The Answer Lies Within Appreciation/Discussion Thread

[TheGreatPretender]

Sacrificed Sons is musically amazing. I just wish it wasn't about 9/11.

Honestly, from now on, I'll probably find myself listening to the symphonic version by STOD a lot more often than the actual DT version.

[JayOctavarium]

I think These Walls is awesome

and

I'd say Hollow Years is to guitar what The Answer Lies Within is to piano.

[hefdaddy42]

   TALW is just, kind of, there.  It's not awful, but there is certainly nothing good about it, either.  It's the only DT song like that I can think of.

For me, that kind of describes These Walls and Sacrificed Sons, as well.  When I listen to any of those, they sound nice enough, and there is nothing in any of them that repulses me, but they are all just kind of there.

I don't get that vibe from either of those two songs.  There's a lot going on in both of them.  They aren't bland fluff like TALW.

[Zook]

Your face is bland fluff.

[wolfking]

I quite like TALW, but I think it would have benefited from being a bit later in the cd, I think track number 2 is too soon.

[TheGreatPretender]

I quite like TALW, but I think it would have benefited from being a bit later in the cd, I think track number 2 is too soon.

Okay, yeah, I'll have to agree with that. I first heard it on the Greatest Hit CD, and being near last, it worked really well.

[MoraWintersoul]

I quite like TALW, but I think it would have benefited from being a bit later in the cd, I think track number 2 is too soon.

It's the biggest buzzkill ever. TROAE ends with that amazing Medicate melody and it made me all googly-eyed during my first listen of 8VM, and then TALW rolled in and by the time it finished I was almost asleep.

[wasteland]

What if they had done something like:

1. TROAE
2. These Walls
3. AWBY
4. The Answer Lies Within
5. Panic Attack
6. Never Enough
7. SS
8. 8V

With TALW functioning as a pause between the two "hemispheres" of the album?

[Zydar]

TALW is a fine little ballad. I quite like it.

[Elite]

3. AWBY

Arsonists Won't Burn You

[?]

What if they had done something like:

1. TROAE
2. These Walls
3. AWBY
4. The Answer Lies Within
5. Panic Attack
6. Never Enough
7. SS
8. 8V

With TALW functioning as a pause between the two "hemispheres" of the album?

Yeah, that would be better. It would ruin the octave concept thing, but of course they could've changed the keys of the songs to keep it. Actually, there's a version of These Walls transposed to G minor on YT - it would sound crushing on the album that way!

[DebraKadabra]

Sacrificed Sons is musically amazing. I just wish it wasn't about 9/11.

Exactly.

[kjg308429]

It's just not DT. It's DT trying to sound like something other than themselves.

I don't know what you mean by this. It's just a simple, straightforward ballad. DT have been doing that since the beginning (Another Day).

I agree. I think it's not different from other songs of DT. But most of all, I think, because DT always try something, sound which is somewhat different from their prior sound can't be a standard of favor. Don't you agree that new try in every album is the one of most attractive points of DT? 

[Dublagent66]

It's just not DT. It's DT trying to sound like something other than themselves.

I don't know what you mean by this. It's just a simple, straightforward ballad. DT have been doing that since the beginning (Another Day).

I agree. I think it's not different from other songs of DT. But most of all, I think, because DT always try something, sound which is somewhat different from their prior sound can't be a standard of favor. Don't you agree that new try in every album is the one of most attractive points of DT?

True.  DT has always incorporated different sounds and styles apart from their own.  That's one of the many reasons we love DT.   

[TheGreatPretender]

True.  DT has always incorporated different sounds and styles apart from their own.  That's one of the many reasons we love DT.   

Not just that, but album to album there's always something different, without deviating from what fans truly love about them. DT really knows that balance, I find.

[YngVai]

It doesn't really do much for me anymore, but being an overly-introspective 15 year old when I first got the album and got into them, it used to appeal a lot more haha.  Still has that nostalgia factor, but that's just because of my personal experience with it.  I imagine I'd hate it if I already had expectations on what Dream Theater should and shouldn't sound like.  The whole album's really great for someone just discovering the band.