Awake or A Dramatic Turn of Events - Part II

[ishak540m]

Unlike Awake, I don't skip songs on ADTOE (yet) so...ADTOE.

[FreezingPoint]

ADTOE, but it is close.

I feel that ADTOE really achieved that perfect progressive metal balance in its songwriting and to me will be known as "the modern-era DT album". There is only one song that I do not really listen to often on ADTOE, but there are a couple on Awake.

However, where Awake really excels in in its atmosphere. Awake has this cold, dark, sterile, almost antiseptic atmosphere surrounding it. The vocal samples, the snare sound, the guitar sound, even the thin sounding piano in Space Dye Vest all contribute to this. But Awake's strong point is ADTOE's weak point, IMO. ADTOE, while it does take a few production risks (electronic drums in a few spots), to me just feels like it sounds similar to the last couple of DT albums. In other words, nothing really unique that sets it apart in terms of its atmosphere. Don't get me wrong, it is not a bad sounding record, I just wish that it was a little more singular, a little more unique sounding. Something where, if you hear a random segment of a random song, you know immediately which album it is from, just from the way it sounds.

[GasparXR]

ADTOE, but it is close.

I feel that ADTOE really achieved that perfect progressive metal balance in its songwriting and to me will be known as "the modern-era DT album". There is only one song that I do not really listen to often on ADTOE, but there are a couple on Awake.

However, where Awake really excels in in its atmosphere. Awake has this cold, dark, sterile, almost antiseptic atmosphere surrounding it. The vocal samples, the snare sound, the guitar sound, even the thin sounding piano in Space Dye Vest all contribute to this. But Awake's strong point is ADTOE's weak point, IMO. ADTOE, while it does take a few production risks (electronic drums in a few spots), to me just feels like it sounds similar to the last couple of DT albums. In other words, nothing really unique that sets it apart in terms of its atmosphere. Don't get me wrong, it is not a bad sounding record, I just wish that it was a little more singular, a little more unique sounding. Something where, if you hear a random segment of a random song, you know immediately which album it is from, just from the way it sounds.

If I heard any 3-5 seconds from any song on ADTOE, I will know. That goes for most of the discography anyway.

[FreezingPoint]

ADTOE, but it is close.

I feel that ADTOE really achieved that perfect progressive metal balance in its songwriting and to me will be known as "the modern-era DT album". There is only one song that I do not really listen to often on ADTOE, but there are a couple on Awake.

However, where Awake really excels in in its atmosphere. Awake has this cold, dark, sterile, almost antiseptic atmosphere surrounding it. The vocal samples, the snare sound, the guitar sound, even the thin sounding piano in Space Dye Vest all contribute to this. But Awake's strong point is ADTOE's weak point, IMO. ADTOE, while it does take a few production risks (electronic drums in a few spots), to me just feels like it sounds similar to the last couple of DT albums. In other words, nothing really unique that sets it apart in terms of its atmosphere. Don't get me wrong, it is not a bad sounding record, I just wish that it was a little more singular, a little more unique sounding. Something where, if you hear a random segment of a random song, you know immediately which album it is from, just from the way it sounds.

If I heard any 3-5 seconds from any song on ADTOE, I will know. That goes for most of the discography anyway.

Perhaps. Maybe it is because I look at the discography like this: from WDADU to FII, there is a large difference between each album. From SFAM onwards, there become more subtle changes between albums, a kind of honing in on a main Dream Theater sound. Certainly nothing wrong with this. If they have a good sound as a band they should stick with it. Perhaps through the beginning years they were just finding their sound identity. Anyways, I digress. They are both great albums!

[Dark Castle]

ADTOE, but it is close.

I feel that ADTOE really achieved that perfect progressive metal balance in its songwriting and to me will be known as "the modern-era DT album". There is only one song that I do not really listen to often on ADTOE, but there are a couple on Awake.

However, where Awake really excels in in its atmosphere. Awake has this cold, dark, sterile, almost antiseptic atmosphere surrounding it. The vocal samples, the snare sound, the guitar sound, even the thin sounding piano in Space Dye Vest all contribute to this. But Awake's strong point is ADTOE's weak point, IMO. ADTOE, while it does take a few production risks (electronic drums in a few spots), to me just feels like it sounds similar to the last couple of DT albums. In other words, nothing really unique that sets it apart in terms of its atmosphere. Don't get me wrong, it is not a bad sounding record, I just wish that it was a little more singular, a little more unique sounding. Something where, if you hear a random segment of a random song, you know immediately which album it is from, just from the way it sounds.

If I heard any 3-5 seconds from any song on ADTOE, I will know. That goes for most of the discography anyway.

Perhaps. Maybe it is because I look at the discography like this: from WDADU to FII, there is a large difference between each album. From SFAM onwards, there become more subtle changes between albums, a kind of honing in on a main Dream Theater sound. Certainly nothing wrong with this. If they have a good sound as a band they should stick with it. Perhaps through the beginning years they were just finding their sound identity. Anyways, I digress. They are both great albums!

I like this guy. 

[Perpetual Change]

ADTOE's lasting appeal has become very obvious to me. It has entered the realm of my "go-to" DT albums. Initially, I put it in my top 5, right outside Images, Awake, Six Degrees, and Scenes. But now I'm often hard-pressed to find reasons why any of those albums (save Images) are better than it. So somedays, depending on my mood, it might be in the top 3 or even 2.

[Rattlehead]

I'm surprised to see so many people are so high on ADTOE...

I'm not.

Yeah maybe that's because you've been on these forums for a while and I haven't lol... because outside of these forums I've seen a lot of ADTOE bashing, even by DT fans on other music forums/websites.

[jjrock88]

These are the two discs that would battle for second place for my favorite DT disc. At this point I'll pick ADTOE