Official "A Dramatic Turn Of Events" Review Thread

[m0hawk]

How can someone call anything DT makes "soulless"? Ive certainly hear ALOT more music that had ALOT less soul than most of what DT has. Obviously being a DT fan puts a little bias into that statement, and I haven't heard the album yet, but from the snippets ive heard, and the interviews ive seen, there has been ALOT of soul put into this album.

The "soulless" criticism comes from non-DT fans who listen to a mammoth instrumental section (most of which contains more rocking out rather than emotional content). They then generalise that mood to the rest of the band's discography.

[minstrel]

German weekly magazine "Der Spiegel" published a review of ADTOE as part of an article on "the most important Metal Albums of the Month".

Unfortunately the article relies heavily on stylistic nuances of the German language, and it would be quite a lot of work to translate it halfway decently. On top of that, they somehow munched it together with a review of Arch/Metheos, which BTW won the overall rating (ADTOE: 7.5/10, Arch/Matheos: 9/10).

In a nutshell, they wrote that the "duel" between the two CDs is "hardly to surpass in technical finesse", and stress the extensive use of keyboards in ADTOE. "So far, so expectable, but unfortunately sometimes a bit boring".

They go on writing it would be a common mistake of Rock-journalism to rate an album good from sheer respect of the musician's abilities. They do however quite like the music, and mention that DT's music travels in spheres last visit visited what feels like decades ago.

They don't particularly like "Build Me Up, Break Me Down" ("aimlessly drags through keyboard-swamps and has an irritating refrain". Also, they feel the strings are overly schmaltzy, and should not belong in an album of 2011.

All in all kind of an interesting review from somebody who is obviously not a hardcore DT fan.

[tgstk2]

thanks for the review!

[Setebos]

Another German review. (link)

New engine, better performance?
Because it is so. The first post-Mike Portnoy-home work from DREAM THEATER. Many asked the question, what impact on the overall work of Portnoy Dream Theater had and how Petrucci, Rudess, LaBrie, Myung, and the new man Mike Mengini without their former speaker, and would present belt motor.

But already showed the performance at the "Night Of The Prog" festival in July that affect DREAM THEATER on stage much more harmonious and more compact, even as a real band experience. LaBrie was allowed to leave the stage in the instrumental passages and did not accept absurd, barely audible percussion duties, John Myung and Mike has moved Mengini received a standing ovation lasting several minutes, simply because he had convinced everyone present.

The already pre-release opener 'On The Back Of Angels' is then also a blueprint for a typical DREAM THEATER-track, including on albums such as "Images & Words," "Awake" and "Falling Into Infinity" could be . In other words: DREAM THEATER Mike Portnoy without sound again after the nineties, where the band acted more as a band and all the band members were allowed to participate in the songs and lyrics. John Myung wrote his first lyrics in "Scenes From A Memory," James LaBrie finally allowed to write his own tunes, and the credits for the songs go to DREAM THEATER and not to Portnoy / Petrucci / Rudess / Myung as on recent works of case.

And so is "A Dramatic Turn Of Events" especially pure harmony. A self-contained work that impresses with many great hooks, catchy tunes and a brilliant high sound quality. Of course, there are still a lot of songs with long instrumental passages, which allow the jaw to travel to the horizon, but that seems more like a freestyle. Take, for example, 'Breaking All Illusions ", which quite a feat to remember how' Learning To Live 'and with enormously varied and grandiose instrumental passages Rudess-splashes of color makes for a pleasant DREAM THEATER-feeling.

The hooks are found mainly in the two album highlights 'Bridges In The Sky' and 'Outcry'. Two eleven-minute monster of songs, most notably the chorus of 'Outcry' should live in 'Pull Me Under' volume reproduced by the audience. The rather compact nearly seven-minute hit 'Build Me Up, Break Me Down "(a little more aggressive) and' This Is The Life '(wonderfully spherical number) could stand on their mood ago on" Falling Into Infinity ", while" Lost Not Forgotten 'no memories of "Scenes From A Memory" can arise. In each of these songs seems like James LaBrie freed, his own melodies, sings with the self-evident that characterized his last two solo albums and also proves that he is in fact not the easiest to replace in-house Personnel DREAM THEATER. Quite the contrary: I imagine a different voice on the mic, I liked is seldom severe. As already indicated in the above-mentioned presentation, is a certainty here: LaBrie especially benefited from the fact that Portnoy is no longer setting the pace.

Only two of the beautiful ballad "Far From Heaven 'and' Beneath The Surface 'it might have only needed one, especially since they are also close together in the gallery context and the work so soft rinse at the end of something. But this is only a small blemish.

Thus DREAM THEATER Mike Portnoy without sounding exactly like DREAM THEATER, but just install without the influence of a band like Muse or other new-fangled stuff, the Portnoy in the last decade and tried again without the aggressive tone that resonated in the more recent works. In the sense of the word progressive is "A Dramatic Turn Of Events" so not fancy, but if you're honest, DREAM THEATER had for years no longer progressive, but always playful, many overweight and at times even. Overloading anno 2011 now seems nothing more. And that's a damn good thing.

The bottom line should be noted that DREAM THEATER definitely their most balanced album in more than a decade and provide easy tie-quality still propagated to the strong "Black Clouds and Silver Linings". An absolute must for fans.


Rating: 9.0 / 10

[tjanuranus]

My favorite review... Saw it somewhere on facebook. Who knows if the person actually heard the album or not. Could be BS but sounds promising.

I can't believe the new Dt. Nope. Human beings can't do that. NOPE. It's beyond music. It's literally super music. I actually had to stop listening mid song a few times because my brain couldn't take how great it is. Best album since Images and Words? EASY.

Lost but not forgotten, outcry, and bridges in the sky. If they can pull that off live, instantly greatest musicians to ever live ever. My mind will officially be fucked to oblivion

[blackngold29]

how Petrucci, Rudess, LaBrie, Myung, and the new man Mike Mangini without their former speaker, and would present belt motor.

I have also wondered how the band would present their belt motor...

[robwebster]

Another German review. (link)

New engine, better performance?
Because it is so. The first post-Mike Portnoy-home work from DREAM THEATER. Many asked the question, what impact on the overall work of Portnoy Dream Theater had and how Petrucci, Rudess, LaBrie, Myung, and the new man Mike Mengini without their former speaker, and would present belt motor.

It's a while since I've had to speak any German, but "belt motor" made me laugh a lot and scratch my head just as much, so I decided to read it in the original German instead.

First paragraph is more along the lines of...

"So here it is. The first post-MP work from the house of Dream Theater. Lots of people were posing the question of how much influence Portnoy had on the overall work of Dream Theater, and how Petrucci, Rudess, LaBrie, Myung, and the new man Mike Mangini would come across without their spokesman and band motor."

Might do the rest later, but I can't say I'm not a little rusty.

[weeping-icon]

 

Rudess seems to have stopped the experiments with the keytar solo or iphone

This has me excited more than anything.

[robwebster]

Ugh - I'm rustier than I remember, this needs a lot of cleanup, and there are a few bits towards the end where I couldn't be bothered to derive the entire meaning and just gisted it - but this is a rough translation of the German review.

• "So here it is. The first post-MP work from the house of Dream Theater. Lots of people were posing the question of how much influence Portnoy had on the overall work of Dream Theater, and how Petrucci, Rudess, LaBrie, Myung, and the new man Mike Mangini would come across without their spokesman and band leader.
  
  "We already saw that Dream Theater are functioning far more harmoniously and tightly on stage at the Night of the Prog festival in July, providing a real band experience. LaBrie was allowed to leave the stage during the instrumental passages and didn't have to senselessly play barely-audible percussion lines, John Myung has started to move, and Mike Mangini received a minute-long standing ovation, having easily won over everybody in the room.
  
  "The already-released opener 'On the Backs of Angels,' then, is practically a blueprint for a typical Dream Theater track, that would've sat just as well on albums like Images and Words, Awake or Falling Into Infinity. In other words, without Mike Portnoy, Dream Theater sound more like they did in the nineties, when the band acted as more of a unit, and every member worked together on the music and lyrics. John Myung has written his first lyrics since Scenes from a Memory, James LaBrie is allowed to write his own melodies, and the songs are credited to Dream Theater, and not Portnoy/Petrucci/Rudess/Myung as has been the case for the last few albums.
  
  "And so "A Dramatic Turn of Events" is, above all, pure harmony. A self-contained work that impresses with lots of great hooks, catchy tunes, and a brilliant quality of sound. Naturally, there's always a couple of overlong songs with jawdropping instrumental sections which are a little more free-style, here. Take, for example, Breaking All Illusions, which is a feat of composition that invokes Learning to Live, and with its enormously varied instrumental passages and grand splashes of colour from Rudess, settles into that cosy Dream Theater feeling.
  
  "The hooks can mainly be found in the two album highlights, Bridges in the Sky and Outcry. Two eleven-minute monsters, the chorus to Outcry is particularly notable, as it should invoke audience volumes not unlike those of Pull Me Under. The shorter, seven-minute-long hits of Build Me Up, Break Me Down (somewhat more aggressive) and This is the Life (a relatively sparse number), owe a lot to Falling Into Infinity, whereas Lost Not Forgotten invokes memories of Scenes from a Memory. In these two songs, James LaBrie functions very competently, singing his own melodies with confidence, like on his last two solo albums, proving that he is by no means the least crucial member of Dream Theater. Quite the opposite: I can't imagine a different voice behind the microphone. James LaBrie, as suggested earlier, certainly benefits from the absence of Portnoy's control.
  
  "Only one of the two lovely ballads Far from Heaven and Beneath the Surface would've been strictly necessary, especially since they're so close together in the context of the album, especially given how close they are in the context of the album and and how softly it ends, but that's only a minor fault.
  
  "Thereby, Dream Theater without Mike Portnoy sound exactly like Dream Theater, only without the influences of bands like Muse or other modern stuff that Portnoy introduced over the last decade, and without the excessively aggressive undertones that typified the more recent works. A Dramatic Turn of Events isn't particularly "progressive," strictly speaking, but in truth, Dream Theater hasn't been progressive for years - rather, constantly silly, overlong, sporadically flamboyant and overloaded - but as of 2011, it appears that the overload has stopped. And that's a damned good thing.
  
  "The bottom line is, Dream Theater have written their most balanced album in over a decade, and effortlessly followed-up the strong quality of Black Clouds & Silver Linings. An absolute must for fans."

Showing up how long it's been, more than anything, but it'll do for now.

[duncan3dc]

Ugh - I'm rustier than I remember, this needs a lot of cleanup, and there are a few bits towards the end where I couldn't be bothered to derive the entire meaning and just gisted it - but this is a rough translation of the German review.

Looks great, thanks very much 

[tgstk2]

well outcry i really hope that  is better than  because the  is really  for me 

[?]

A Finnish metal journalist (the same guy who wrote the Nightwish book) made a post on the Imperiumi (biggest Finnish metal website) forum, having heard the album. Roughly translated, he said he really liked the album, except that he didn't find the "dick stretching jazz" of Lost Not Forgotten and Breaking All Illusions(!) interesting. He described the album as melodic, full of variety, deep, elaborate and at some points heartfelt in the vein of Through Her Eyes and The Spirit Carries On. He admitted that he couldn't have believed they could make an album as great as this.

[tgstk2]

that makes it sound its there best album ever?

[Zydar]

"dick stretching jazz"

[BlobVanDam]

"dick stretching jazz"

Quick! To the MS Paint ADTOE thread!

[Zydar]

"dick stretching jazz"

Quick! To the MS Paint ADTOE thread!

It's on the first page:

[BlobVanDam]

Well you just have an answer to everything, don't you Mr Zydar? 

[tjanuranus]

"dick stretching jazz"

Quick! To the MS Paint ADTOE thread!

It's on the first page:

 

[?]

"dick stretching jazz"

Quick! To the MS Paint ADTOE thread!

It's on the first page:

[jsem]

There are a bunch of reviews popping up on youtube now by video reviewers. I've only listened to one, and it was very favorable.

[Knguro]

Got it Hef  is just that I'm so excited!

[hefdaddy42]

All I can say guys is that *snip*

Don't even say that much.

GOT IT?

[blackngold29]

Review from Lords of Metal (https://www.lordsofmetal.nl/showreview.php?id=19723&lang=en) says: ‘Breaking All Illusions’ is the song with which Mancini did his audition and he seems to be paying some kind of tribute to Portnoy a bit.

I do not get that part (or why he called him Mancini).

Overall he says 79/100. Not too bad when that's the worst score I've seen.

[SystematicThought]

His review was kind of weird to me. And he said that Myung is Myung, he's present, but hardly stands out that made me a sad guy

[Tis BOOLsheet]

let me just say that  I REALLY WANT TO BE BANNED FOR SAYING THIS KIND OF THING.

[XJDenton]

For Gods sake, how are you guys not getting this?

[LieLowTheWantedMan]

Great review from one of my PA buddies (he gets albums early for review purposes often):

https://www.progarchives.com/Review.asp?id=515034

[hefdaddy42]

Great review from one of my PA buddies (he gets albums early for review purposes often):

https://www.progarchives.com/Review.asp?id=515034

[KevShmev]

Nice review, but him saying that Portnoy was given the boot by the rest of the band is a major factual blunder.

[FretMuppet]

https://mymetalbin.com/2011/09/04/dream-theater-a-dramatic-turn-of-events/

Another good, favourable review. A bit short though

[BlackInk]

Well he likes the words "god", "damn" and "insane".

Oh, and he also managed to write a very nice review.

[DarkLord_Lalinc]

That's like a 95% fan review, but it's cool nonetheless.

[Millais]

Review from Lords of Metal (https://www.lordsofmetal.nl/showreview.php?id=19723&lang=en) says: ‘Breaking All Illusions’ is the song with which Mancini did his audition and he seems to be paying some kind of tribute to Portnoy a bit.

I do not get that part (or why he called him Mancini).

Overall he says 79/100. Not too bad when that's the worst score I've seen.

with a clear pro-portnoy bias and various mistakes throughout makes this one of the worst reviews i've seen for this album so far.

[Slain]

I'm all for getting reviews from people who aren't necessarily DT fans, but as soon as they throw in 'indulgent' or 'soulless', they lose credibility. "They have sections of music that don't have vocals for more than ten seconds! Obviously it's pretentious and lacking emotion".

^ This.

"They can be aloof to the point of arrogance, indulgent to the point of overload and so desperately pleased with themselves that you’d think they’d discovered cure for cancer"

I've never understood why people think that the members of DT are arrogant, or self indulgent just because they write the music that they enjoy writing. Just because you like having instrumental passages in your music doesn't mean that you're a pretentious douchebag. But, you can be a pretentious douchebag with instrumental passages in your music. There's a difference.

[Marion Crane]

Review from Lords of Metal (https://www.lordsofmetal.nl/showreview.php?id=19723&lang=en) says: ‘Breaking All Illusions’ is the song with which Mancini did his audition and he seems to be paying some kind of tribute to Portnoy a bit.

I do not get that part (or why he called him Mancini).

Overall he says 79/100. Not too bad when that's the worst score I've seen.

Yeah this guy has no clue of what he's talking about. I bet Petrucciani, LaBrue, Myang and Rugess would agree