The question is this, and I'm not doing this to start trouble. Would Dream Theater have made as good an album as they just did if Mike was still with them? I personally think he would have fought the direction to go back to there roots and I don't think the album would have turned out as good. I don't think we would have gotten that classic DT sound because Mike liked the direction they were going and that direction was away from the prog and towards the metal.
Any thoughts?
Yes and no. On one hand, I don't think things would have been
drastically different with Portnoy still in the band simply because, in terms of the riff and melody writing, that mostly comes from Petrucci and Jordan. So in that respect, I don't think things would have changed all that much. But there are areas where I do think things would have been different:
1. Keyboard parts. Mike liked to write and record quickly. And it worked, not only for DT, but seems to work well when he works with Neal Morse solo and Transatlantic (although, in both of those bands, a lot of ideas get worked up in a lot of detail
before the band comes together to "write" the songs). But Jordan said in an interview not so long ago that one thing that was different this time around is that the band was able to take longer, which allowed him to really come up with more dynamic keyboard parts that countered the guitar rather than just following it. I think that results in the songs having a lot more "breathing room" that Samsara and others have commented that they felt songs have been missing for awhile.
2. A lot of "shorter" (for DT) songs. Mike's contribution to the writing process, from everything I have seen and heard, is in the realm of song arrangement and suggestions for taking existing ideas and expanding them. And I think we see his influence in DT as well as other projects in terms of moving the song arrangements to heavily favor the longer epics. That isn't a bad thing, but it felt a bit tiring. I'm guessing, but I think it was easier for the band to move towards shorter songs this time around.
3. Attitude. The band knew they had something to prove. It's hard to quantify exactly how that comes across in the music. But when a band is in a head space where they are hungry and trying to prove something versus doing what they've done ten times before, it comes across in the music in intangible ways. I really like the recent pre-ADTOE albums. But there are very small things that really take ADTOE to a higher level. And a lot of that are the intangibles.
4. Other intangibles we'll never know about. We all know Mike was the primary bridge between the fans and the band in the past. John Petrucci told me that since Mike left, he has felt like he has had to force himself to pay more attention to what goes on online. I did not ask him whether that directly impacted the writing of the album in any way, shape, or form. But given that I know he and James have been paying attention to things that are said online, either by reading things themselves, or by listening to other members of the DT organization who read things, it would not surprise me if some things fans have been saying influenced the writing in ways that we haven't seen before, even if they are very small subtle things.
So, that's my two cents.
Topic: Would Dream Theater Have.... (Read 2918 times)
