I've gotta ask, Pretender, do you ever stop to think that maybe other people hold valid reasons for thinking the way they do, and that maybe you are the one being too sentimental about the band? To me, it's fairly obvious that Dream Theater have changed quite a bit over the years, everything from how they write songs to how the approach lyrics; from how they value production to how they view touring.
That's kind of a silly question. Of course I consider people's reasons. But if you must know, I'm the type of person who believes that a lot of the time, people's reasons for things are misunderstood, or mislead by emotion. Emotions, such as, for example, the aforementioned nostalgia. And I'm not saying that I'm absolved of this, necessarily. But I am willing to admit that maybe when I give my reasoning for a certain opinion, maybe deep down inside, my true reasoning is completely different and I just don't realize it. I can't always explain why I feel a certain way. I can try to the best of my ability, but there's always a chance that I'm missing something, and I think that other people are the same way.
In other words, nice try at "not" singling me out, but you're still wrong
About you, maybe. But you're not the only nay-sayer I've heard, and my opinion still applies to them. Of course, all of them will disagree with me, because they all have their own reasons for how they feel. But some things being said are completely baseless. And this mostly regards, as I mentioned, people who say the band isn't enthusiastic anymore, or that they're stagnant, or whatever. I mean, FFS, there's people theorizing that Jordan Rudess will be quitting the band after the next album. And I respect Polarbear's opinion, but it just baffles me how he can possibly think that. Have we already forgotten the kind of excitement and enthusiasm they were all showing during the ADTOE tour? There is absolutely no evidence whatsoever that this enthusiasm was faked by Rudess, or that it waned since recording DT12.
I see where you're coming from but quality of the music aside, just sonically it sounds like they've been releasing the same album 3 or 4 times in a row now.
Sorry, brother, I really, really, REALLY have to disagree with you on that. The only think the RR albums have in common is that there was a noticeable shift toward a heavier, more energetic sound overall. In terms of genre, yes, it's hard to dispute that they've been putting out what can be solidly classified as "Progressive Metal", (as opposed to certain songs they've done in the past that were pretty much pop-rock). But as far as the genre of "Progressive Metal" goes, the past 4 albums have been extremely diverse and different from one another. The moods, the emphasis on riffs, solos, chords, etc. is very different in each album. The difference is especially dramatic when comparing MP era to MM era, and I'm not JUST talking about the difference in drumming.
Honestly, when comparing the overall sound and style, I'd say that 6DOIT and 8VM have more in common than any of the RR era albums. If I heard 6DOIT and 8VM songs for the first time on Shuffle, I honestly would not be able to tell you which song comes from which album. In fact, this applies to TOT as well. Again, if you were to mesh all the songs from those 3 albums into one playlist, the only stylistic difference I'd notice is how heavy the TOT songs are, and in that respect, I'd guess that all the TOT songs, as well as TGP, TROAE and Panic Attack all belonged on the same album.
And I really can't say that about any of the RR era albums. There isn't a single song on BC&SL that sounds anything like something on SC.
Between ADTOE and DT12, I may guess that This is the Life might belong to DT12, if I didn't know better. But that's it.