my DT history & album review a "prog-de-force!"

[smegolas]

I first discovered Dream Theater from a description of Take the Time in Guitar for the Practicing Musician magazine.  They were raving about it, so I picked up I&W, and DT has more or less been my favourite band for the past 20 years.  My interest peaked around the time of SFAM, which I still regard as one of the greatest rock albums ever recorded.  I remember reading through the thread discussing the story and twist ending for weeks.  Then 6DOIT was nearly as good, a brilliant follow-up.  I bought all their subsequent releases, and continued to love the band (even though they almost never come to Vancouver!).  But I was recently forced to admit, against my will, that there was a lot on stuff on there that I wasn’t loving, even though my love for the band may have been blinding me to that fact.  I realized:

TOT – didn’t really like alot of it, too heavy for me.

Octavarium – wasn’t as good as I thought it was.  The brilliance of the title track made the whole album seem better than it was.

SC – OK, I never liked this album, there is very little on here that appeals to me.  Probably their worst ever.

BC&SL – At first I thought: this is great, DT is back!  But I soon tired of many of the songs other than TCOT, and like Octavarium, that one song made the album seem better than it was.

It hit me like a ton of bricks – I hadn’t really liked too much from the past SEVEN years!  Then the news that MP had left the band – not good!  But probably the day after I heard that, I started to think that this may be what the band needs.  Mike Im sure can be an overbearing force in the studio, and this could allow the other band members to shine through.  At the very least we would not have to listen to his ridiculous vocals!

ADTOE – it is way way too early to tell for sure, but this album sounds FANTASTIC!  More slow stuff, more prog / less metal, more variety, more major keys, love Jordan’s big orchestral type chords (Im guessing MP was not supportive of this).  Its like they broke out of a rut.  I remember Portnoy saying that the band was at a turning point before SFAM, and they blew their wad on every level with that album.  I feel like that pretty much describes this album too.  You can hear the incredible effort that went into these songs.  I hope it continues to grow on me…I think it may have the potential to be one of their best albums ever.  And how ironic is it that it happens only after the departure of their driving force?

Best tracks: Backs of Angels, Outcry, Breaking all Illusions, Beneath the Surface, with special mention to BAI - destined to become one of the all time greatest DT songs after the dust settles.

Note: I have never been a big James fan, always felt he was their weakest link (especially live).  But I have to give him his due for Beneath the Surface - he sounds awesome - particularly when he belts out “and began to forget...”.  Just gives me shivers, and totally caught me by surprise!  Really wish we would hear more of this from him instead of his normal “whispering/heavy breathing” style, for lack of a better term.

THEY’RE BACK BABY!!!!! 

[Bertielee]

It's funny, because I think JLB is best with his breathing range than with his upper range, at least these days. But back to topic, ADToE is indeed really great!

B.Lee

[Nat Eleison]

I got into Dream Theater pretty much the same way, through reading about them in that same article in Guitar for the practicing musician.  It's funny, I've been thinking back to those days quite a lot for the past few years, probably because it was such a defining moment for me in regards to the music I was beginning to listen to and play.

I haven't checked out ADTOE but I'm really looking forward to it (planning on getting it tomorrow, along with Arch/Matheos).

I pretty much obsessed about Dream Theater until Falling Into Infinity but really got into Liquid Tention Experiment.  It was awhile before I picked up SFM but once I did that really got me back. 

Yeah, I feel the same way, with regards to some of the newer material being hit and miss.  Generally I listen to the older stuff the most but still break some of the newer albums when the feeling gets me.  Initially I didn't like TOT but that album grew on me heaps, same for Octavarium.  Still don't listen to SC that much but it did get me into the Muse.  Still haven't picked up BC&SL but probably will soon (everybody keeps raving about The Count of Tuscany so I'm going to have to check it out).