... About Kevin and the line-up change...I didn't know Kevin Moore since I listened to I&W (this summer), so I have nothing emotional in this... At least my opinion is not based in that.
It is just that as a whole album I like Awake a lot and it is my favourite DT album. There are songs in other records that I like more than all the songs in Awake, but as a whole album is the best. So it is my favourite album. And I see the production and mixing extremely "true" and perfect. Sounds like music, you can feel the band, not like almost all the albums nowadays ( I don't mean DT, I mean everybody ) that sounds too much artificial and forced.
Every member of the band sounds clear, for my is the top of DT, as Episode was the top of Stratovarius. I see it like that, it's my opinion. And I have listened in Awake a lot of passages/combinations/solos, etc, etc that I have listened before in other DT albums released later, that's normal, but to me is strange. You know, it is the last album I listened to.
This band is exceptional, seriously. If you listen the whole discography and analize it, it's just amazing.
I just hope to have DT many more years, please.