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Dream Theater => Dream Theater => Topic started by: seltaire on February 19, 2015, 01:14:11 AM
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Sorry, I'm new, so I don't know if someone else posted this already. I checked a few pages in and didn't see anything similar, so here it goes!
I remember when I was a twelve years old, I was snooping in my older brother's external hard drive, and he had accidentally downloaded the track 'Fatal Tragedy' from Scenes from a Memory. I thought the title was interesting, so I gave it a listen and I was totally blown away. At this time, I was a anime otaku and I just listened to Japanese pop because that's all I really knew besides music from videogames. I was too poor to really buy music, and had no access to Western radio to know any better.
It was the first time I really found music that I liked and I went from an otaku to a metal head. So from an outcast to a bigger outcast. :lol
Fastfoward twelve years later, I still consider Dream Theater my top band and religiously listen to their music.
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So you're brother wasn't a fan? You said he accidentally downloaded it so I'm assuming he didn't get into them at all.
Back in 1992, I was listening to a local college radio station which was the only station that played metal in the area basically. I forget what was on before it, but ironically it started for me with a simple open E note and the rest of Pull Me Under followed. It was like nothing I ever heard before. The vocals sounded so fresh and the music seemed perfectly arranged. I wasn't used to that. At the time, my favorite band was Overkill so I did have heavier tastes but Dream Theater seemed to satisfy my desire for heavy music and something new and innovative.
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Nope. He downloaded it completely accidentally. He was just collecting random stuff and I was lucky enough to stumble on it.
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Nope. He downloaded it completely accidentally. He was just collecting random stuff and I was lucky enough to stumble on it.
I read your intro and if I remember correctly you said I & W and Metropolis 2 are your two favorites?
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Overly long/dramatic story below, but hey...
Even from about the age of 11 or so, I'd always wanted to hear something akin to prog metal--I wanted to hear an eleven-minute song with a two-minute guitar solo, five verses, and four choruses. But I never knew any such music existed, or that there was a term for it, so for much of my teenage years, I languished around listening to a lot of rap metal, alt metal, punk pop, etc. appreciating the hooks and what not but always finding it sorely lacking in...well, progginess, I suppose. When I was 16 I finally discovered the first album that got anywhere near what I wanted--Avenged Sevenfold's City of Evil, still my favorite album to this day (for nostalgic purposes if nothing else). That album was so far beyond anything else I'd ever heard that I listened to nothing but it (and the clean-vocal songs from their previous one) for basically the entirety of the calendar year 2006. By the end of that year I was faced with a dilemma--I'd burned myself out on the same 15 songs, but no other music I'd heard compared to them, so I couldn't derive enjoyment from anything else either. Avenged Sevenfold also kind of defies characterization--back then they were often called a "metalcore" band with "emo" elements, but I knew of many other emo bands and many other metalcore bands, and none of them sounded anything like City of Evil, so it's not like I could just go find other bands in their genre and get what I wanted.
So in early 2007, I started just downloading a bunch of stuff on whims, trying to find something that clicked. Since, at the time, the biggest thing I wanted to hear was guitar solos, one of these whims was checking out the Guitar World Top 100 Guitar Solos list. So I get all this music on my iPod, and I took to listening to it on shuffle for awhile, hoping that something would come on and grab me. One morning at 6:30 or so, I'm having my normal half-asleep walk to the bus stop when a song pops up that I had never heard of, by a band I'd never heard of. It sounded interesting--very retro, but still clearly better-produced than classic rock stuff. I figured it was something from the Guitar World list--which it was, at #98--so I'm listening to this song, and it sounds interesting enough, clean vocals, some interesting rhythms and riffs, but I'm waiting for the solo, hoping it's something actually interesting and not like some of the other solos on that list, which are iconic but completely basic (Smells Like Teen Spirit, for example). The solo finally comes, and it's a minute-long facemelter. I thought "Okay, maybe this is what I've been looking for." The song was Under A Glass Moon.
So I spend the day listening to this song between my classes and such, waiting to go home and figure out who this Dream Theater band is, what this style is called, when the hell music like this was made. So I got home and looked them up on iTunes, and I'm like "Hmm...1992...but they're still around now...eight albums, very cool...progressive metal, eh? Alright...WAIT THEY HAVE A 24-MINUTE SONG. THIS IS IT."
I didn't need to hear another note to know that Dream Theater was my favorite band. They have been ever since.
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Back in 1992, I was listening to a local college radio station which was the only station that played metal in the area basically. I forget what was on before it, but ironically it started for me with a simple open E note and the rest of Pull Me Under followed. It was like nothing I ever heard before.
Pretty much this...........except it wasn't a college station. It was an obscure underground station with the only decent metal show at the time. They played everything from Van Halen to Napalm Death.
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I know I've posted my story several times, and since he knows it well, I'll let JayOctavarium tell it this time! :biggrin:
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I was into classic prog when I was a teenager and my piano teacher gave me the Live at Budokan DVD along with Yes' Keys to Ascension. He advertised DT as some sort of modern version of Yes (which was a quote from JP, as I later found out), but I really didn't see that looking at the DVDs (in fact, I still don't see it). I instantly loved Yes, but the metal onslaught that kicked off LAB (As I Am and especially the tiresome This Dying Soul) was a major turnoff for my 15-year-old self. Even though I absolutely loved Instrumedley, it took me a whopping 6 more years to get into DT.
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I heard "Pull Me Under" on WPLR in New Haven, CT (then my favorite radio station), and was intrigued when the double-bass drum came in (I remember thinking, "that drummer is a rock star"; little did I know) and then being totally blown out of the water by the chorus. The build-up, the release, the vocal... I love everything about that song, and to this day, I love every single minute of that album and it is still my favorite DT record.
"Light to dark, dark to light, light to dark, dark to light..."
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Maybe one of the Mods should sticky this subject? It seems to come up every once in awhile and new members of DTF are understandably curious about it.
How did you get into DT? (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=1020.0)
How long have you been a fan? (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=40779.0)
how did you discover Dream Theater? (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=38235.0)
Discovering Dream Theater? (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=19250.0)
Those are the one's I could quickly find. I'm sure there are many more.
Anyway, here's what I said in one of those threads.
One late summer afternoon in 1992 I was watching a movie with my sons when the phone rang. My buddy was on the line urging me to quickly turn on the radio to the local college station. I paused the movie and flipped the receiver over to KRCL. What I heard at first was a little confusing...it was metal, it was melodious, it was intricate, it had KEYBOARDS, it was awesome, it was Pull Me Under. When the song finished, the DJ said the station would be featuring the entire album on 'Behind The Zion Curtain' program on Sunday night so everyone could stop calling and begging to hear more from Dream Theater. I made a point of listening to the program and by Tuesday I had purchased the cassette (I didn't actually own a CD player at that time) from Circuit City.
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I was 14 and just transferred into the public school system for the first time. I was desperate for friends. In electronics class, these three guys were talking about playing music (I had recently started playing bass) and going to see some band called Dream Theater that night. I went home, downloaded Metropolis, and then shat my pants. I never really heard anything that wasn't on the radio, and something about that song switched a lightbulb on. I let my dad hear it. He recognized John Petrucci as he reads about him in guitar magazines all the time.
Having only heard Metropolis, we left to go to the concert. Been here ever since.
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I heard mp3s of 6:00 and Caught In A Web when I was taking my European Computer Driving License back in late 2000 - they were among the other mp3s in the shared folder on that student network. I liked what I heard and bought IaW and Awake. Listened a couple of times to both, I liked IaW a lot but never really got into Awake - more than the first songs. I put them back on the shelf for a few years. Fast forward to spring 2007 when I heard some songs from Octavarium, got really interested again, started to listen to IaW again - loved it! - and the rest is history.
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I was 14 and just transferred into the public school system for the first time. I was desperate for friends. In electronics class, these three guys were talking about playing music (I had recently started playing bass) and going to see some band called Dream Theater that night. I went home, downloaded Metropolis, and then shat my pants. I never really heard anything that wasn't on the radio, and something about that song switched a lightbulb on. I let my dad hear it. He recognized John Petrucci as he reads about him in guitar magazines all the time.
Having only heard Metropolis, we left to go to the concert. Been here ever since.
:metal
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I don't remember if I posted in one of those threads, but anywho.
So a few years ago, Semi-time WWE wrestler Chris Jericho had a radio show called "Rock of Jericho" and he would play things from today's rock/metal music and some stuff that probably radio-listeners didn't know, but Jericho loves, like Helloween, Saxon, Raven, etc. So he was a fan of DT (he's great buddies with Mike Portnoy, so I don't know if he likes the post-MP albums or still likes the band) from time to time he plays some track (I don't remember what though) and I thought interesting sound, vocals, etc.
So naturally, I look at Wikipedia just to try to understand the band's history as possible and found that they had a 40+ min. song called "Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence." I was like, "Whoa! How can a song be structured for 40+ min. and still manage to keep the listeners' attention for that long?" because back then, the longest song I ever heard of was Fozzy's Wormwood which clocked at about 14 min (even I thought, at the time, that's insane for a band to make a song that long). So I heard SDOIT and I 1st thought, "Good guitar work, vocals seems pretty strange, like he belongs into some sort of glammy-poppy or some sort of alternative rock band as oppose to a prog/metal band, but overall, it's good. I don't know if I want to invest the time listening to this band's full catalog, since maybe I probably can't relate to the band or something like that"
Anywho, a few years later, I found out that my favorite band, Alter Bridge, while they were doing promotional interviews in Europe for their newest album, Fortress, ran into JP and JLB in the UK and Myles Kennedy and JLB had some discussions about vocal stuff (you can find it on Youtube), and, at the same time, Alter Bridge and DT were against each other in the Loudwire Cage match poll where two fanbases really wanted to win that one, but one can. So I decided to make an account, here, at DTF, to see how the vibe is (I hoped I did not find a lot of irrational bashing like I found in the GNR forums where they really sometimes bash Myles, which is hard for me to take, since he's one of my favorite singers/few actual heroes in my life).
Overall, I loved the vibe, here in the forums, even though I didn't know too much of DT's work and since this was a time where DT12 was about to be released, I figure, all right, let's see if that album can convince me to get into these guys. DT12 did just that and I found myself relating to some of the lyrics of that album (especially The Bigger Picture) and that was it. I've been here and been a fan since then.
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Having only heard Metropolis, we left to go to the concert. Been here ever since.
You're still at the venue?! :omg:
My story is, saw the PMU video on TV and thought "oh cool, Genesis with a metal edge! Not sure about the singer..." but never followed up with it.
Years later, the guy who was hosting my EE learning group refused to play anything by DT at his place. Over time I grew to tolerate James.
Funny thing, a few years later the guy who introduced me to the band, made a 180 switch and from there on listened to Backstreet Boys. Not kidding, he claimed he listened to it for the production value.
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Having only heard Metropolis, we left to go to the concert. Been here ever since.
You're still at the venue?! :omg:
:rollin :rollin
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So you're brother wasn't a fan? You said he accidentally downloaded it so I'm assuming he didn't get into them at all.
Back in 1992, I was listening to a local college radio station which was the only station that played metal in the area basically. I forget what was on before it, but ironically it started for me with a simple open E note and the rest of Pull Me Under followed. It was like nothing I ever heard before. The vocals sounded so fresh and the music seemed perfectly arranged. I wasn't used to that.
Very close to my initial experience as well. I was at home for a snow day watching MTV... PMU came on and I've been hooked ever since. Still nothing like DT in my mind. To this day, I still listen to I&W when I shovel snow.
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I first heard Dream Theater in 2008 when I was playing Rock Band 2. I had decided to try some songs that I hadn't heard before and Panic Attack was one of them. I couldn't beat it at that point but unlike most of the hard songs this wasn't just a random flurry of notes thrown together (although I like most of those songs as well). Every note was placed where it was for a reason. This was a different kind of metal and I wanted to hear more. I picked up Octavarium from the local Best Buy and the rest is history.
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I was balling this chick in 1992 and PMU was on the radio and she complained if this song and I were going to finish sometime soon.
But really I heard PMU on the radio and ordered the CD from my local record shop right away.
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I was balling this chick in 1992 and PMU was on the radio and she complained if this song and I were going to finish sometime soon.
Unfortunately both you and the song finished abruptly.
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I was balling this chick in 1992 and PMU was on the radio and she complained if this song and I were going to finish sometime soon.
Unfortunately both you and the song finished abruptly.
And that's a problem? :lol
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First heard them in Guitar Hero: World Tour with Pull Me Under. I thought it was Ok, then I heard Panic Attack on Rock Band 2, and it blew my mind. I bought a copy of Octavarium and was absolutely amazed at the thought of a 24 minute song. I had been raised on top 40 radio and classic rock, so this concept was entirely new to me. After listening to the title track it changed the way I thought about music forever. After that I bought Systematic Chaos(The most recent album at the time.) and worked my way backward until I owned every studio album.
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I was balling this chick in 1992 and PMU was on the radio and she complained if this song and I were going to finish sometime soon.
Unfortunately both you and the song finished abruptly.
:lol
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I bought Awake after hearing "Lie" on the radio in 1994. I liked it, but for some reason i didn't become obsessed with it right away. It wasn't until I went away to college in 1996 and heard another guy on my hall repeatedly blasting Images & Words and A Change of Seasons that it all clicked for me. Then I went and bought everything DT had done and become obsessed. The guy on my hall seemed to stop being a fan with Falling Into Infinity, but I stuck with them for the long haul. They've far and away been my favorite band for almost 20 years now.
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Like others, I heard Pull Me Under on the radio back in '92 and liked it enough to go out and buy the album (cassette). Listened to it on and off for years and liked it, but never enough to buy anything that followed. ...until I was looking around the "D" section at Tower Records in Woodland Hills and saw the newly released SFAM. My first thought was: "They did a Metropolis Pt. 2?? As an entire album?? I am SO getting this!" I was hooked. Went and picked up the back catalog, and since LSFNY, they bumped my then-favorite band, Queensryche, and have been my favorite ever since.
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I was into Metallica and Dragonforce at the time, I believe this was in between the release of Black Clouds and ADTOE, and was googling something like "best metal band" or "fastest metal band" or something like that and found a list that put Dream Theater at the top. Looked them up on Youtube and listened to everyones favorite, "The Dark Eternal Night" and was hooked.
Though my tastes have changed since, Systematic Chaos, Black Clouds and Silver Linings, and Octavarium are without a doubt the reason I became infatuated with Dream Theater. There was a point where I couldn't get enough of A Nightmare to Remember (even the Portnoy growl).
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Symphony X's Through The Looking Glass is where my journey began back in early 2006. I read an Amazon review comparing the keyboard intros of TTLG and Surrounded. Had Surrounded on a Mix CD for a long time (still have it), bought Live at Budokan, didn't care for it, returned it, downloaded Images and Words, the torrent file said Pull Me Under was corrupt (referring to the abrupt ending, so I faded it out), got hooked, and downloaded EVEN MOAR. Calm down, I bought everything of theirs over the coarse of 2007. I became a member of DT.net in September '06, and the rest is history.
Surrounded is still my favorite song of theirs.
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I believe I was into Spock's Beard at the time, and one of those Amazon "If you like SB, you might also like DT" recommendations came up on the Amazon home page. On a lark, I ordered IAW and loved what I heard. The rest is history.
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All these stories, damn
I clicked on a Dream Theater song on YouTube recommended videos after hearing the name around, liked what I heard and became a fan within days. That was back in 2010, I think the first song I listened to was "A Nightmare To Remember"
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I started to listen to a lot of music after Tool's "Lateralus" came out. That album just opened up a world of prog music for me. Eventually, on another music board I posed the question, "Hey, I love Tool, what other bands are doing music like this?" Believe it or not, Dream Theater were a band people kept suggesting. Overwhelmingly, I was recommended to buy "Awake".
Eventually, I bought Awake, and I hated it. Specifically, I hated the vocals. "What is this?" I thought. The music was OK, a bit cheesy, but the vocalist was beyond bad, extremely cheesy and way too theatrical.
The album collected dust for a good long while. One day I had a long bus trip and I decided to try Awake again, and while I didn't really enjoy it, somethign about the Outro to Scarred really hooked me. Needless to say, I've been a fan ever since!
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I discovered them when I was in my big Metallica phase three to four years ago. I was looking for bands that covered Metallica songs and if the cover was any good, I'd check the band out. So I listened to Dream Theater cover all of Master of Puppets and I loved it. Then I listened to The Glass Prison and the rest of Six Degrees, and I was sold.
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I first heard of Dream Theater in 2009, when a friend showed me Metropolis Pt. II: Scenes From a Memory (yes, I like to write it all!). He used to listen to that album every day before sleeping, and he convinced me to give it a try. I remember I liked only the first half in the beginning, and even when I would listen to it entirely I would skip some songs (won't tell which to not spoil anything).
The whole energy of that album has impressed me. I haven't had a lot of contact with good music (mainly because I was a "Brazilian hillbilly" and my friends were into some crappy music). So when I listened to SFAM, it stroke me as something wonderful, from another world. Those drums! Those solos! Those riffs! Man, that was unique, mindblowing!
After some time, the inevitable happened: I became as addicted as my friend. I began experimenting other albums (Black Clouds & Silver Linings and Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence were the next ones, if I'm not mistaken) and I liked the band even more. I'm not sure of the dates, but I believe Dream Theater became my favorite band in 2010 (even though I was still unveiling some of their albums), with SFAM my favorite album. Both still hold their titles.
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I first heard Panic Attack in Rock Band 2, and ended up buying Octavarium. Never really got into it, then a friend from the IGN Rock Band Board mentioned A Change Of Seasons. I checked it out, and liked the music but never really got into it. I then acquired A Dramatic Turn Of Events thanks to Liquid Metal playing a few new songs. It was a good album, but I never looked any deeper into the band. Then last February a co-worked asked if I knew who Dream Theater was and said they had tickets to see them in Vancouver. I said I would of liked to see them, so they sold me an extra ticket they had. I went out and bought every Album as well as Live In Budokan on Blu-Ray. I watched Live In Budokan and was immediately hooked.
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2001 - I had exposure to parts of SFAM from The History of Trunks Dragon Ball Z movie. Thought the music was pretty sweet as, had no idea who it was but didn't really look into it further.
2004 - A drummer friend of mine showed me Honor Thy Father and the drumming and general scope of the song impressed me a lot at the time. I even had this song on a mix playlist but didn't really look into the band.
2005-07 - Dream Theater starts showing up on Guitar Hero and Rock Band games (Pull Me Under, Constant Motion, Panic Attack), always thought they were some of the best songs in those games, and certainly among the most fun to play. I even hear the entire Systematic Chaos album on a car trip around this time (this has created a strange perception of these songs for me, they have a certain familiarity that's associated with memories from that trip, strange how music can vividly remind you of the first place you remember hearing something, but I digress); not really listening to it properly in fairness but I remember thinking there was some good stuff on there although there was no way for me to distinguish between the songs or appreciate the details. But for some reason was STILL too lazy to look into this band but I was definitely becoming more aware of them.
2009 - A Rite of Passage plays as a little advertising sample on my media player (I normally hate it when it does this but thankfully it caught my attention enough to bother listening to this recommendation of 'music I might like'. It was right. ;D) So I finally take the hint and get BC&SL+SC+TOT. A month or so later I'm ready for more and get 8VM+SDOIT+SFAM. By the end of the year I'll have backtracked through their entire catalogue and they even visit my country for the first time.
2010 - By this point I'm getting into all the live albums, bootlegs, pretty much all the past and present member's side projects with huge anticipation for a new album. Definitely would never have expected what would unfold. Followed the band quite intently through that whole phase and pretty much was hoping it would be a win/win for everyone, more music all around which is more or less the case now. Have not been disappointed with any of the recent albums (if anything I'm still impressed by them) although didn't have many expectations for what way they would go. I guess I'd like to see them mix things up a bit but I try not to get too attached in this way. :D
So yeah, took almost a decade of slightly being aware of them, very slack of me although being kinda aware of them is probably what made me click on that preview song. :lol Now I have been a very dedicated fan for the last 5 or 6 years.
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Passed a cd, and told to check it out . That was in 2008. The cd was a ripped collection .
The music fucked my mind .
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JayOctavarium, where are yooooouuuuuuuuuuu??????????????????????? :biggrin:
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:rollin
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It's kinda long, but:
Spring of 2007, I'm 15. In our high school we had a rock band class, and my best friend and I were in the class, both guitar players. We had an end-of-the-year show coming up and our bassist (a senior and the only one with a car and license) was driving me and the drummer to practice. He was driving through the suburbs near a wooded park area, where the roads were all winding. So he's hitting all these crazy turns and curves at like 45 mph, all the while blasting a mix CD. He gets tired of that, and puts in another one. The first song starts, and was like nothing I had heard before. Gradual intro, huge drums and guitar, then the riffing starts and the verses and choruses, all while speeding down those winding side streets (and kind of fearing for my life). That was As I Am, and my introduction to my favorite band.
A few months prior I had a Guitar World magazine that read, "Dream Theater lesson with John Petrucci". I assumed they were a kind of Trans-Siberian Orchestra sort of band, and I never checked it out. Of course, after the riffs and chorus of As I Am got stuck in my head for months, I checked that lesson out and bought Train of Thought, and slowly everything else in their back catalogue.
Before that I was into Power Metal; any kind of metal that didn't have growls was great to my ears, so As I Am was the PERFECT introduction for me. And what's great is that DT opened the doors for other bands to me. I got into Rush (my 2nd favorite band now), as well as LTE, Transatlantic, Spock's Beard, JR's solo stuff, DS's solo stuff, Scale the Summit, PT...all because of Dream Theater! :metal
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I was looking through limewire constructing another mix CD, I don't remember what exactly I searched for, and Another Day popped up (to put in perspective, this probably around when Train of Thought was released). I think I was intrigued by the name of the band. Anyway, after listening to it once, I liked it, looked up I&W and my brain turned to mush
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Knowing I was into stuff like Rush, Genesis, Floyd etc, my mate just stuck a CD into my hand and said with knowing smile "Listen to this". This was 1994 and the album was Images and Words. I was totally blown away. :metal
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back in 2003 on a bus going to an indoor percussion competition my buddy had Awake in his CD player and i heard 6:00 and as a drummer coming from bands like Green Day that intro is fucking rockin'. So i instantly fell in love and the next 7 years of my life were dedicated to Dream Theater. I kinda became obsessed. I learned how to control it so i was able to expand to other bands. I am now a prog snob and wish I wasn't. I just got so spoiled and obsessed with their sound and it was EVERYthing I loved about music in one band. (kinda funny thing to say when i loved punk rock i know).
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I didn't discover DT. They discovered me. That's what bands do. They discover fans. :hat :biggrin:
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First heard Surrounded, thought it was terrible in late 90's. Then heard PMU in 2001 via my cousin saying to do so, thought that was cool. Bought I&W, thought it was bad outside of PMU. Plus it had Surrounded, so that sucked.
Listened to samples of FII I think on CDnow or something before an amusement park trip. After shortened trip, went on and bought the CD on a whim. After New Millennium, I was hooked for as long as I can foresee. Thankfully I&W eventually was great, and Surrounded is a little better for me now.
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My first post here, so easy on me.
First off, glad to see there are other fans of DT besides myself. Have had a lot of fun reading through this forum the last week of lurking.
Believe it or not, my first DT CD was When Dream and Day Unite. I bought it the week it came out. In the late 80's, one of my weekly stops was a local sam goody to see if there was anything new out. The guy at the store was a huge rush fan and told me these guys were like rush and queensryche with Yanni on keyboards (relax kids, Yanni used to be a rocker long ago). It intrigued me, so I bought it. After a listen through, I was hooked. It finally unseated Fates Warning Awaken the Guardian as my second favorite album at the time. Operation Mindcrime was my favorite at the time.
Anyway, a few years later Images and Words came out and it took me several listens through before I could like LaBries voice. I got used to it and can't imagine anyone else singing for them, now.
Oh, never did like Ray Alder replacing John Arch in Fates. Guardian was the last album I ever really liked.
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Summer 1992 - Guitar World review.
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Guess I'll pollute another thread with this diatribe....
The well worn tale about how I discovered Dream Theater appears below:
"The Spirit Of Rush Fanzine Number 8 which I bought in New York City about August 1989. On the back inside cover was a Dream Theater feature and When Dream and Day Unite album review that was reprinted from an issue of Kerrang (Never found out what issue it was)
There weren't too many recent bands recording music that I liked in the late 80s save for maybe Kings X, Queensryche, Faith No More and Living Colour.
The feature and review mentioned influences such as Rush, The Dixie Dregs, Kansas, Emerson, Lake and Palmer and at that time it didn't seem like anyone new was recording music with those influences so I was easily suckered in.
I couldn't find the CD anywhere and was forced to spend $17 at a mall chain store for it. I listened to it constantly for about 3 solid months until Presto came out. I never heard another word about them until I stumbled on their mispelled name on the marquee at the Ritz November 14, 1989 opening for the Hogarth-fronted Marillion's debut in New York City.
Yes, I was lucky.
Never heard a word about them again until I found a promo copy of Images and Words for $5 at a spring 1992 record show. It took me a while to get used to James' voice since I'd been listening to Charlie for about 3 years, but I got used to it. James has improved SO much since then.
Anyway, I'll leave you with this amusing quote (I'm not sure who is responsible for it but I think it was the editor) regarding When Dream And Day Unite from The Spirit Of Rush Number 9 (Fall 1989)
"The aforementioned opener (A Fortune In Lies) sums up the album completely--a dense hard rockers paradise with more time changes than the entire Rush and Yes back catalogs put together. A drummer who puts Neil Peart to shame, a vocalist fully capable of holding his own and a sound so full that it actually takes 20 plays to hear everything that's going on in the mix, and all this perfectly crafted and laid down on tape in just four weeks.
Quite frankly, this album rubbishes at least three Rush albums, and the entire Yes series, Emerson, Lake and Palmer's Brain Salad Surgery being the only album I can think of in the same league. I never thought it would happen, but this album makes something like Signals sound resolutely boring; I know I'm going to get hate mail for saying so, but I have to be honest...
If Geddy, Neil and Alex have heard this album, then they probably reacted in one of two ways--become blubbering nervous wrecks, in the knowledge they have some serious young competition, or (hopefully) they have pulled out their fingers in order to show that they can indeed rise to the occasion. This album will either bring out the best in our friends or finish them off..."
That quote was what sold me being a Rush fan."
First CD 1989: When Dream And Day Unite
First Cassette 1992: When Dream and Day Unite promo
First Vinyl 1990: When Dream and Day Unite
First CD single 1990: Afterlife promo
First Cassette single 1992: Another Day
First Video 1993: Live At The Marquee
First DVD 2001: Metropolis 2000 Scenes From New York
First Concert: 11/14/89 Dream Theater opens for Marillion at the old Ritz in New York City
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I've always known about Dream Theater, but never fully gave them a listen.
Essentially, I learned about them through Rock Band. My family was huge into Rock Band, and we decided to play a couple of their songs as we were intrigued by the difficulty. Needless-to-say we got our butts handed to us trying to play Panic Attack and Constant Motion. This was right around the time SC came out so I decided to get that album and I just remember being blown away by the music.
For a while I was hooked on just that album, but recently i've decided to open up the DT catalog (thanks to Spotify), and I went through every album I could find.
I'm hoping to be able to catch them live soon, and i'm starting to build my DT collection. They have quickly shot up to the top of my all time favorite bands list.
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When I was approaching freshman year. My longtime friend told me to listen to a song called "Metropolis Part 1". I said OK and put it on the back burner. We spent our time listening to metallica and iron maiden. That kind of stuff. So, one night, I went onto YouTube and searched up Metropolis. I listened to the whole thing and let it soak a bit. I didn't know what to think, it was unlike anything I had ever heard. I kinda put it in the back of the old mind. Little did I know, I had planted a seed in my unconscious; it was a progressive sort of seed. Flash forward a few months to the beginning of freshman year, I began to listen to ADTOE. When I first heard On The Backs of Angels, I was immediately hooked. The seed had sprouted into the dedicated fan stage. For the rest of the year, I listened to ADTOE religiously, slowly and steadily adding on the other albums as well. This band had a profound effect on me. The odd times really embodied my quirkiness and lust for progression. The long arrangements completely broadened my idea of music and set inside of me a lust for innovation. Dream Theater will always be my favorite band of all time
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Old thread...been a long time lurker, and figured this was a good spot for a first post.
I first heard about Dream Theater in an old video game magazine called Diehard Gamefan. May 1995 - Volume 3 Issue 5 (I found it recently while cleaning, hence this post now). The writer that responded to fan letters answered a question about game music, and mentioned that he listened to Steve Vai, Van Halen, and Dream Theater. The fan had mentioned in his letter liking Joe Satriani, Rush, Boston, and Scorpions. Well I'd heard of and liked all of those bands/artists except for Dream Theater (never heard of them). I'd always wanted to check them out but this was before I had internet access so most of the music I knew about was from the radio or MTV. Fast forward to the fall of 1997 and the old Rock 103.5 in Chicago played a song that I had never heard before, but really liked. I waited till it was over to hear who it was...and it was Dream Theater - Burning My Soul (I know, not the best intro to DT). I went out and bought Falling into Infinity and loved it. I got Awake and I&W shortly thereafter, and I've been following them ever since.
Me
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Covered Overture 1928 in high school with some friends. 2003, I think
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Unfortunately, Avenged Sevenfold's drummer had to die in order for me to fully discover DT.
I heard PMU for the first time in Guitar Hero: World Tour, thought it was amazing, but didn't look any further. Fun story, after downloading the track from several different websites thinking each file was wrong because it cut off at the end, I ended up buying it on iTunes because they couldn't possibly be wrong, right? ;D That ended up being the first dollar I ever spent on DT.
Fast forward a few months later. Avenged Sevenfold was one of my favorite bands, and The Rev's death was devastating. But when I learned that Mike Portnoy would be filling in for him temporarily, that was when I finally decided to look more into DT's discography. Thankfully, Beyond This Life and Finally Free were the first songs I looked at, and the story was so intriguing I just had to get the rest of SFAM and I fell in love from there.
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Saw DT open for Iron Maiden at the Ritz on June 8, 1992. Within 30 seconds of seeing them play, I knew I had a new favorite band.
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Saw DT open for Iron Maiden at the Ritz on June 8, 1992. Within 30 seconds of seeing them play, I knew I had a new favorite band.
Good God, I was 2 days old when that happened.
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What a coincidence, so was TAC.
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I used to spend the night between Sunday and Monday watching Headbangers Ball on MTV (23.30 - 02.00).
One night Wanessa Warwick played the video for a little song called Pull me Under..... I was hooked immediately
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What a coincidence, so was TAC.
This picture was taken of me just before the show!
(https://megalomania-metal.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/heavy_metal_cancoes_ninar_bebes.jpg)
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This was his nightie.
(https://i3.cpcache.com/product/718612671/winger_vintage_onesie.jpg?height=225&width=225)
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:lol
I shit all over that thing!
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I heard "Pull Me Under" on a late night metal radio show in 1993 when I was 12. I was blown away - who was this band? For whatever reason I didn't buy the album, but two years later a buddy loaned me "A Change of Seasons" and "Awake" and it reignited the love I discovered two years prior. I've been hooked ever since.
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I was watching some top 10 drummers list on YT (maybe like 6 years ago), I saw Portnoy playing that solo in ytse jam, and that's the first time I ever listened to something by DT. The drummer of my band became a fan in the future, and he kept convincing me to check DT out (but I was too lazy lol)
But I checked out Panic Attack, and it was an ok song to me (but not good enough for me to start exploring the band, I also hated those James' vocals)
So, 2013 came by, self-titled just came out, and my friend was like "omg you have to check this song Illumination Theory", and I was like "ok, ffs, I will check it out", annoyed by his insisting, so I decided to give the band another shot.
Got home, lied down, started the song on YT, and 20 minutes later, I concluded that was the best metal song I ever heard (note that I was a metal fan for 5 years then, and that it was my FIRST listening to that song)
And the rest is history, in like a month, they became my favourite band
So, I'm not a long-time fan (not even for three years), but since I became a fan, there was hardly a day to pass for me without listening to any DT song
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When I was like 10, or something like that, my dad was really into SFAM, especially the live DVD. Sometimes I would walk by and he'd be watching it.
Around the same time, a Dragon Ball Z (anime) movie came out that used SFAM songs in its soundtrack. That got me way into the band temporarily.
Fast forward a few years. I'm 14 and my family moves down to NC from Canada. I didn't know anyone and had nothing to do all day. I'd been listening to Metallica non-stop for about a year but was starting to get bored of them. I decided to give DT another spin and immediately become a die hard fan. I think the next album I listened to was TOT, then 8VM. I can remember watching Live at Budokan one night and being blown away. I also thought the bonus documentary was awesome and how connected the band was to fans.
Still here over ten years later...
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I got into guitar from listening to metal - started out with super meh bands like Slipknot and Korn but then got into In Flames and really started to like melodic/more technical metal. I was still a young teen who loved heavy heavy metal so only liked screaming bands but my guitar teacher insisted I listen to Dream Theater if I loved technical stuff. He showed me Fatal Tragedy and while I, at first, HATED the vocals, the guitar absolutely blew me away, especially the solo. The rest is history - and now I actually love the vocals and don't really like screaming as much heh. How things change....
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Read a guitar magazine article about JP. From their description of him and their new album "images and words" it sounded like something I would like.
At the time Extreme was my favorite band . Their album III sides to every story was my favorite. DT did not start being my favorite band until Scenes from a memory.
But I did like them and bought every album on the day it came out. Being a truck driver I remember I was in indiana when Falling into infinity came out and I stopped
several places until I found it. When Train of Thought came out I was between Cincinatti and Columbus Ohio. The last few I have been home and just downloaded them
off Itunes.
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It was 2010. I was 13. A friend of mine asked me if I wanted to hear a song her band was gonna play at middle school graduation-type-of-thing. I said yes. It was Through Her Eyes. I liked it. She played me a few other,even heavier songs, and I was blown away by the talent. I did forget about DT for a few years then, but in 2014 I rediscovered my love for them.
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Quote from an older thread including typos and all:
In the transition between Images & Words and Awake.
A friend of my sister called me one day and said that he had two tickets for a band named Dream Theater and if I wanted to go with him, because the original ticket holder was sick. I asked him what they sound like, because I hadn't heard of them and he replied that they sound like a mixture of Iron Maiden (the heavyness) and Yes (the proginess). Being a fan of both Maiden and Yes I was interested but unfornately couldn't make it because of other commitments. The concert in question was the European leg of the Images and Words tour in 1993.
Some months later I was at the local record store and they had both WDADU and I&W for sale. Remembering what my sister's friend said about them I thought, well, let's give it a try and bought I&W without ever hearing a single note. This was in fact the first time thatI ever bought a record where I haven't heard anything before. I chose I&W because I liked the album cover better, lucky me ;D. I don't know what would have happened if my first record of DT would have been WDADU.
So anyway, I went home, put the disc in the player, not knowing what to expect and listened closely. Wow, cool intro. Cool guitars and now great drumming and nice keyboards. Now if only the singer is good I'm gonna like this a lot. Then James began singing and I was completely hooked. The next week I bought WDADU and Live At the Marquee and while I liked them I was a bit disappointed especially with WDADU. But I played the shit out of I&W and from then on bought every new DT album on the first day.
Then came Awake and my first DT concert on the Waking up the world tour (2/11/1995 Düsseldorf, Philipshalle). I remember that I thought that Kevin Moore had cut his hair and that he looked different from the photos in the booklet, until I had a closer look and realized that this, in fact, wasn't even Kevin Moore but someone else and I was very surprised. But then this were the days before the internet and info on bands like Dream Theater, who weren't excactly mainstream, were hard to get.
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From the "Moment DT Clicked for You" Thread:
My dad brought me to see two of his favorite bands Deep Purple and ELP in 1998, when I was 14. This band that was unknown to us, Dream Theater, was opening. I remember thinking they were pretty good, and having a moment with my Dad during Peruvian Skies (as they started quoting Pink Floyd, he got all excited and was like "This is FLOYD!," then they quoted Sandman and I got all excited and was like like "This is METALLICA!!"). I also remember him saying that Hollow Years sounded like it was their Lucky Man. After the show, though, I was pretty much impressed with ELP that I got their Hits album and listened to not much else (other than Metallica).
In any event, a year later I saw the brand new Dream Theater album in the store (Scenes), and remember looking at it, thinking "I can't get this, I don't even know any songs by this band!" Regretfully, I put it back and didn't think about DT for years. Then around the time St. Anger came out, and Napster was a pretty big deal, I remember wanting something more/different since my favorite band wasn't doing it anymore. So I went to a buddy's house and downloaded The Spirit Carries On and Voices to hear if I'd be interested in picking up some DT. I thought both were pretty good and the next day went to pickup the album I should have 4 years prior.
Popped it in the CD player in the car. Regression comes on, and I can hear the melody from Spirit, which I thought was so cool! Then Overture 1928 starts... and it clicks.
That was the moment DT became my favorite band.
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Well, my Charon to the DT world was the great, one and only Richard Benson ( :lol :lol :lol) in 1993!
He used to play Metropolis every day during "Ottava Nota", his legendary TV transmission..
The guy is actualy quite weird, I'm sure the other Italian folks here know what I'm talking about...
Here is a recent TV show where he presented DT 12--
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYHWNZyD5A0
It's in Italian, but it is fun anyway.. :xbones :xbones
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I had a friend recommend Dream Theater in passing sometime after Train of Thought was released. I never really went out of my way to check the band out until I saw Octavarium on the new releases shelf at (the time) my local music store. It happened to be the release day for that album, coincidentally. I bought the album and have been a fan ever since.
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I honestly can't remember. All I know is in 1992 I somehow purchased Images & Words. I found it dense and hard to digest....but kept going back and back and back and it slowly morphed into one of my favorite albums. Since then I've purchased every release on day of release. I will say, though, that A Change of Seasons was the disc the really elevated DT to "favorite" status. From the first time I listened I knew it was an outstanding piece and I played it over and over for a good six months it seems.
Have to admit I have mixed feelings about The Astonishing. I'm purposefully avoiding any and all info about it as I want to know as little as possible when I first listen to it. But the grand amibition that has created outsized expectations leave me thinking this is either going to be the band's most lasting effort or a jump-the-shark moment.
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The late, great Tommy Vance played a couple of tracks from WDADU on The Friday Rock Show, when it was released in 89 and I was very impressed but not completely blown away. I did purchase the cassette!! but then forgot about them a little. BUT then he then had MP on as a guest on his show when I&W was released and that sealed it for me. The step up from the debut was huge and from that day on, I was completely in love with their music and have loved them (and every release, apart from the dreadful DT12!) ever since.
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I can still remember it: Driving down I-75 through Cincinnati in 1992 (on my way home from a summer of Drum & Bugle Corps), I heard "Pull Me Under" on the local Z-Rock radio affiliate. After the song finished I spent the rest of the ride home repeating "Dream Theater, Dream Theater, . . ." so I wouldn't forget the name of the band. When I got home, I headed straight for the local used record store and picked up a promo copy of Images & Words.
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One of my mom's friends had a few CDs that he wasn't interested in, one of which contained Images and Words. I listened to it, and said... ehh this isn't my cup of tea. I put it aside, not really putting much thought into it. Fast forward a few years and Train of Thought had just come out. I was listening to the Eddie Trunk show on XM radio with my dad and Stream of Consciousness came on. It was going on for a few minutes, and my dad and I looked at each other in complete glee. Immediately remembered the name of that band, got ToT for Christmas that year, and the rest was history. I then thought about the name and remembered that I had I&W in the corner somewhere, and suddenly was into it ;D
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Saw DT open for Iron Maiden at the Ritz on June 8, 1992. Within 30 seconds of seeing them play, I knew I had a new favorite band.
Good God, I was 2 days old when that happened.
I was born 11 days after that...
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I still remember in 2008, my drummers told me to cover a song from a band that i never heard. It's Stream of Consciousness, i nearly gave up playing guitar back then, :rollin And now DT is absolutely my number one band....
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It was gradually but I definitely remember liking As I Am first then I heard Train Of Thought and loved that. ThenI heard the Octavarium album and I was hooked.
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I was on a dig site in a known Pre-Cambrian area. We had been searching for trilobites all day, and I just happened to look down at my left, and said, "Damn, theres a Dream Theater!"
:biggrin:
Saw Pull Me Under on MTV and was blown away.
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:lol
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I actually discovered Jordan Rudess and his solo albums first (Feeding the Wheel, Rhythm of Time, RMP). Then I moved on to Liquid Tension Experiment. At the same time I had also heard Mangini's name along with DT mentioned several times, so I looked up the band and saw Jordan and JP were also in it, and Portnoy used to be... So knowing how much I loved (and still do) all the previously mentioned music I had to check out this band. The first thing I ever heard from them was MM's jam audition, then I heard all of their released instrumentals and finally moved onto the rest of their stuff with James (I tend to listen to instrumental stuff first when possible). The first full-band song I heard was, I believe, Learning to Live.
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The first full-band song I heard was, I believe, Learning to Live.
Excellent choice on the first DT vocal song!
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Short version: A mix of Guitar Hero IV, them announcing a concert within driving distance, and my old guitar tutor being a fanboy of basically every guitarist who participated in G3, JP included.
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Excellent choice on the first DT vocal song!
Definitely! I loved it, of course. Still one of my favorites.
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Friend. CD. LTE 2. When the Water Breaks.
Done deal.
Oh, OK, technically that's not DT. He told me LTE was mostly DT, though. So, for DT it would be:
Knew LTE. Music store. Awake .Discount. Remembered "LTE = DT". Erotomania.
Win.
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Strangely enough I had never heard a note and on a hunch I bought Octavarium because I love progressive rock and I used to see adds for them playing concerts locally. I instantly became a huge fan and methodically bought album after album till I had them all.
My first show in 2006 was epic!
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I used to sit around and play acoustic guitars with my neighbor. We usually tried our best to do some Rush songs. For a year he was telling me, "You should check out Dream Theater, they're a lot like Rush.... maybe better." I was like, "That's crazy.... no way... NO ONE is anywhere near Rush!"
Then one day I was in a "used record" store and saw a cheap Dream Theater CD. Not even knowing a single song or album name, I took a chance and bought it. It was Images and Words! I played it for everyone, and memorized the whole album.
Then, I bought A Change Of Seasons after hearing The Big Medley on the radio. And that's where I stayed for quite a while. I thought they were really good, but I didn't have any desire to go and get everything in their catalog. That all changed when I heard SFAM. I immediately heard them in a whole new light and saw just how unique they were.
Octovarium was the first album to come out while I was a DT fan. I saw them live 3 times, once with MP.
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Back in 2009 I was searching for new metal music to get into. A buddy of mine at work had mentioned Dream Theater was his favorite band, and at the time I was really starting to get into metal with keyboards. So I went home one night and youtubed DT and the very first song I heard was Pull Me Under. I heard that intro and eventually the rest of the songs on I&W and was absolutely hooked. They've been my favorite band ever since. Prior to DT I was/am a huge Metallica fan and like Rush as well, so you can see why I was drawn towards DT.
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The radio with Pull Me Under back in 1992.
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I was always into prog, my parents raised me on Yes, Rush, Jethro Tull, etc. When I was around 14, I started looking for more prog bands to call my own (there's a certain satisfaction for me that comes with discovering a new band that nobody I know has heard of- it's my band! Haha. And I just wanted more music to listen to, more diversity). I was looking around on the internet and I saw a list called "Top 10 Progressive Rock Bands", and I clicked on it. Yes, Rush, and King Crimson were all on the list, but another band that I hadn't heard of caught my eye: Dream Theater. The name and photo that they had on the list appealed to me, they just seemed like a really cool, dark, and magical group.
So I went on youtube and searched for DT videos, and the first one I saw was Pull Me Under live. I was impressed by the heaviness and guitar solo, and it was just different from anything I had heard before (DT was also more or less the band that introduced me to metal). The light show and the bands image also appealed to me; I liked the majesty symbol and the other quirky things they had (Mike Mangini's insane drum set that reminded me of a spaceship, Jordan was wearing a wizard hat, James' wavy crooked mic stand, etc), and the light show. So I went on iTunes and bought Images and Words, and Octavarium. They have been my favorite band ever since. I own every album, JP helped inspired me to play guitar and continues as my main inspiration, and I play one of his models, and I am going to see them on tour for The Astonishing soon! That's my story.
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Had a friend introduce them to me. Luckily he was very persistent because the first few times I heard Dream Theater it didn't really click.
The eureka moment was really fitting, looking back on it today. I was scheduled to go under to have all my wisdom teeth out. A few nights before the operation, I was getting some work done for my internship, and put on Images and Words (on GrooveShark) just to give Dream Theater another shot (selected I&W because it was AllMusic Guide's "album pick" for Dream Theater).
It must not have been too terrible as I didn't shut it off, but didn't pay too much attention either, until the solos in the second half of Learning to Live came on. At that point, I dropped everything to listen as I was mightily impressed by how freakin awesome those solos were.
Didn't have time to listen again as I had a bunch of other stuff to deal with prior to the operation, but the closing minutes of I&W stuck with me. The first day I felt good enough to leave the house, I picked up I&W, and listened to it for the first time since before the operation. The entire album blew me away. Moment after moment of, "I can't believe they did that".
I&W fundamentally changed how I hear music. Couldn't stop listening for months on end as the sense of euphoria each time I heard it was palpable. I also appreciate the coincidence of discovering Pull Me Under around the same time I was first pulled under for general anesthesia :o
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Well, my Charon to the DT world was the great, one and only Richard Benson ( :lol :lol :lol) in 1993!
He used to play Metropolis every day during "Ottava Nota", his legendary TV transmission..
The guy is actualy quite weird, I'm sure the other Italian folks here know what I'm talking about...
Here is a recent TV show where he presented DT 12--
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYHWNZyD5A0
It's in Italian, but it is fun anyway.. :xbones :xbones
That's a cool video! My first language is spanish, so even though I don't speak italian, I was able to get pretty much most of it. I find it funny when he tries to find the exact words to describe Jordan's talents (at around 8:15), and the way he presents the songs (although I don't understand why they are not played... Copyright, maybe?).
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I first learnt about the band in early 2005 when I was 15, because my mom+aunt bought me a black t-shirt with the Train Of Thought album cover. I didn't like the t-shirt (and didn't know the band), so I changed it for another one with the Abbey Road artwork. However, my uncle told me I should listen to the band, that I'd like their music - he knew that I liked Metallica, and for him they sounded similar.
So, 5 months later I was in a record store and found a copy of Train Of Thought. I bought it without having heard any song, and I've been listening since (although that one is by far my least favourite album).
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I was spending evenings in a guitar shop and the cashier handed me scenes (just released) and images one time, got home, spent several days brainfarting with pure eargasms !
Bought the entire discography, the video, and then became really crazy about DT !
Leaved my black metal band to make a prog one :D
Final blow was sdoit+lte 1&2+jordan's rythm and feeding.
It's like even when everything is off I always hear a DT tune in me.
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92' and Pull Me Under. It was so different than the explosion of Grunge and "Smells Like Teen Spirit" that was shoved down my throat every 10 mins.
Bought I&W and had a massive musical identity conflict when "Another Day" started up after it. I was too young and too metal to be caught dead listening to something with a sax solo. So I shelved it after listening to Pull Me Under and Metropolis pt 1. I could barely wrap my head at the time around what was going on in Metropolis in the first place so I didn't think twice.
A year or so later, after learning Guitar in a much more rounded fashion other than the Metallica power chords I'd been playing previously, Some guy I was jamming with played me "Under a Glass Moon".
Remembered I had I&W in a box and dug it out. Didn't take the tape out of my player until I picked up "Awake"
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A band asked me to play keyboards in their band, and that first phonecall conversation he played Acid Rain and Biaxident holding the phone to the speaker. The idea was to cover To live forever, so that started my journey into discovering DT. Wish they'd showed me a year earlier, because around that time they were still on the SFAM tour...
Got to see them 3 times live with 6doit and ToT tour.
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A buddy said, you've got to listen to this album "Images and Words" in 1992...did not like it one bit.
For some strange reason, on my way to the train station in 1994, I just decided to buy two CDs....Testament's LOW, and Dream Theater's Awake (I really don't know why). From the start of Awake to finish I was floored....so I went back to I&W later and heard it anew...And forever since a fan (despite a few bad albums)
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I discovered DT in 1989 with their first album after reading a review in The Spirit Of Rush fanzine. I was sorely disappointed by the cd, gave it away to a friend and never listened to DT again until seeing Score and buying the Octavarium album in about 2006.
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It was relatively recently for me - probably late 2013. I was on YouTube looking at Iron Maiden cover versions and discovered their versions of some of the NoTB songs. Then I started watching some of their live videos and then the single videos, like Wither, Forsaken. (I know a lot of folks diss those sorts of songs, but for me they were a good gateway to the rest of the music).
The first album I bought was DT12, then I&W, ADTOE, Awake, BC&SL, in that order, flip-flopping between older and newer albums.
Totally hooked, and now totally obsessed! :biggrin:
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Growing up, when I was in car with my parents, we were listening to bands such as Pink Floyd, Supertramp, Genesis, Led Zepplin, Heart, along with some Beatles, Rolling Stones, Elton John or Phil Collins solo career.
I always liked musically complex stuff. I wasn't someone who knew much prog, as my parents were not much into Yes, ELP GG or Jethro Tull, but with Pink Floyd and Genesis, I still had some experience with the style and I loved it.
I became a metal fan at around 16 years old, where a friend made me watch Metallica's S&M show. At this point i've been a lot in commercial punk and metal bands, until one day I started working in a music store. I was working graveyard shift (I've done that most of my life) so it gave me the opportunity to work while listening to music, and we were allowed to listen to any CD in the store. At that time, a friend of mine made me listen to Rhapsody and Sonata Arctica. The melodic power metal became a big focus, andI always thought the covers looked nice.
So after I had listened to everything I wanted to try, I started going through the Metal section to find cool looking covers, in hope that I would find more power metal. One day, I was placing discs and I stumble on that disc with a huge face made of multiple little images and I thought "how cool is that cover?!" Let's hear it.
From that day, somewhere in 2003 (It was a little before ToT came out), SFAM became my favourite music album of all time. It had the musicallity, the solos and the power of Power Metal, but had all those weird timings of Genesis. I fell in love.
Been a fan of DT ever since, and now it's almost the only thing I listen to...
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I heard some things about Jordan Rudess being a keyboard master when I had this teenager band... so I ended up watching some of his gear and instructional videos, from which I heard some snippets of SFAM. Then I downloaded some random song, one which was called "In the name of God". I was pretty scared, 15 minutes... but I remember being one night at bed, not being able to sleep because I wanted to re-hear that song again, and again, and again... and that's how I fell in love with DT :metal
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Or sometimes you have a bridge turning in your head, you try to remember which song it's from, you start scanning their song, find yourself listening a whole album or the twelve steps suite to find it was from the shattered fortress lol
Works with SDOIT too
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While in elementary, a classmate linked me something on MSN. He said it was good music and I saw the file was named The Glass Prison. Words cannot describe how I felt when I first listened that song and the band. All I knew is that in all my years of listening music, I never heard something as mindblowing and complex, and I still thought it was very accessible too (That Wah riff)! I also remembered that I was overwhelmed by the length, halleluyah! But it never bothered me even a tiny bit and I immediately started to listen to everything from the band, and the rest is blissful history. :tup
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I was a huge Metallica Fan back in 2005, when a friend of mine (who was a drummer and old kindergarten buddy of mine) asked me over ICQ if I knew Dream Theater. I was 13. I said no and he sent me The Root Of All Evil over ICQ :D It was love on first listen. Next songs were As I Am and Endless Sacrifice. After I had heard these three songs, it was only a matter of weeks until I had the complete DT discography at home. After that I started to discover bands like Spock's Beard, Symphony X and The Flower Kings until I became a total Progressive Rock nerd. DT opened the whole world of awesome complex music to me, so to say.
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I first heard Dream Theater in 2008 when I was playing Rock Band 2. I had decided to try some songs that I hadn't heard before and Panic Attack was one of them. I couldn't beat it at that point but unlike most of the hard songs this wasn't just a random flurry of notes thrown together (although I like most of those songs as well). Every note was placed where it was for a reason. This was a different kind of metal and I wanted to hear more. I picked up Octavarium from the local Best Buy and the rest is history.
Almost the same for me. Buyed Rock Band 2, played Panic Attack, liked it quite much, but didn`t get into the band yet. A few years later (I think it was 2010-2011) I imported RB2 to RB3 and rediscovered the song and was blown away. Bought Octavarium and loved it.