To the Dominici comment above, I agree completely.
It's much easier to understand and appreciate CD's WDADU performance if you put him in the context of what other prog metal vocalists were doing at that time, Jon Arch especially. Under that light, he's not so "out there."
The problem is, that whole style (the same you hear on this record)was, which is why CD had to go if DT were gonna break out.
I'm still on the fence as to whether I agree with you and Sam on this album, though. I really, really like it. And it does have a sort of special drawing power to it that ADTOE doesn't have. It's much more "albumy" to me, tbh, and it's the kind of disc I just want to delve into and find out what is going on and what it is that JA is wailing about... Yeah, I think that's it: lyrics. This album has really good lyrics, even if I don't know what they're about yet. That's the one thing this album definitely has on the new DT.