I have a good feeling about this album.....because
When Chris Collins left, they made their first DT album
When Charlie Dominici left, they made their most successful album, I&W
When Kevin Moore left, they made their EP, A Change of Seasons
When Derek Sherinian left, they made their first concept album
When Mike Portnoy left...
Correct me if I got anything wrong.
When they made WDADU, they had already been demoing a lot of the material.
When they made IAW, they had also already been demoing a lot of the material.
When they made ACOS, the song had been around for 4 years already, it just got tweaked a bit with DS's additions.
When they made SFAM, they had the groundwork laid out from a 20-minute demo that got expanded into an 80 minute album.
So you see, it seems when someone left the band, they had already had something in mind for the next album.
The difference now is that with MP gone, they've started fresh, and I'm sure they haven't been demoing new material/riffs lately, unless they took ideas from the auditions and ran with them. I guess we'll find out in a few months. If so, the idea of using old ideas/demos/songs on the next album after a member departs will still continue!
Fresh start with not-so-fresh ideas? Seems to work so far...
-Marc.