*OFFICIAL* A Dramatic Turn Of Events discussion thread -- **SPOILER ALERT!!!**

[aurorablind]

Im a really big fan of the ballads on this album! They are all pretty different, and melodically very beautiful.
Lost not Forgotten and Bridges in the Sky completely raped my head when i first listened to it. My god!  
Breaking all Illusions is probably the best track overall. Classic DT!
Build me up, break me down is really cool! Love the modern feel, and how they experimented with it. JLB is on fire!
Outcry is to much to handle right now.. That one needs a couple of more listens..
OTBOA is as good as when i first heard it.

I loved Black Clouds, SC, 8vm and TOT when they came out as well, but this is the first one where after the first listen i thought: "Damn.. This is going to be a classic DT-album!"

[TheOutlawXanadu]

I will go and listen now! Very excited!

[cookienut]

Outcry certainly gets easier to handle after multiple listens. The instrumental is...mental. I love how there is a real LTE feel on a couple of tracks. Totally love the album.

[Edan the Man]

What I love is EVERYONE is on fire on this album. Myung is audible and doing interesting things for the first time in years, Rudess has really mixed things up and is providing a ton of stringy and choir-y atmosphere stuff, LaBrie just sounds awesome everywhere (the end of Beneath the Surface ), Petrucci has monster riffs and beautiful solos on practically every song, and Mangini is... Mangini!

[Heretic]

Beneath the Surface is probably their best ballad-esque song since Disappear. So emotional.

Oh, and JP's lyrics seem to be much improved this time around.

[Metabog]

Best album since ToT except maybe Octavarium the song.

I wouldn't call it a return to "classic DT", it feels like a progression along the path that started with Octavarium and continued with SC/BCSL, only... not terrible.

I wonder what changed. 

[jsem]

Outcry just totally blew my mind. It punched me in the face and was like "DT is back, inferiors"

[zipporaid]

I LOVE THIS ALBUM.  Contrary to early reviews, I love  BMUBMD.  Love the eagle screech doubling.

BAI is epic.  Labrie and Myung step up large,  JLB really shows off that he's not replaceable, despite
what MP thinks,  Mangini, I love his playing - but he should have been involved in the writing
to add more cool stuff.  It's a little stock, lol.

SO ENERGY! POWAH!

[Zydar]

Outcry has a sick instrumental section, but other than that I would rank it at the bottom here. But I've only heard it a few times.

[Chrissalix]

Strong fanboyism in here, but I don't know what I was expecting really! It's no understatement to say that this album is better than the last two or three by quite some way, though.

[zipporaid]

Strong fanboyism in here, but I don't know what I was expecting really! It's no understatement to say that this album is better than the last two or three by quite some way, though.

So you're surprised that the eagerly awaited album since MP's departure that you feel is better than the last 3 albums is being fanboi'd?
 

[TheOutlawXanadu]

Is it just me or does the end of "Bridges in the Sky" sound like a song off Final Fantasy VIII?

[Super Dude]

Is it just me or does the end of "Bridges in the Sky" sound like a song off Final Fantasy VIII?

Ooh, sounds intriguing.  Can't wait to dig in to this after class today.

[Bacong]

Outcry has a sick instrumental section, but other than that I would rank it at the bottom here. But I've only heard it a few times.

best chorus on the album, instrumental section is a little long :/

[gabeh1018]

to me this feels fresh, inspired and new and I love it, definitely my favorite since scenes from a  memory

James definitely is singing with a lot of passion on this cd and you can hear it all over.

I've never been one to jump the gun with new DT releases, but this album has some killer songs especially bridges in the sky and lost not forgotten



I love the instrumental section in outcry, I feel like I am going to die

[Chrissalix]

Strong fanboyism in here, but I don't know what I was expecting really! It's no understatement to say that this album is better than the last two or three by quite some way, though.

So you're surprised that the eagerly awaited album since MP's departure that you feel is better than the last 3 albums is being fanboi'd?
 

Did you read the first half of the post. Of course I expected it. Everything DT released would get fanboyed. You can't judge anything until the hype dies down. Read the BC&SL thread on here and what people say about the weaker tracks on that.

[ResultsMayVary]

This album is fucking good.

A+

[BlobVanDam]

Outcry has a sick instrumental section, but other than that I would rank it at the bottom here. But I've only heard it a few times.

best chorus on the album, instrumental section is a little long :/

It by far takes up the longest percentage of the song compared to the other 10+ minute songs on the album. It's a bit much for me, although I think the others got a good balance.

(I think LNF, BITS and TITL have the best choruses, but Outcry's chorus is the best part of it).

[Bacong]

Lost Not Forgotten's chorus is entirely forgettable. Bridges is great, TITL is solid.

[Metabog]

Outcry has the best instrumental part since TDOE, hands down.

Although the song goes something like...

Alright, revolutions in the middle east.
Resistance! Stand and be counted!
We will gain our freedo.... w... what the..
WHAT THE FF... WHAT'S HAPPENING TO MY FACE
...
5 minutes later...
...
Yeah, so... revolutions.  

[zipporaid]

Myung is so playing his ass off on this.  I'm LOVING the Gentle giant, yes, deep purple, LTE, old DT aspects of this album.

Lots to like.

[BlobVanDam]

Lost Not Forgotten's chorus is entirely forgettable. Bridges is great, TITL is solid.

TITL's regular chorus is solid, but once it gets to the end where it's sung an octave higher, and has the additional ending, then I'm completely hooked and think it's fantastical. But I've always been a fan of the more ballady choruses, perhaps more so than most.
We'll have to agree to disagree on LNF though. I really like the energy of it, and the harmonies.

[tri.ad]

So good. So, so good. High tier album, I guess.

And holy shit, JM is totally on fire during Outcry.

[gabeh1018]

Since I  have been a member I
have never posted my thoughts on a new album upon release and to be honest it took like weeks or so to really dive into Octavarium, systematic and black clouds. Till this day they are not among my favorites. So what I am trying to say, since I am posting about this album everything I say is 100% correct. This album is solid from top to bottom and is a winner  IMO. that doesn;t mean that aren't weak points because there certainly are, but to me they are forgiveable. Like I said above, fresh and inspired and James sounds great on this album.

I will say outcry does take multiple listens to grasp it, but it took awhile for me to get into the title track 8vm and now it's a top 5 DT song for me.

I love LNF, bridges, breaking and beneath the surface. so passsion so energy!!!!

[Bacong]

Lost Not Forgotten's chorus is entirely forgettable. Bridges is great, TITL is solid.

TITL's regular chorus is solid, but once it gets to the end where it's sung an octave higher, and has the additional ending, then I'm completely hooked and think it's fantastical. But I've always been a fan of the more ballady choruses, perhaps more so than most.
We'll have to agree to disagree on LNF though. I really like the energy of it, and the harmonies.

Agreed on the last chorus of TITL. LNF's chorus is fine but it's not memorable to me.

[zipporaid]

Lost Not Forgotten's chorus is entirely forgettable. Bridges is great, TITL is solid.

TITL's regular chorus is solid, but once it gets to the end where it's sung an octave higher, and has the additional ending, then I'm completely hooked and think it's fantastical. But I've always been a fan of the more ballady choruses, perhaps more so than most.
We'll have to agree to disagree on LNF though. I really like the energy of it, and the harmonies.

I really like it too.  The end, and the bridge itself has a nice chorusy type feel.

[3xodus]

So far I think it's the best album since 6DOIT. I also thought BC&SL was one of their best albums since then too though, and that opinion changed very fast over the course of a few months. But this feels like a new experiment for them, one that I remember hearing on SFAM and I LOVE that part about it. BC&SL never gave me that feel about it. It just felt very standard rockesque.

A lot of good stuff about this album. So far I like everything with the exception of BMUBMD, that could be one of their worst songs ever imo.

[skydivingninja]

My verdict right now is that the album is in the middle of the pack, competing with the other "tier 2" DT albums I listed in that one thread.  ADTOE is good.  It might even be very good, but Lost Not Forgotten and This is the Life bring it way down.  I can't tell you a single detail about them.  To me, they were just easily forgettable.  However, Breaking All Illusions, Bridges in the Sky, Far From Heaven, Beneath the Surface, and On the Backs of Angels are fantastic songs.  

A few things I'm really happy about:
-The abandonment of the standard solo tradeoffs that were dominating their "instrumental sections."  Looks to me like DT looked at Metropolis, which most would probably say is the quintessential Dream Theater song, and realized that so many people love it partly because of the instrumental section that goes all over the place but is filled with memorable parts.  So there's a lot of Metropolis and ACoS influence on this album, and that's a good thing.  

-Electronic drums.  Bit of an odd thing to be happy about, but I loved their inclusion in Outcry and BMUBMD.  I'm sure MP would have never allowed electronic drums like that, since they haven't done them since that one bit in ITNOG.

-Rudess piano.  The one thing I've wanted to hear more from Dream Theater since I first heard SFAM.  Its everywhere and that makes me happy.

-James producing his own vocals.  The chorus to Bridges in the Sky might be the best part of the album.  We're hearing a tone that James hasn't shown us before.  Its subtle, but its powerful and gritty.  He's letting himself really use his voice on this album, and he hasn't sounded this good in the studio since Awake.  I mean, he's always sounded fine in the studio after his injury, but this album actually made me   at the ways James was using his voice.

However, there are a few problems:
-Lost Not Forgotten, This is the Life, BMUBMD: overall they're pretty forgettable songs, except BMUBMD which just suffers from a boring instrumental section.  

Overall, its actually kind of disappointing.  Had those three songs in between OTBOA and Bridges in the Sky been cut, it could have challenged Scenes.  Its certainly not the comeback masterpiece that I hoped for, but Dream Theater did have something to prove: that they could make a Dream Theater album without Mike Portnoy.  And they certainly did.  Not sure if its better or worse yet, but I'm very excited that they're stepping up and shaking up their game.  Once they get more comfortable with Mangini in the band and bring him in to do some writing I think we could see another 5-star album.

Also, obligatory rankings:
Breaking All Illusions
Far From Heaven
Bridges in the Sky
Beneath the Surface
On the Backs of Angels
Outcry
Build Me Up, Break Me Down
This is the Life
Lost Not Forgotten

[elizaalltiedup]

At some point during LNF I just had to laugh, there was so much awesome that I couldn't do anything else. And then I got to Outcry and my head exploded. AND THEN when I got to Beneath The Surface... I felt like.. I dunno. It left me kinda euphoric, a little speechless, and vaguely confused about where I was and what I had been doing previously. So I guess what I'm saying is that BTS is like sex.

[BlobVanDam]

YES RANKINGS

Lost Not Forgotten
Bridges in the Sky
This is the Life
Breaking All Illusions
On the Backs of Angels
Far From Heaven
Build Me Up, Break Me Down
Beneath the Surface
Outcry

Considering how solid this album is, those rankings don't mean a lot though. The only song I'm not interested in is Outcry. It just hasn't grabbed me at all, although there's nothing particularly wrong with it.
The rest I've grown to really like and love. And if anything, they continue to grow after wearing them out for two months straight.

[aXygnus]

If you seek song rankings...

Breaking All Illusions
Outcry
Bridges in the Sky (truth be told, BitS and Outcry are pretty much tied, they have so much going for them)
Beneath the Surface
This is the Life (that last guitar solo, holy crap)
On the Backs of Angels
Far From Heaven
Lost Not Forgotten
Build Me Up, Break Me Down


I'm not very fond of LNF, honestly. I don't like it all that much. Maybe I should give it a couple more spins?

[Fjubb]

Is the stream loading extremely slow for anyone else? If I wait a minute I get like three seconds of music.

[Rich Wilson]

The great thing is that the album is a grower. I wrote my initial review after having heard it a few times but I rate it even higher a month down the line.

There are loads of things hidden in there - like theres a keyboard part about 50 seconds into Outcry that sounds like something off SFaM.

[Chrissalix]

Rankings:

Beneath The Surface, which is so so so beautiful.
Bridges In The Sky
Breaking All Illusions
Outcry
Lost Not Forgotten
This Is The Life
On The Backs of Angels
Far From Heaven
Build Me Up, Break Me Down.

[ResultsMayVary]

I've been spinning this non-stop since about five minutes after this thread was created! Loving it more and more with every spin and I already love it.

Also, obligatory holy fuck Mangini!