the package and...holy shit! I immedeately recognized the queer cover. I could not believe it. :omg:
There it was, the very album that I had in my hands 4 years earlier.
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A good time to tell my college radio story again! :D
In 1989, I was doing the metal show on my college radio station, Bryant College in RI, and one night doing the show, I was looking through the new record bin and I saw this album by a band called Dream Theater. I thought, that's a cool name for a band. I put it in cue and sampled it. Unfortunately when in cue, the keyboards really stood out and the drums sounded very thin. Just sounded kinda artsy to me. That combined with the gay album cover and even gayer band pic prompted me to put it down and never think of it again.
Flash forward to early to mid 1993. In the past 6 months I have discovered this great new band that I saw open for Iron Maiden, and I have now seen 4 times. I become aware that they have a first album, though it has a different singer. I called Worldwide CD in Chicago, (where I always ordered my hard to find CDs from). When WDADU came, I opened the package and...holy shit! I immedeately recognized the queer cover. I could not believe it. :omg:
There it was, the very album that I had in my hands 4 years earlier.
That was a good story. 100% agree about the album cover and band pic.
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I definitely agree with OP that WDADU was clearly written by an excited and enthusiastic bunch of guys. You can tell they were having fun writing that stuff and have perhaps lost that amateur excitement feeling (though in favour of more tasteful writing) on all subsequent albums. That said though, I don't really listen to the album that much mainly because Charlie's voice kills it for me.
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A good time to tell my college radio story again! :D
In 1989, I was doing the metal show on my college radio station, Bryant College in RI, and one night doing the show, I was looking through the new record bin and I saw this album by a band called Dream Theater. I thought, that's a cool name for a band. I put it in cue and sampled it. Unfortunately when in cue, the keyboards really stood out and the drums sounded very thin. Just sounded kinda artsy to me. That combined with the gay album cover and even gayer band pic prompted me to put it down and never think of it again.
Flash forward to early to mid 1993. In the past 6 months I have discovered this great new band that I saw open for Iron Maiden, and I have now seen 4 times. I become aware that they have a first album, though it has a different singer. I called Worldwide CD in Chicago, (where I always ordered my hard to find CDs from). When WDADU came, I opened the package and...holy shit! I immedeately recognized the queer cover. I could not believe it. :omg:
There it was, the very album that I had in my hands 4 years earlier.
That was a good story. 100% agree about the album cover and band pic.
I kinda like the cover. Yeah, it's quite weird, I can see whoy most people dub it a "queer cover", but it's not the worst cover in the history of music (and of DT as well - ACOS ). The individual pics of the member, on the other hand, stand as the lamest things ever to stain the DT catalogue. But even that, I was not born until a couple of year after 89, maybe I'm just too culturally and cronologically distant to understand and appreciate that kind of "style"...
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I love ACOS' cover.
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I love ACOS' cover.
I love the orange (back) cover. The front one is, well, too much resembling a collage. :lol
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I've mentioned WDADU a lot here, so I won't go too into detail. But the main point is that I think this album is one of DT's best albums. There's not a single song on here below a ranking of 8/10. I think it's in amazing album from start to finish. When it comes to DT, I can't really rank albums, because that's impossible, so I can't say which place I rank this album in, but I will rate each song off WDADU.
Out of /10
A Fortune In Lies - 9
Status Seeker - 8
Yste Jam - 8.5
The Killing Hand - 9.3
Light Fuse and Get Away - 8.5
Afterlife - 9
The Ones Who Help To Set The Sun - 9
Only A Matter of Time - 9.3
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Before BC&SL came out, I led one of these. Basically, we go back and talk about all the Dream Theater studio albums thus far leading to the release of ADToE.
If you did it before, whats the point of doing it again...?
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Before BC&SL came out, I led one of these. Basically, we go back and talk about all the Dream Theater studio albums thus far leading to the release of ADToE.
If you did it before, whats the point of doing it again...?
We have a lot of new members now. Also, people's opinions have changed since last time.
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Many of the songs on this album suffer from a bit of immaturity in the orchestration and some of the song structures, however there is a spirit and energy in these songs that shows a band out to prove that they've got something really special to share with the world. I'm not a huge fan of Charlie but he does a decent job on this recording. The playing on this record is really cool but you can also tell it's a young band proving that they can play.
The 4 instrumentalists were totally ready to cement their places amongst the great players on their respective instruments. Song highlights for me include the fantastic "The Killing Hand" "Afterlife" "Ytse Jam" and "Only a Matter of Time"
Overall, the songs are cool, the playing in great, the singing is decent. The album suffers from the obvious production issues and some somewhat immature orchestrations and song structures. That aside, the album is got an incredible energy and it's a totally inspired debut record
6/10
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Many of the songs on this album suffer from a bit of immaturity in the orchestration and some of the song structures, however there is a spirit and energy in these songs that shows a band out to prove that they've got something really special to share with the world. I'm not a huge fan of Charlie but he does a decent job on this recording. The playing on this record is really cool but you can also tell it's a young band proving that they can play.
The 4 instrumentalists were totally ready to cement their places amongst the great players on their respective instruments. Song highlights for me include the fantastic "The Killing Hand" "Afterlife" "Ytse Jam" and "Only a Matter of Time"
Overall, the songs are cool, the playing in great, the singing is decent. The album suffers from the obvious production issues and some somewhat immature orchestrations and song structures. That aside, the album is got an incredible energy and it's a totally inspired debut record
6/10
I'm not sure I understand what you mean when you say their song structures and orchestrations are immature. Could you clarify?
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The first DT record I ever got was "Awake," shortly followed by "WDADU." I remember upon first listen that I HATED WDADU...so much so that I sold it the next day.
Fast-forward 10 years later; I come across the remaster of the album and decide to give it another try. It has since become a favorite of mine, mainly because I really dig the rough and dare I say "darker" vibe of the album, as well as Petricci's fired-up lead-work on "Fortune in Lies;" it gets my blood pumping every time. Plus, listening to JMX's extremely unique bass lines on this album is a lot of fun to digest when i'm in the right mood.
I would give WDADU an 8 out of 10...for sheer uniqueness as it's place in the greater DT catalogue :) Production however, does get a separate 5/10 :(
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5/10
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6/10
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Lots of forgotten greatness here. TOWHTSTS has one of DT's best ambient sections in its intro, a shredtastic guitar solo, and a very neat bass harmonic/FXy guitar jam at the start. The Killing Hand laid the groundwork for all DT mini-epics to come, and is unique in that only one section has a verse/chorus structure, the rest just flows from one section to another without refrains. SS is a well-done version of the 80's rock song, and surprisingly catchy. And, of course, there's Ytsejam, the beginning of the DT instrumental section. Ironically, this is the most listenable track on the album.
Why do I say ironically? Because it's not the best song, but it's the most listenable because it doesn't have CD on it. I don't think CD is a bad person or a bad guy, but I don't think his singing is great to begin with and it absolutely doesn't suit DT in my opinion. There are many sections of the songs, especially in TKH, that his vocal chords just can't handle.
With JLB on vocals, this is easily one of my favorite DT albums. With CD, I never know what to make of it.
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Some great posts so far. I feel like I've defended WDADU at length recently, so I won't repeat myself too much. I think it's underrated, and I love the "youthful energy" (some other DTF member's descriptor, can't remember whose) of the music. The production blows, but even that sort of adds to that "unknown but ambitious kids making an album on a super low budget" appeal. Dominici's vocals aren't as bad as they're made out to be; the only song that suffers because of him is The Killing Hand.
Not big on applying arbitrary numerical ratings to stuff, but it's better than every DT album since SDOIT. Highlights are Afterlife, Only a Matter of Time, A Fortune in Lies, and Light Fuse.
-J
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I've said it before and I'll say it again. Wonderfully written & composed album with terrible production and weak vocals. This could've been a "classic" DT album. Instead, I give it a 3.5/5
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Out of /10
A Fortune In Lies - 9
Status Seeker - 8
Yste Jam - 8.5
The Killing Hand - 9.3
Light Fuse and Get Away - 8.5
Afterlife - 9
The Ones Who Help To Set The Sun - 9
Only A Matter of Time - 9.3
You and me, we are going to be friends. Seriously though, WDADU is my third favorite Dream Theater album. When I was getting into DT, I had Images and Words. Everyone kept suggesting to go listen to SFAM or TOT, but I told them I wanted to listen to the debut. They literally warned me that if I wanted to like DT, that was not the way to go. If anything, it made me fall in love with them more.
EDIT: I also think that a few of these songs can only sound right with Charlie. Status Seeker, and Afterlife. I actually love Charlie's voice on this album, end of Killing Hand aside.
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I really love this album. If its remade in the studio, it has the capabilities of being one of my favorite DT albums.
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I think they should have Charlie redo it as well. I know that sounds weird, but instead of "erasing" him from that part of history, they should let him redo it in his own range. Especially since he has a great voice. Also, the obvious remixing and mastering needs to happen.
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I think they should have Charlie redo it as well. I know that sounds weird, but instead of "erasing" him from that part of history, they should let him redo it in his own range. Especially since he has a great voice. Also, the obvious remixing and mastering needs to happen.
I'd pay you 100 bucks for every other DT fan that wanted to hear this, which I'm willing to do because I know I'd have to pay you zero dollars.
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I'll participate. But only forr the albums I own :) (Octavarium, Images and Words, Awake, Systematic Chaos, Black Clouds and Silver Linings, Scenes From a Memory, and will there be ACOS?)
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Yo. How do I change this thread to a poll?
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I'll participate. But only forr the albums I own :) (Octavarium, Images and Words, Awake, Systematic Chaos, Black Clouds and Silver Linings, Scenes From a Memory, and will there be ACOS?)
You absolutely need to buy Awake right now.
I think they should have Charlie redo it as well. I know that sounds weird, but instead of "erasing" him from that part of history, they should let him redo it in his own range. Especially since he has a great voice. Also, the obvious remixing and mastering needs to happen.
I'd pay you 100 bucks for every other DT fan that wanted to hear this, which I'm willing to do because I know I'd have to pay you zero dollars.
I wouldn't be against something like this, though without Charlie's vocals, since his voice has significantly deteriorated since 1989, and it wasn't exactly great to begin with. Not that I dislike his vocals on WDADU; I think they fit well for the album.
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This has always been my least favourite DT album. At first it was the usual reasons - lack of LaBrie, lack of decent production, amateur songwriting etc. These days, while I have come to terms with the mixing and Charlie's voice for the most part, I simply find it doesn't match up to the rest of the band's discography. It's too flawed, too lacking in the power, grandiosity and diversity that define Dream Theater, too entrenched in Rush worship.
But that's not to say there aren't some damn good tunes on this album. Sure, it lacks almost every one of the key elements that make Dream Theater my favourite band, and there's some lacklustre material like The Ones Who Help To Set The Sun and Light Fuse And Get Away on there, but the rest of the material all holds up well when taken on its own. From the exciting mission statement of the career-opening A Fortune In Lies to the catchy chorus of Status Seeker, from the jaw-dropping guitar/keyboard duet in Afterlife to the triumphant ending of Only A Matter Of Time, and from Ytse Jam's impressive virtuosity to the band's first truly progressive song structure with The Killing Hand, it's an album chock full of cool moments that simply has too many weaknesses to really be a great DT album.
7/10.
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I'll participate. But only forr the albums I own :) (Octavarium, Images and Words, Awake, Systematic Chaos, Black Clouds and Silver Linings, Scenes From a Memory, and will there be ACOS?)
You absolutely need to buy Awake right now.
I think they should have Charlie redo it as well. I know that sounds weird, but instead of "erasing" him from that part of history, they should let him redo it in his own range. Especially since he has a great voice. Also, the obvious remixing and mastering needs to happen.
I'd pay you 100 bucks for every other DT fan that wanted to hear this, which I'm willing to do because I know I'd have to pay you zero dollars.
I wouldn't be against something like this, though without Charlie's vocals, since his voice has significantly deteriorated since 1989, and it wasn't exactly great to begin with. Not that I dislike his vocals on WDADU; I think they fit well for the album.
I think he sings better now on his own records than he did in 1989 DT. I just don't feel like James really needs to be on that album, to be honest, I'd be fine with them just doing a proper mix and master job, and maybe even touching up some of the vocals with Charlie.
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I'll participate. But only forr the albums I own :) (Octavarium, Images and Words, Awake, Systematic Chaos, Black Clouds and Silver Linings, Scenes From a Memory, and will there be ACOS?)
You absolutely need to buy Awake right now.
He has Awake. But what he really needs is Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence... Pronto!
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I looked for it in the store but they didn't have it. But I have score, and the title track is godly!
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Many of the songs on this album suffer from a bit of immaturity in the orchestration and some of the song structures, however there is a spirit and energy in these songs that shows a band out to prove that they've got something really special to share with the world. I'm not a huge fan of Charlie but he does a decent job on this recording. The playing on this record is really cool but you can also tell it's a young band proving that they can play.
The 4 instrumentalists were totally ready to cement their places amongst the great players on their respective instruments. Song highlights for me include the fantastic "The Killing Hand" "Afterlife" "Ytse Jam" and "Only a Matter of Time"
Overall, the songs are cool, the playing in great, the singing is decent. The album suffers from the obvious production issues and some somewhat immature orchestrations and song structures. That aside, the album is got an incredible energy and it's a totally inspired debut record
6/10
I'm not sure I understand what you mean when you say their song structures and orchestrations are immature. Could you clarify?
Yeah for sure.
You can 100% tell that they have evolved as songwriters since then. To my ears, a song like Light Fuse and Get Away is just kind of a mess. It just jumps from one thing to another too quick and it doesn't seem like one cohesive thought to my ears. The Ones who helped to set the sun is a bit like this as well. One thing they're known for are those so called quick turns and putting different ideas together seamlessly, but I don't think they did that on this record for the most part.
One thing they refer to in the commentary for WDADRU is the whole idea of the instruments playing in the correct registers and stuff. Portnoy referred to having the bass on tensions a lot and guitar and keys playing in basically the same registers. While I think this can be really cool, they definitely improved on later albums as they grew and matured as songwriters.
Basically, my whole thought is it sounds like a young band, which is what they were. Images and Words however, does not. That album REALLY came together quite perfectly in terms of orchestrations and song structures. The songs were cohesive yet adventurous. Anyways, that's all I mean.
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For the first time in a few years I've sat down and listened through an entire DT album non-stop (hasn't happened since ToT I think), mainly because I want to see if I can re-kindle my love for DT with this new album.
WDADU:
I wish the myung from 1989 would come play on the new album (not to say he isn't going to, but I have my doubts). The bass lines are incredibly memorable and really carry some songs. Everyone is in top form and they really sound like they are giving their all. I really wish that WDADU had better production value but I don't think I'd like a re-release, even if they had CD sing. To me WDADU represents a moment of time where 5 guys got together and said "Lets make a great prog album" and they did. They packed energy, power, catchy and memorable melodies in one album.
Overall rating: 7/10
There is my scatter brained, drunk thoughts on the album.,
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I think I have made my opinion on this album clear: I like it! :metal Few bands are as professional on their debut album as DT was. I'd rate it 3.5/5 or 4/5. A Fortune in Lies, The Killing Hand, Afterlife and Only a Matter of Time are definite DT classics and TOWHTSTS is IMO their most underrated song. I don't see why people dislike it so much... The atmospheric keyboard/bass part in the intro is just wonderful!
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I think I have made my opinion on this album clear: I like it! :metal Few bands are as professional on their debut album as DT was. I'd rate it 3.5/5 or 4/5. A Fortune in Lies, The Killing Hand, Afterlife and Only a Matter of Time are definite DT classics and TOWHTSTS is IMO their most underrated song. I don't see why people dislike it so much... The atmospheric keyboard/bass part in the intro is just wonderful!
People don't like it because of Dominici. I like it but my friend is a big DT fan and can't listen to it because of Charlie.
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I think I have made my opinion on this album clear: I like it! :metal Few bands are as professional on their debut album as DT was. I'd rate it 3.5/5 or 4/5. A Fortune in Lies, The Killing Hand, Afterlife and Only a Matter of Time are definite DT classics and TOWHTSTS is IMO their most underrated song. I don't see why people dislike it so much... The atmospheric keyboard/bass part in the intro is just wonderful!
People don't like it because of Dominici. I like it but my friend is a big DT fan and can't listen to it because of Charlie.
I know the album is disliked beacuse of Charlie, I meant that TOWHTSTS gets undeserved hate.
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I think I have made my opinion on this album clear: I like it! :metal Few bands are as professional on their debut album as DT was. I'd rate it 3.5/5 or 4/5. A Fortune in Lies, The Killing Hand, Afterlife and Only a Matter of Time are definite DT classics and TOWHTSTS is IMO their most underrated song. I don't see why people dislike it so much... The atmospheric keyboard/bass part in the intro is just wonderful!
People don't like it because of Dominici. I like it but my friend is a big DT fan and can't listen to it because of Charlie.
I know the album is disliked beacuse of Charlie, I meant that TOWHTSTS gets undeserved hate.
True, I think its a great song, but I see lots of people in DTF hating on it. :huh:
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Not a huge fan of WDADU. It's okay, but very amateur.
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The only bad thing about Dream and Day is the production. The songwriting is absolutely fantastic, and Charlie Dominici is perfectly cool too. In all honesty, if I'm listening to Dream Theater on shuffle and A Fortune in Lies comes on, I don't notice there's been a change in vocalists. Not inasmuch as they sound similar, more that he doesn't sound out of place amidst the material for a second so it never really registers one way or the other. I don't think about it - never sit there going "this would benefit from some James."
My main issue with WDADU is the lack of diversity, really. All the songs are cut from very much the same cloth, which has only really happened on Train of Thought since, and even with ToT there was a lot more to set the songs apart from one another. Nonetheless - Ytse Jam, Light Fuse and OAMoT all struck me as fantastic as early as my first listen, and Fortune leapt from "eh" to "favourite" upon seeing it live, so yeah - lots of good stuff.
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The first time I heard WDADU, I was surprised that Charlie's vocals weren't quite as bad as I was led to believe from the forums etc. That said, they're still not great overall. It's not that Charlie is a bad singer, it's just out of his range and embarrassing at points hearing him struggle. So it's no surprise that his vocals are a deal breaker, but it's far from the biggest problem with WDADU.
As for songwriting, it has a few gems, such as Afterlife, AFIL, Ytse Jam, and TKH, but the rest are quite bad and show DT's immaturity as songwriters that got sorted out by the time IaW came around. Due to the vocals, I can't really listen to the studio versions of AFIL and TKH though. That's what Marquee is for. ;)
Overall I'd give it a 3/10. A few good songs mixed with a lot of throwaway.
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It's definitely towards the bottom of the pack for me as far as their albums go, but it does have a few things going for it. It's easily their most energetic and enthusiastic release, and it has some sweet as hell bass work. It just suffers from hit and miss songwriting and terrible production.
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As a fellow bass player -- I love WDADU.
I know Jordan jokes about those 'Sad Myung' lines throughout the album, but his playing is just gorgeous here, this liquid cool simply pouring under the guitar, flying above the keyboard---gah. It's awesome.
I don't know what changed, but I don't necessarily say it's DT's fault--Myung doesn't play ANYTHING like that on Platypus/Jelly Jam albums either.
To me it's a mystery (sorry to de-rail this into a Where Are You John Myung thread)
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I did not read everybody's response to this topic, but it seems to me that most people seem to like it. Unfortunately, that is not the case for me.
When Dream and Day Unite was the first DT album, but the last one I listened to (excepting albums released after Octavarium). That was some years ago and I immediately disliked the album and left it to gather dust in my cellar. A couple of years later, I discovered When Dream and Day Reunite and that reignited my interest for the first album. I listened to this re-make a few times, yet it still did not work for me. Even with LaBrie singing, the songs just didn't catch my attention. The one exception to that was Ytse Jam, which this time around I put in my iPod, but only rarely listened to it, given I usually set my songs on shuffle and have quite a lot of songs...
About an year after the release of BC&SL, however, I decided to give the original version of the album another try. I could not find the one I had bought all those years ago, so in the end I purchased a second copy. Once more I listened to it a couple of times and decided that I really did not like it. This time around I was smart enough to keep it together with my other DT albums and make sure I did not lose it.
With the announcement of the new album, I decided to re-listen to the whole DT discography, including some rare non-album songs, which once more lead me to WDADU. This time around I listened to it at least 5 times. But I still don't like it. And maybe that's what makes this album so special: that regardless how often or how many times I dislike it, I keep coming back to it.
WDADU is to me a mystery. It makes me unsure of my own taste, makes me go after artists whose work I previously disliked in the hope I had just come across their WDADU. It makes me hope that one day I will finally get it, will finally hear that which attracts me there.
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I'm the sort of person who finds basically anything done by DT to be "good" or better, and this album is no exception. Definitely some great moments.
That said, when you stack it up against:
-the rest of DT's career
-all the discographies of bands that went on to make DT-style music
-re-recorded versions of the same songs with a better singer
I don't often find myself wanting to get this album out, when there's so much other progressive metal to choose from.
That said, I don't think there's an album where we really get to see DT so unbridled as they are here, at least instrumentally. Kevin Moore is out in full force both musically and lyrically, Myung's bass is everywhere, and of course Portnoy and Petrucci make their mark here. Myung would take a more subdued role on the next album, and the keyboards would gradually decline in intensity, at least until Rudess came around, and even Rudess never really carried full songs like Moore did back in the day (largely because Moore did lyrics).
There are some obvious flaws on this album. The vocals just don't work, for one. The main problem I have with Dominici is that he has this tendency to cut syllables off before any other singer would, and the lack of reverb on his voice only kind of furthers that problem. So do some of the weird hyper-syllabic lyrical phrasings, most obviously on OAMOT. In fact, when Dominici himself wrote the lyrics (Afterlife, for example), I feel like his voice does just fine.
Beyond Charlie, there's the obvious poor production and the occasional songwriting gaffe--while I love LFAGA, I always wince at that transition into the chorus, where it sounds like they just pasted two songs together, for example. There's also a distinct lack of epics--TKH gets there, but a lot of the music sounds so much more straight-ahead than what DT would later make--AFIL, for example. And that's not necessarily a bad thing--none of the songs really fall flat--but it does make them sort of run together. Occasionally, a song like Afterlife calls for some attention with a nice hook and the epic unison, but songs like SS and OAMOT, while pleasant, never really have much that grabs me like most of the rest of DT's catalog does.
Thankfully enough, we have bootlegs of the majority of these songs from LaBrie's 92-94 prime, which correct most of the flaws and really show how great the ideas behind them were.
I'll give it a solid 4/5. It and FII are DTs worst, IMO, by a fair bit, but none of the band's music falls short of enjoyable. If it weren't overshadowed by so much else, I'd love to give this one more spins.
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Charlie's vocals on WDADU >= LaBrie's vocals on WDADRU
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Charlie's vocals on WDADU >= LaBrie's vocals on WDADRU
Has DTF ever done a poll on this? Because I agree.
To me, the definitive versions of the songs are the 92-94 ones with LaBrie. Score's version of Afterlife is good too. But if it's not one of those, then the original Charlie versions are better than the LaBrie ones, in my opinion.
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Fast-forward 10 years later; I come across the remaster of the album
Huh?
WDADU has fantastic moments and holds special place in my heart, but I don't listen to it very often because of the poor production, and I'm not a big fan of CD's vocals. I have to single out Only A Matter of Time though, which is one of my very favorite songs DT has ever done. Great writing, uplifting, great lyrics, etc.
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Fast-forward 10 years later; I come across the remaster of the album
Huh?
There is a half-assed remaster out there, but it doesn't really fix anything. The first couple of songs sound marginally better, but it sounds like whoever was in charge got bored as they went along and didn't bother to actually finish remastering the rest of the album. DT was not in any way involved with the remastering.
I don't think the problems with the sound on that disc could even be fixed with a good remaster. A complete remix, at least, would be required to make it sound good.
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I love WDADU. It was my first DT album in '89 and I loved it.
I never had a problem with the production (though I knew it wasn't great) because it was no worse than the Rush albums from the '70s that I loved. And Cd's voice wasn't the best but it suited the material for me, and as a Rush fan I didn't mind that too high pitch. Maybe looking back at it after only having heard JLB it would be difficult, but I didn't have that to contend with.
I can understand people not loving it if it wasn't their first exposure to the band but for me it was. I still love it and I'm more likely to play it more than most other DT albums.
I also never had a problem with the cover. It never occured to me it was strange until I came here and people slated it. And the band pics didn't look so bad at the time I promise you young ones. Certainly a lot better than the Queensryche Rage For Order pics. That was embarrasing at the time too.
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Lots to love about this album, but it's slightly flawed at the same time. There's not a lot of variety to be had with this one (the band would become MUCH more ambitious and willing to experiment in the future). My other big complaint is in Ytse Jam. The momentum of the song is completely killed after the drum solo. I think the song would have been much better if it had eschewed the stop/start bit.
Charlie's voice gets a lot of flak, but I tend to enjoy it here. There are some moments that are abysmal (The Killing Hand would have benefited greatly from a different vocalist), but he does a perfectly good job with most of the songs. The production is awful, of course, but it adds to the album's charm.
8/10
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I like the fact that WDADU gets so many days dedicated to it.
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Aside from the presence of Charlie and the poor production, this album is awesome. It has a very unique atmosphere, like a hazy yet abnormally intense dream, and I like the fact the that the songs are all cut from the same cloth, as Rob said.
Only A Matter of Time is a great tune.
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5.5/10
someone posted this in another WDaDU thread and I always laugh at it:
I AM THE KILLING HAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
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5.5/10
someone posted this in another WDaDU thread and I always laugh at it:
I AM THE KILLING HAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
Haha that was a bad part. I enjoy listening to the album though for many reasons posted above, like the compositions themselves. I just don't like Charlie or the production. 7/10
Doing the other albums anytime soon? :P
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Production aside (which isn't that bad), it's a great album. The only bad song is "Light Fuse and Get Away", and everything else is either good or great. A top 5 DT album for me. 4.5/5.