The Answer Lies Within Appreciation/Discussion Thread

[Adami]

So I was listening to Forsaken and such, and I noticed a good amount of the time when DT try to restrain themselves, Petrucci and Ruddess remain somewhat tasteful, but Portnoy seems to go a bit overbored and become boring. Forsaken has to have the most boring drumming (and vocals) in any DT song. I think TALW suffers from this as well. Along with horrible lyrics.

[orcus116]

One of the things that really pisses me off about Score was that a huge deal was made about the time limit at RCMH. Yet, with that in mind, they still decided to add in the 10 minute or whatever guitar/keyboard improv before TSCO and the 7 or so minute keyboard intro to Octavarium. Another song or two could have easily been thrown in to that time.


Of course they also could have not played 6DOIT. But that's just me.

Well, they did pay $30,000 in fines for going over the limit.  And I loved the improve before TSCO.  I will not debate the intro to 8VM.

They did really?

They could have pretty easily made it a two night event and made everyone happy. And I doubt it would have been more expensive.

I'd imagine it's tough to book RCMH two nights in a row.

[Fluffy Lothario]

This would possibly be Top 20 for me. As an overall song, it's my favourite off of 8VM. TROAE, Sacrificed Sons and 8VM have better moments, but all have glaringly weaker moments too, IMO.

[SnakeEyes]

I love it.  James sounds great and I actually really like the lyrics.  It's nice to see DT writing something that's not dark and depressing.  Their songs are usually so.... sad.  LOL

[RoeDent]

Nice for them to have one not-so-heavy track on the album as well. But after it, you've still got 60 minutes of DT heaviness! 

[ZKX-2099]

I Walk Beside You =/= Heavy.

[Gadough]

I Walk Beside You =/= Heavy.

I was thinking the same thing.

[darkshade]

Listening to Octavarium right now, and I'm up to this song. I've always liked The Answer Lies Within since 8vm came out. Today, it sounds even better for some reason. APPRECIATES!

[Pols Voice]

Yeah, it's good. Nice and simple.

[MirzekDT]

The amount of pure hatered towards TALW in this thread makes me sad it's far from being my favorite song overall or on Octavarium but it's a very good song and I'm glad it's on Score because it fits there perfectly with the orchestra and it's a very nice version of the song.

And yes I know there are also lots of positive opinions in the thread as well but the negative ones are really merciless this song doesn't deserve this treatment.

[DarkLord_Lalinc]

I don't have issues with TALW, I in fact think it's a gorgeous little song. However, I concur with what was said eariler, that Portnoy's drumming on slow pieces became somewhat stale in his last DT records (as did his drumming in all the songs, where his fills and rhythmic figures became very predictable and cyclic). Good drumming can take a ballad (or slower pieces, if you may) to the next level, just ask Gavin Harrison.

[perfey]

Its a nice, little relaxing song that I play now and then. But on tour I would rather have them play any of their other ballads, like Hollow Years, Wait for Sleep, Another Day, Surrounded, Innocence Faded, The Silent Man etc.

I would have put Take Away My Pain there instead, if that would have worked with the orchestra.

[TheGreatPretender]

I just love the main piano melody in this song. I wish they elaborated more on it as the song progressed.

Also, I love the little Octavarium nugget in it.

[wasteland]

I saw this thread and resolved to *try* to go through Octavarium 

[Podaar]

When Octavarium first came out I thought it was fun to sing along with James (as long as you don't pay too much attention to the preachy lyrics) but honestly it's always been very difficult to detect the DT in this song. The instrumentation could easily be attributed to a lounge band from Vegas.

What really confuses me is having a lyric writer from Italian decent spraying out such racist epithets like, "Don't let, a Dago by in debt." Very disappointing JP.

[Zook]

There's nothing wrong with this song. I only listen to it when listening to the album in full, but it's not bad by any means.

[theanalogkid7]

When listening to Octavarium, I always find myself skipping TALW but then coming back to it after listening to the rest of the album.  It's a nice, clam, breather piece I think.

[TL]

I first heard Dream Theater when a friend of mine showed me (and several other friends of ours) the live SFAM DVD. The first studio album I heard of DT's was SFAM. However, this happened in late 2004, and by the time I came around to buying a DT album (I was going through a sort of grunge/90s 'punk' rock phase before this), Octavarium had just come out, so I bought it. It went on to become my album of the summer for 2005 (I have one every year, never by design). My friends and I played it all the time.

I didn't originally like The Answer Lies Within all that much. At the time, I preferred songs that were technical, heavy, or both. I also felt it cost the album some momentum.
However, as time went on, I began to appreciate it more and more. I began to like it. At one point, a girl I was dating at the time put it on when she wanted to create a certain slow-dance type mood.

Also, my brother once entered a province-wide singing competition (he should have won (I'm certainly not biased) but didn't), and one of the other contestants who I don't know at all chose The Answer Lies Within as his song to perform. The crowd loved it.

So at this point, I definitely like it.

Edit: Heh, didn't realize how old this thread was, though it doesn't change the above.

[TheGreatPretender]

I think it's one of their best songs when you're in a mellow mood. Most of their other songs, even songs like Take Away My Pain and To Live Forever, go into really epic guitar solos.

The interesting thing about DT's ballads is that their pacing wouldn't allow for slow dancing at all. Not even songs like Though Her Eyes. At full beat it's too fast, but at half-beat it's too slow.

[Ice9ine]

Easily one of if not the best DT 'ballad' they have ever recorded imo.

Always loved it, always will.

[ZirconBlue]

What really confuses me is having a lyric writer from Italian decent spraying out such racist epithets like, "Don't let, a Dago by in debt." Very disappointing JP.

That's silly.  It's a song about The Empire Strikes Back:   "Don't let, uh, Dagobah"

[hefdaddy42]

There's nothing wrong with this song.

Nothing right with it, either.

[Zook]

There's nothing wrong with this song.

Nothing right with it, either.

You have a strange, unnecessary hatred for this song.

[JayOctavarium]

You're gonna SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNEEEEEEEE

[Ħ]

TALW is horrid.

[DarkLord_Lalinc]

You're gonna SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNEEEEEEEE

[?]

My opinion on this song still hasn't changed - it's not a bad song, but fails to evoke any emotions in me and is just meh overall. It's also a very anticlimactic follow-up to TROAE in the album tracklisting.

[hefdaddy42]

There's nothing wrong with this song.

Nothing right with it, either.

You have a strange, unnecessary hatred for this song.

I don't hate it.  It's not worthy of hate. 

[Dublagent66]

There's nothing wrong with this song.

Nothing right with it, either.

You have a strange, unnecessary hatred for this song.

I don't hate it.  It's not worthy of hate.

Oh ok, then the song isn't nearly as bad as you led us to believe.  Thanks for clearing that up.    

[hefdaddy42]

Well, it's not bad.  It's, like, irrelevant.

Raw Dog is bad, but at least it's on my radar as something that is noticeably awful.  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.

[Dublagent66]

I can always find at least one good thing about every DT song.  No matter how small or how much I dislike the song as a whole.  I've heard worse DT songs than TALW and still found something good.  But hey, to each his own.

[Glass Moonlight]

Meh, it's ok.

[KevShmev]

   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.

[TheGreatPretender]

I think These Walls is awesome, but had a few bits that made me go, "What? That's it? I wanna hear more of that!" Basically, it had more potential than it achieved.

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

The Answer Lies Within is just uplifting. It's a great, relaxing little ballad, but unlike Take Away My Pain or Disappear, it's not depressing. Yeah, I guess Hollow Years is better, but basically, I'd say Hollow Years is to guitar what The Answer Lies Within is to piano.

[darkshade]

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