DT Albums Most Similar and Dissimilar To The Previous Album

[emtee]

It's probably an obvious question but just in case; Which DT album is most like the one before it and which one is the most different from the one before it.

This question arose from reading various posts regarding expectations for #16.

For me, The Astonishing is most dissimilar to the self titled (and for that matter everything that preceded it) and Distance Over Time and A View are the most similar in terms of approach, sonic values and compositional aspects.

Just curious about different perspectives.

[bosk1]

I'm kind of copping out a bit here, but this is more of an overarching comment before I get into specifics:  Images was not a big departure from WDADU in terms of writing.  They were a band that was still finding themselves, and obviously finding a new singer, when they wrote and put out I&W.  But stylistically, I don't hear a big departure from WDADU to Images--just a maturity and natural growth.  But to me, there is a big contrast from there going forward from one album to the next from I&W through TOT.  To me, each of these albums sounded VERY different than what had come before.  And Octavarium sounded very different than its immediate predecessor, but didn't sound that different than what the band had done throughout its history.  With the exception of The Astonishing, I don't feel like any albums from Octavarium through the last album are as drastically different as other things they have done in their career.  Those later albums just sound like natural outgrowths of what they developed earlier in their careers.  Yes, there are individual songs (or even groups of songs) and individual parts that are new and "experimental" (for them), but no single album feels like as big a leap in a new direction as each of the new albums did back in the early days.  And I'm not saying the band has gotten stale, or predictable, or less creative, or has run out of things to say later in their career--far from it.  I think it's a combination of factors.  First off, when there was less of a body of work to compare to, I think those big leaps from album to album seemed a lot bigger than farther outside the box than now, with such a large body of work on the table and a much "bigger box," comparatively speaking.  I think it's much harder for any newness to feel like as big a leap in a new direction when they have such a huge and diverse body of work to compare it to.  Second, I think it's also a factor of them just having found a broad array of what works well for what they want to do. 

Anyhow, I know that doesn't directly answer the question, but those were the thoughts that immediately came to mind.

[HOF]

I think WDADU to I&W was just a huge leap in terms of songwriting and production values. Even if the core sound of the band was kind of similar, the singer change was also a pretty drastic change.

I don't know any of the post-SC albums well enough, but I wonder if maybe SC and BC&SL would be the pick for most people.

Before that, I kind of see every album as being pretty significantly different from the one before it.

[SwedishGoose]

To me I think The Astonishing to Distance Over Time is the most dissimilar. Unfortunately for me who love TA and can't really click with D/T.

The most similar would probably be Systematic Chaos ti Black Clouds and Silver Linings. Two of the lowest ranked albums in my ears.

[crystalstars17]

AVFTTOTW/DoT - most similar.

A possible case could also be made for similarities between these and ADTOE.

The most similar would probably be Systematic Chaos ti Black Clouds and Silver Linings. Two of the lowest ranked albums in my ears.

I agree about SC being low-ranked (aside from Forsaken, I really don't care for it much), but BCSL feels different to me and as such I rank it a lot higher (it has a greater number of extremely likeable songs, for me at least), possibly one of the highest from the pre-MM era for me, so I don't get the general dislike for it.

[Jamesman42]

Most dissimilar might be Awake to FII. Honestly though, haven't listened to FII in probably over a decade. But Awake has that dark and moody vibe while FII is on the lighter side.

I agree with bosk on WDADU and IaW, it was what first came to mind.

I also thought of SDOIT/TOT and 8VM/SC for dissimilar. Both prior albums feel a lot more proggy and then lead into more "let's be metal" albums.

[pg1067]

WDADU --> I&W:  More mature songwriting and better production, but not much stylistic change.

I&W --> Awake:  Heavier and a bit darker, but that's about it.

Awake --> FII:  MUCH less heavy and significantly more commercially focused.  I'd say this is our leader at the first turn.

FII --> SFAM:  About the same as the previous one, but in the other direction.

SFAM --> SDOIT:  SDOIT is MUCH less homogenous/diverse.  This might be our new leader.

SDOIT --> TOT:  A return to homogeneity and MUCH heavier.  Another new leader.

TOT --> 8VM:  Another stylistically diverse album.  The leaders keep changing!

8VM --> SC:  Less homogenous, but not as drastic as the prior few albums.

SC -- > BC&SL:  I'd say this is the current leader for most similar.

BC&SL --> ADTOE:  Despite the drummer change, not a big stylistic change despite the less dark tone.

ADTOE --> DT12:  Still staying the course.

DT12 --> TA:  Sound of tires screeching.  Either this or the next one has GOT to be the most dissimilar.

TA --> DOT:  See above.

DOT --> View:  I'd say it's between this one and SC --> BC&SL for most similar.  View feels like a near carbon copy of DOT.

[Madman Shepherd]

To me I think The Astonishing to Distance Over Time is the most dissimilar. Unfortunately for me who love TA and can't really click with D/T.

The most similar would probably be Systematic Chaos ti Black Clouds and Silver Linings. Two of the lowest ranked albums in my ears.

I think I agree with you EXCEPT DoT is one of my favorites and Astonishing is my absolute least favorite.

Similarly I rank BC&SL near the bottom while SC is one of my top 3. 

I agree with you about the similarities/dissimilarities

[Buddyhunter1]

Scenes -> Six Degrees -> ToT is the era where the band went through their biggest metamorphosis, with Scenes being the last album with their "classic" sound and ToT being the point at which they've fully transitioned into their significantly heavier modern sound, with Six Degrees being the bridge between the two. Hard to say which of those album-to-album transitions was the biggest, but that's easily the top two in my opinion.

Most similar is another close race between SC -> BC&SL and DoT -> View, though there's enough differences for both pairs, especially the song lengths for the latter. DT12 and DoT are the two most similar albums the band has put out, so that would be the obvious pick if you pretended The Astonishing didn't exist, which I sometimes do.

[jammindude]

The most dissimilar to me would be 8V to SC.  It’s not just the drastic drop in quality (literally went from their greatest album to their worst) but there is a lush, warm, and joyful quality and atmosphere to 8V. It’s a band at the absolute peak of their craft wrapping all the things that make them who they are in a perfect package of nuggets.

SC is jarring, dark, joyless, harsh, directionless, a band that went into the studio completely lost after hitting their peak. They just sound like they are spent. Like they had no ideas left and just wandered through the process.

I agree that BCSL feels a bit like SC part two, so it’s fair to say that gets my vote for most similar.

[bosk1]

SC is jarring, dark, joyless, harsh, directionless, a band that went into the studio completely lost after hitting their peak. They just sound like they are spent. Like they had no ideas left and just wandered through the process.

Wait . . . WHAT?    I don't even know what album you are describing, but it definitely isn't Systematic Chaos.

[jammindude]

SC is jarring, dark, joyless, harsh, directionless, a band that went into the studio completely lost after hitting their peak. They just sound like they are spent. Like they had no ideas left and just wandered through the process.

Wait . . . WHAT?    I don't even know what album you are describing, but it definitely isn't Systematic Chaos.

I understand that there are those who see it differently. I just feel confusion at those descriptions. To my ears, SC is the only truly “bad” album DT has ever released. And it is for the reasons I just mentioned.

During the top 100, I revisited these tracks and with the exception of TDEN and ITPOE part 1, I found nothing redeeming in anything else from the entire album. Even ITPOE2 ends up ruining an otherwise perfectly good setup.

I guess this entire album is to me what TA is to most of this forum.

[Animal]

I pretty much agree with emtee. DoT and A View feel like two most similar albums of them all, no contest. And The Astonishing is a definite standout (in a bad way, I used to think, but I came around on it). I also agree with bosk that for early DT, every album sounds markedly different form the previous one.  I still recall how, as a new DT fan, every DT album I listened to took me by surprise. I mean - I heard Scenes first, I got some idea what DT sounded like. Then I got my hands on Awake and I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Based on Scenes, I thought that unlike say early Metallica, DT was a kind of soft metal I could play without my parents asking me to turn off this horrible noise. The aggression - especily in the vocals, I could not believe this was the singer I knew krom Scenes - and darkness of Awake disabused me from this notion. Later, I heard FII - and suddenly, there was a DT album I could play even to my grandma (at least parts of it). And when I finally got my hands on IaW, it was another shock. Stratospheric clean vocals, bright keys sounds.
The long story short, except for Scenes, the very first DT album I heard, I initially didn't like any other DT album. I had some expectations based on my previous albums experiences and this band constantly kept defying them.

[crystalstars17]

SC is jarring, dark, joyless, harsh

Yep, yep...

I guess this entire album is to me what TA is to most of this forum.

This.

[pg1067]

SC is jarring, dark, joyless, harsh, directionless, a band that went into the studio completely lost after hitting their peak. They just sound like they are spent. Like they had no ideas left and just wandered through the process.

Wait . . . WHAT?    I don't even know what album you are describing, but it definitely isn't Systematic Chaos.

I come out somewhere in the middle with this, and I'll start by noting that I rank SC at #14 of 15 DT albums.

Jarring/harsh?  Not sure I'd use those words.

Dark?  Definitely, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Joyless?  Nah...

Directionless?  Definitely not.  As opposed to the prior album, where they had 8 different directions and put so much effort into a framework that many of the songs suffered for it, this one had a pretty clear direction.  It's just not one that I particularly enjoyed.

Sounded like they were spent, wandering, etc.?  Absolutely.  I think this is where they could have benefitted a lot from a longer rest period than the 5 months they took between the last show of the 8VM tour to the time the started working on SC.

[Indiscipline]

Very interesting thread, and quite the difficult answers to come up with.

Most similar: ADTOE and DT. Yes, they sound different, but songwriting-wise they could have been written in the same studio session.

Most dissimilar: FII and SFAM. Disjointed collection of songs vs conceptual setlist. Extreme peaks and valleys in songwriting vs the highest level of songwriting consistency this side of I&W. New keyboardist (and new function for keyboards in song economy), new guitar manufacturer and sound, James largely misused vs James playing to his strengths, external influence vs extreme autarky, lush radio friendly production vs the first iteration of DT's "dense" sound of the 2000's. 

[Jamesman42]

^Agreed about FII/SFAM. The albums feel like they are 10 years apart in my mind.

[TheBarstoolWarrior]

I think it is hard to see any other choice for 'dissimilar' than DT->Astonishing regardless of what your preferences are. TA is just an off the wall DT project that probably would have been the top choice for this question no matter which album it followed. If I had to pick a runner up I would probably go with ToT->Octavarium which is just a very different pairing. You're going from a 'balls-to-the-wall' album of amped up heavy metal to a more diverse album that is influenced by softer rock and pop styles. Awake -> Falling into Infinity is a similar equation so is worth a mention to.

As far as most similar I think probably DoT->View. I saw View as a darker extension of DoT with longer songs. The other pair is SC->BCSL. You could listen to them one after the other and think it is the same album.

[TheLordOfTheStrings]

*edit*

I completely misunderstood the original post. Lol 

[Wim Kruithof]

Most dissimilar might be Awake to FII. Honestly though, haven't listened to FII in probably over a decade. But Awake has that dark and moody vibe while FII is on the lighter side.

Exact my thoughts as well. And with Awake being among their very best albums, Falling Into Infinity might be my least beloved one.

[emtee]

I spun FII a couple nights ago and it felt like visiting a dear old friend whom I hadn't seen in many years.

[TheOutlawXanadu]

SC is jarring, dark, joyless, harsh, directionless, a band that went into the studio completely lost after hitting their peak. They just sound like they are spent. Like they had no ideas left and just wandered through the process.

Wait . . . WHAT?    I don't even know what album you are describing, but it definitely isn't Systematic Chaos.

I understand that there are those who see it differently. I just feel confusion at those descriptions. To my ears, SC is the only truly “bad” album DT has ever released. And it is for the reasons I just mentioned.

During the top 100, I revisited these tracks and with the exception of TDEN and ITPOE part 1, I found nothing redeeming in anything else from the entire album. Even ITPOE2 ends up ruining an otherwise perfectly good setup.

I guess this entire album is to me what TA is to most of this forum.

I don't personally find SC to be outright bad, but I would probably rank it towards the lower end of their catalog. When it was released, I wasn't a fan of the fictional lyrics, but now I actually think that was a pretty cool change of pace. I love some of the songs, such as ITPOE Pt. 1 (I know it's technically half a song, but whatever). However, I will say that it is very much of the era where certain instrumental sections seemed a bit out of place to my ears and they were also getting a bit cheeky with influences from other artists. I even heard Portnoy say on a podcast recently that Repentance was kind of a Damnation ripoff, and Prophets of War always sounded super Muse-y to me.

So... Yea. I think it's a good, maybe even very good album by others' standards. For DT though, probably a C or D tier record in my books, which I think just speaks to their consistent level of quality over the years.