Author Topic: Your Controversial Opinions on DT  (Read 979487 times)

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Offline Shadow Ninja 2.0

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Re: Your Controversial Opinions on DT
« Reply #4410 on: March 29, 2014, 02:22:36 PM »
This is totally off topic, but, being a recent convert to Homestuck, I finally know what your sig is, Implode. :D

Offline Implode

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Re: Your Controversial Opinions on DT
« Reply #4411 on: March 29, 2014, 02:49:45 PM »
 :tup

After seeing the poll here, I guess that's true. I would lower my vote now though; I wonder if others would do the same.

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Re: Your Controversial Opinions on DT
« Reply #4412 on: March 29, 2014, 02:53:32 PM »
I thought ADTOE received more universal love upon its release than DT12, but I may be wrong.

Offline YtseJamittaja

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Re: Your Controversial Opinions on DT
« Reply #4413 on: March 29, 2014, 03:21:11 PM »
I thought ADTOE received more universal love upon its release than DT12, but I may be wrong.

Should be vice versa.
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Offline GentlemanofDread

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Re: Your Controversial Opinions on DT
« Reply #4414 on: March 29, 2014, 03:24:39 PM »
I unno, I thought both were pretty split here in terms of support.
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Offline jakepriest

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Re: Your Controversial Opinions on DT
« Reply #4415 on: March 29, 2014, 04:13:14 PM »
After watching the Take Away My Pain jam/documentary again, I have to say Mangini sounds completely amazing on it. I'm kind of afraid he's not going to sound this good with DT ever again since both his album and his live sound has been pretty underwhelming so far imo.

Offline Chriss_Myazz

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Re: Your Controversial Opinions on DT
« Reply #4416 on: March 29, 2014, 04:35:08 PM »
Although John Myung fits in DT musically, I just don't like the guy.
I met him and unlike the other members he didn't give me the light of day for some obscure reason.
Maybe that's just him, hence my opinion.
That controversial enough?  :xbones
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Offline ThatOneGuy2112

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Re: Your Controversial Opinions on DT
« Reply #4417 on: March 29, 2014, 04:42:16 PM »
Although John Myung fits in DT musically, I just don't like the guy.
I met him and unlike the other members he didn't give me the light of day for some obscure reason.
Maybe that's just him, hence my opinion.
That controversial enough?  :xbones
CM

Depending on how long you've been a fan, you should gauge pretty well the personality of a lot of the bandmates by now. JM is generally seen as quiet and reserved, hence the constant comments on YouTube stating "lyrics by John Myung" on a video of a DT instrumental.

And I kinda doubt that under a pretty limited amount of time you can make a judgement like that based on his character. It's like a Neil Peart thing going on it might seem. He might just be a pretty reserved guy who isn't all that comfortable meeting with people he's never met before. Can't really blame him if that's the case.

Offline nikatapi

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Re: Your Controversial Opinions on DT
« Reply #4418 on: March 29, 2014, 04:46:31 PM »
After watching the Take Away My Pain jam/documentary again, I have to say Mangini sounds completely amazing on it. I'm kind of afraid he's not going to sound this good with DT ever again since both his album and his live sound has been pretty underwhelming so far imo.

That's because on the documentary he doesn't play on his own kit :hat

Offline Shine

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Re: Your Controversial Opinions on DT
« Reply #4419 on: March 29, 2014, 09:14:23 PM »
This probably isn't that controversial, but I think DT12 *had potential* but the mix absolutely ruined it. Everything sounds 1 dimensional. I play any track from DT12, then I play any track from SDOIT or earlier, and the contrast is just alarming. I'm no audiophile, I've got pretty shitty ears, and I've never taken a formal class in music theory, but it just sounds *bad*. The only word that I've been able to come up with that I think describes the way it sounds to me is: staticky.

I just went though and sampled just small ~5 second pieces from various albums, and from I can tell everything through Train of Thought sounds pretty clear to me, no static. Octavarium generally sounds good, but I definitely start to notice a drop in sound quality. After Octavarium all of the albums just sound muffled and staticky to me, and it seems to get worse on each progressive album with DT12 being the absolute worst.

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Offline rumborak

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Re: Your Controversial Opinions on DT
« Reply #4420 on: March 29, 2014, 10:32:16 PM »
DT12 has the sad distinction that when I put my Google Music account on shuffle and it gets to a DT12 song, I'm scrambling to pull down the volume as fast as I can with the mouse because it's so crazy loud and compressed when compared to the other music I have.
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Offline Invisible

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Re: Your Controversial Opinions on DT
« Reply #4421 on: March 29, 2014, 11:17:52 PM »
After watching the Take Away My Pain jam/documentary again, I have to say Mangini sounds completely amazing on it. I'm kind of afraid he's not going to sound this good with DT ever again since both his album and his live sound has been pretty underwhelming so far imo.
Take This For The Pain :P And I agree on the drum sound, not his playing.

As for the reception, I read the whole "Initial Impressions" and at least on the poll, if I remember correctly 70-80% or more voted "Instant Classic/Very Strong", which is a damn good reception I think. And I found a pattern, not universal but pretty common: those who praised ADTOE didn't like DT12 and viceversa. Which sort of makes sense as they are fairly different on their approach.

And I wouldn't say that the songwriting improved without Portnoy, I'd rather say it improved since he left the band. Subtle, but very different. And only compared to the last albums with him, overall I wouldn't say that, MP wrote his fair share of great songs, and I actually think the improvement is more due to JP being "back in the game" that because of Portnoy's abscence. The improvement I see because of MP leaving is James being able to record his vocals on his own, but that's a different thing.

Offline BlobVanDam

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Re: Your Controversial Opinions on DT
« Reply #4422 on: March 30, 2014, 12:43:15 AM »
Ok don't shoot me, this is a thread for controversial opinions right? Imho I'd say that A Dramatic Turn and DT12 are the best DT albums for a long time. Having said that, does anyone else think that the bands songwriting has improved without Portnoy?
Maybe this has been discussed elsewhere but anyway, I said it out loud!  :omg:

I actually think ADTOE and DT12 are at best on par with the couple of albums before, and at the bottom of DT's discography. I think they lost a lot of the energy and accessibility without MP.
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Offline bl5150

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Re: Your Controversial Opinions on DT
« Reply #4423 on: March 30, 2014, 01:10:38 AM »
Ok don't shoot me, this is a thread for controversial opinions right? Imho I'd say that A Dramatic Turn and DT12 are the best DT albums for a long time. Having said that, does anyone else think that the bands songwriting has improved without Portnoy?
Maybe this has been discussed elsewhere but anyway, I said it out loud!  :omg:

I actually think ADTOE and DT12 are at best on par with the couple of albums before, and at the bottom of DT's discography. I think they lost a lot of the energy and accessibility without MP.

I won't comment on the "energy" (not sure about that) but for me it's the exact opposite -  I think they are both significantly better albums than the two before , near the top of my list and I'd say they're both far more accesible ......if we define that as being able to win over the general public /new fans  , especially DT12.

I'm pretty sure I could get away with playing a number of tracks off DT12 and avoid a negative response from visitors/non-fans but would definitely get the "What is that crap?" look if I played SC or BCSL.   Fair slabs of those albums- mostly SC-  get the same response from me actually :)
« Last Edit: March 30, 2014, 01:22:07 AM by bl5150 »
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Offline TheLordOfTheStrings

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Re: Your Controversial Opinions on DT
« Reply #4424 on: March 30, 2014, 01:22:56 AM »
The only part that sounds like Metallica on Train of Thought is the Blackened section in This Dying Soul.
And that's easily the worst part of that song.
The unison at the end would like to have a word with you.

Oh come on, that's some wanky goodness right there.
I was referring to the riffs and the lame vocal melodies. But yes, the unison is definitely killer.
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Offline BlobVanDam

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Re: Your Controversial Opinions on DT
« Reply #4425 on: March 30, 2014, 02:05:46 AM »
Ok don't shoot me, this is a thread for controversial opinions right? Imho I'd say that A Dramatic Turn and DT12 are the best DT albums for a long time. Having said that, does anyone else think that the bands songwriting has improved without Portnoy?
Maybe this has been discussed elsewhere but anyway, I said it out loud!  :omg:

I actually think ADTOE and DT12 are at best on par with the couple of albums before, and at the bottom of DT's discography. I think they lost a lot of the energy and accessibility without MP.

I won't comment on the "energy" (not sure about that) but for me it's the exact opposite -  I think they are both significantly better albums than the two before , near the top of my list and I'd say they're both far more accesible ......if we define that as being able to win over the general public /new fans  , especially DT12.

I'm pretty sure I could get away with playing a number of tracks off DT12 and avoid a negative response from visitors/non-fans but would definitely get the "What is that crap?" look if I played SC or BCSL.   Fair slabs of those albums- mostly SC-  get the same response from me actually :)

That wholly depends on who you're showing it to. I don't know in real life who enjoys the last two albums, although many of them didn't like the ones prior either. But generally SC and to a lesser degree BCASL get the better reaction in my experience. It really depends on the crowd.
But despite the shorter song lengths, I don't find DT12 to be any more accessible. It's just more concise prog to me. I usually love the shorter DT stuff, but the shorter songs on DT12 do nothing for me, aside from the more straightforward TEI.
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Yep. I think the only party in the MP/DT situation that hasn't moved on is DTF.

Offline bl5150

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Re: Your Controversial Opinions on DT
« Reply #4426 on: March 30, 2014, 02:38:32 AM »
Well we have one thing in common there Blob - it seems we both rate TEI higher than most  ;D
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Offline robwebster

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Re: Your Controversial Opinions on DT
« Reply #4427 on: March 30, 2014, 03:10:47 AM »
Ok don't shoot me, this is a thread for controversial opinions right? Imho I'd say that A Dramatic Turn and DT12 are the best DT albums for a long time. Having said that, does anyone else think that the bands songwriting has improved without Portnoy?
Maybe this has been discussed elsewhere but anyway, I said it out loud!  :omg:
I think the decline of Dream Theater is often overstated by self-loathing fans - Black Clouds is the closest to a blip in the 2000s, and it's still a perfectly serviceable album - but Dramatic Turn and especially Dream Theater are absolutely something else. DT12 is their strongest songwriting ever. It's discipline and indulgence, married so neatly that I'm shocked I ever thought they were mutually exclusive. Where all DT albums to an extent, and particularly the last few, have tended to have "the heavy one," "the soft one," "the commercial one," "the technical one," the songs on DT12 dip in and out of each column effortlessly - seriously, they make it sound easy! So much substance, packed in so tightly. Constantly impressive, but always melodic, it's an utter gem.

Offline BlobVanDam

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Re: Your Controversial Opinions on DT
« Reply #4428 on: March 30, 2014, 04:25:54 AM »
Well we have one thing in common there Blob - it seems we both rate TEI higher than most  ;D

A small victory for our common ground! :lol I'll take it.
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Yep. I think the only party in the MP/DT situation that hasn't moved on is DTF.

Offline Nofire

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Re: Your Controversial Opinions on DT
« Reply #4429 on: March 30, 2014, 04:33:29 AM »
I'm not a big fan of the rotating setlists. Sure, I get that it's nice if you see them multiple times on a tour, but my guess would be that most people just see one show near their hometown, and then I'd much rather have a consistent and well-planned show which they fine tune throughout the tour. As someone mentioned above, if I found out that the city before me got TGP, LTL and BTL, while my city got UAGM, WIMH/TTTSTA and NM, I would be very disappointed, even if I looked at all the setlists after I went to the show. I'm also not a huge fan of anniversaries within the show, since I think the ultimate setlist can't be created if you dedicate a huge chunk of it to one or two albums. For this tour, it was fine, since I hadn't heard the majority of the anniversary songs live before (only SDV), but I'm not a big fan of the principle of it.

All that being said, this current setlist is absolutely amazing. Easily the best I've seen them do (saw them previously on the SC and ADTOE tours).
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Re: Your Controversial Opinions on DT
« Reply #4430 on: March 30, 2014, 04:41:15 AM »
If you are a fan that sees them multiple time you love the rotating list.  I for one miss it.
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Offline robwebster

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Re: Your Controversial Opinions on DT
« Reply #4431 on: March 30, 2014, 05:05:51 AM »
I'm not a big fan of the rotating setlists. Sure, I get that it's nice if you see them multiple times on a tour, but my guess would be that most people just see one show near their hometown, and then I'd much rather have a consistent and well-planned show which they fine tune throughout the tour. As someone mentioned above, if I found out that the city before me got TGP, LTL and BTL, while my city got UAGM, WIMH/TTTSTA and NM, I would be very disappointed, even if I looked at all the setlists after I went to the show. I'm also not a huge fan of anniversaries within the show, since I think the ultimate setlist can't be created if you dedicate a huge chunk of it to one or two albums. For this tour, it was fine, since I hadn't heard the majority of the anniversary songs live before (only SDV), but I'm not a big fan of the principle of it.
I soooooort of agree with both of these, but not entirely with either. I think this tour's massively overdone the anniversaries - fine for a single show, it's special if it's a single show, but every night it just becomes ballast. The Awake section was huge, overdone. Space-Dye Vest alone would have been a hell of an anniversary present - play that every night, with a rotating lead-in.

Frankly, I'm not sure why an anniversary's a big deal. If you're celebrating anniversary years, every year's an anniversary year for every album. 20th Anniversary World Tour's different, because that's the band staying together through trials and tribulations. Awake hasn't had any, it was never going to stop existing, I don't really see why I should care if its year multiplies by five! Birthdays are nice, I get birthdays, but I'm not convinced anniversary years are much more than navel-gazing.

Rotating setlists, sometimes brilliant, but there's no equity. I caught them in Newport on the Systematic Chaos tour, and I think they must have thought Wales was a different country to England, because they played a set of classics like they'd never been here before:

1. Constant Motion
2. Panic Attack
3. Endless Sacrifice
4. Surrounded
5. The Dark Eternal Night
6. As I Am
7. I Walk Beside You
8. The Spirit Carries On
9. In the Presence of Enemies

Over the next couple of days, when they moved to England, they played Never Enough, Blind Faith, Forsaken, Another Day, Scarred, Strange Deja-Vu and The Ministry of Lost Souls... it seems a bit of a shame to have missed out on some genuine rarities for all the stuff they'd played like mad on the last couple of tours. It was only my second ever DT gig - I'd already seen a full third of those songs before, another third were new to this album and essential to this tour, and while TSCO was nice, I Walk Beside You turned out to be the biggest wildcard! Rotating setlists aren't necessarily better or worse, they're just more erratic.

That said, I'd happily take something like the 20th Anniversary World Tour, where there was a built-in structure but an incredibly flexible one. I think rotations work a lot better with An Evening With in general, actually, I'd have loved to have caught some of the more ridiculous setlists on the SDoIT tour. But there's a happy medium, and I don't think they've quite got there yet. The quality of the show has definitely improved, massively, since they fixed the set in place, but I think there's a way to work rotations in. Although Muse are one of the guiltiest bands, in terms of filling their sets with the umpteenth rendition of Starlight, they've done rotations quite nicely in the past.

Offline Grizz

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Re: Your Controversial Opinions on DT
« Reply #4432 on: March 30, 2014, 08:52:13 AM »
As a bootleg collector and video enthusiast I wholly support rotating setlists, if the shows are comparable in quality.
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Offline Invisible

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Re: Your Controversial Opinions on DT
« Reply #4433 on: March 30, 2014, 10:58:04 AM »
You raise an interesting point robwebster, kind of like I've been saying but much better phrased, as usual :P. I think there's a way to handle rotation without compromising the tightness and lighting aspects of the shows, other bands have done it and it worked out great, Muse is one example, U2 is another, and many others. They have a bulk that gets fixed but other songs that get into rotation.

As for the anniversary, I'm not against them by principle but I have to say that two are overkill. I think they should have kept Awake 20th, but Scenes 15th is unnecesary. And even in the 20th of Awake I'd prefer they mixed up the songs in the shows instead of playing the same chunk one after the other. Awake isn't a concept album, I would have like them to mix the songs in the setlist. 6:00/Caught In a Web one day, THe Mirror/Lie the other, etc. and have them in unpredictable places instead of all of them played in album order.
Scenes is an album that for me is all or nothing, it' a story, and having songs removed kind of feels like messing up with it, I wouldn't like Pink Floyd in a tribute to The Wall to play the In The Flesh?/The Thin Ice/Another Brick In the Wall only to jump to Comfortably Numb and the ending afterwards, I don't know, it feels... wrong :-\. I'd rather have a big 20th anniversary tour(god knows that album deserves it, even if it's outside my top 5) than this, and removing Scenes from this setlist frees up a lot of space that can be much better used IMHO.

Maybe when I see the show for myself I'll eat my ass and balls words, I'll gladly admit I was wrong, but I think they still have adjustments to make. Like robwebster said, every year is a 20th or a 15th, they can't suddenly start into an anniversary kind of band.

Offline KevShmev

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Re: Your Controversial Opinions on DT
« Reply #4434 on: March 30, 2014, 11:01:59 AM »
6:00 and Caught in a Web got played a ton on the last tour.  Besides, most of Side 2 of Awake has been woefully underrepresented at DT concerts for way too long, so playing all of it on this tour is a huge treat for fans of that album.

Scenes is like I&W in that playing pretty much anything from it is gonna go over well with live crowds, so I say, ignore the fact that it is its 15th anniversary and just figure they are playing a chunk of it because it's awesome and they know fans will love it. :tup :tup


Offline rumborak

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Re: Your Controversial Opinions on DT
« Reply #4435 on: March 30, 2014, 01:00:23 PM »
I certainly wouldn't want SFAM to be just relegated to "all or nothing" status, because that would mean it would only get played every 10 years or so.
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Offline tiagodon

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Re: Your Controversial Opinions on DT
« Reply #4436 on: March 30, 2014, 01:38:29 PM »
Ok, more controversial opinions...
Their videos. They suck!
DT is the kind of band that should put out beautiful, highly well produced and deep videos. But instead we got this lousy work for years. It's such a disharmony with their songs

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Re: Your Controversial Opinions on DT
« Reply #4437 on: March 30, 2014, 01:43:24 PM »
Maybe when I see the show for myself I'll eat my ass and balls words, I'll gladly admit I was wrong,
The setlist definitely makes more sense once you've experienced it yourself ;)

Offline Invisible

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Re: Your Controversial Opinions on DT
« Reply #4438 on: March 30, 2014, 02:24:55 PM »
Maybe when I see the show for myself I'll eat my ass and balls words, I'll gladly admit I was wrong,
The setlist definitely makes more sense once you've experienced it yourself ;)
I'm pretty sure it will be, as I said before and I'll say it one last time and then shut up: looking at the setlist it's seems great for me, as Awake is my favourite album, Scenes is great too and the rest of the songs seem pretty great, all I'm saying it's that I'd like it to have minor variations, Trial of Tears swapping with Lines In The Sand on the same spot, The Shattered Fortress with The Glass Prison, some DT12 with the others left off, that's all I'm asking for, the essence of the show remains untouched but there is just a little unpredictability, that would be like in my perfect world where everything is fit for my personal taste, which I'm very aware that it's 100% selfish. I think what DT is doing is great anyway, they've certainly put a lot of thought into the show, and if you don't like the setlist the greatest thing about DT is their regularity with albums, they'll probably come again in 2 years with a different thing, so it's all good in the end.

It's not easy, other bands have shorter songs so they can swap them around and bring great variation more easily, DT with their 10 min average means each song takes a good chunk of the set time, so it's hard/almost impossible to come up with a balanced setlist that isn't going to miss one great song at the very list. It's the double edge sword of having so much great material, no matter what they put on the set, a great song is going to be missed anyway.

Offline Sycsa

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Re: Your Controversial Opinions on DT
« Reply #4439 on: March 30, 2014, 04:34:47 PM »
After watching the Take Away My Pain jam/documentary again, I have to say Mangini sounds completely amazing on it. I'm kind of afraid he's not going to sound this good with DT ever again since both his album and his live sound has been pretty underwhelming so far imo.

That's because on the documentary he doesn't play on his own kit :hat
Not this again. His sound is overwhelmingly reliant on the production, not on the actual kit he's pounding. Dennis Chambers uses the same kit on the latest Niacin album and it's hands down the best drum sound I've ever heard.


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Offline BlobVanDam

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Re: Your Controversial Opinions on DT
« Reply #4440 on: March 30, 2014, 09:16:15 PM »
Ok, more controversial opinions...
Their videos. They suck!
DT is the kind of band that should put out beautiful, highly well produced and deep videos. But instead we got this lousy work for years. It's such a disharmony with their songs

Well produced videos cost money, which takes away from money that they could use on more practical things. In the end, videos are just a promotional tool, and while having a better video is better for promotion, I don't think DT rely nearly enough on music videos for gaining fans for it to be a priority.
While it wasn't anything amazing or earth shattering, I thought The Looking Glass video was pretty nice. It certainly didn't suck.
Only King could mis-spell a LETTER.
Yep. I think the only party in the MP/DT situation that hasn't moved on is DTF.

Offline Invisible

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Re: Your Controversial Opinions on DT
« Reply #4441 on: March 30, 2014, 10:33:59 PM »
Not to mention these days videos are a lot less important than in the MTV days. I think when they keep it simple(The Looking Glass) they don't suck. A Rite Of Passage doesn't suck considering the lyrical matter, and Wither was quite nice. I don't know what benefit they would gain from better videos, they are not a very visual appealing band anyway.

Offline Rodni Demental

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Re: Your Controversial Opinions on DT
« Reply #4442 on: March 30, 2014, 11:58:31 PM »
Frankly, I'm not sure why an anniversary's a big deal. If you're celebrating anniversary years, every year's an anniversary year for every album.

I think they're pretty exciting. But I understand that interest would totally disappear if they did these 'anniversaries' all the time. I do however believe it's a decent way to represent parts of their discography because everything gets it's own turn. I mean if it weren't for the anniversary concept we wouldn't have got this crazy setlist and probably would have just got the rest of DT12 and more I&W (not like that's anything to complain about, but I&W is always represented, and do we really need them to play the new album in it's entirety straight away?). Then again the 'Scenes Medley' is a bit weird though because there's always gonna be wholes in the concept (story) if they only play a third of the album. Still, it has it's place on the set so I'm cool with that.

Although Muse are one of the guiltiest bands, in terms of filling their sets with the umpteenth rendition of Starlight, they've done rotations quite nicely in the past.

I probably find that way cooler than it is, but wow that's amazing! Even if it was fixed or something, that's quite an exciting way to present the next song to the audience.  :xbones

In the end, videos are just a promotional tool, and while having a better video is better for promotion, I don't think DT rely nearly enough on music videos for gaining fans for it to be a priority.
Not to mention these days videos are a lot less important than in the MTV days.

Definitely not as important anymore, but I wouldn't dismiss their importance in promotional value because sadly, a lot of people only listen to music through youtube these days (which I guess is the third main method for people to have access to music instead of buying or pirating it). I have a group of friends that are always sharing and attempting to indoctrinate people into likening their music, and it's always these generalised metal bands that have pretty buzzy (trippy) videos. And like.. they have a video for almost every song on their album, even if they're not that big of a band (from my perspective). It actually bothers me just a little bit because it's almost as if, at parties or something all the music that's being put on is through a system connected to youtube and if your music doesn't have a video for it then it'll have a much less likely chance of being played. Brutal.  :lol
I mean, it's not like the videos are bad, but it starts to become more about watching it. For example, in some cases the cinematic value of the video becomes essential for the context of the song which is relying on the symbolism to have the lyrics make sense. That's a cool idea and everything but I think a video should be a supplement and only that. Otherwise music vids are something I tend to avoid because I prefer the music to be able to stand on it's own.

Offline TheGreatPretender

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Re: Your Controversial Opinions on DT
« Reply #4443 on: March 31, 2014, 03:31:21 AM »
Not to mention these days videos are a lot less important than in the MTV days. I think when they keep it simple(The Looking Glass) they don't suck. A Rite Of Passage doesn't suck considering the lyrical matter, and Wither was quite nice. I don't know what benefit they would gain from better videos, they are not a very visual appealing band anyway.

I do think their videos need to have more of THEM. I mean, The Looking Glass did it right. But TEI and Forsaken, the visual content was pretty cool, and it had substance, but the one thing they lacked for me was the band. And when the band isn't in the video, to me, that starts making it seem like the video was created without their involvement at all.
I think TEI would have been so much better if every once in a while, the video was intercut with the footage of the band performing the song the way they were in The Looking Glass or OTBOA.
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Offline Rodni Demental

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Re: Your Controversial Opinions on DT
« Reply #4444 on: March 31, 2014, 04:21:08 AM »
Agreed. I can't watch The Enemy Inside video anymore, I know it's supposed to be a serious issue but it takes itself way too seriously. And I just find the guys' acting humorous, he's just totally freakin out about the BBQ, and that supermarket scene.. :laugh: I also don't appreciate people cutting into the song to tell me their 'Nam stories. But really, I don't mind the subject matter, it's just the lack of DT is probably my main issue because I probably wouldn't have thought much into the rest of the videos content if it was just normal music video nonsense (which it kind of is) BUT with shots of the band. But as it stands, I guess it leaves more to be desired. I think A Rite of Passage is my favourite video but not a fan of cutting out the solos (it's even more of a crime chopping up that completely amazing solo in Constant Motion).

I thought I liked On The Backs Of Angels video the first time I saw it, but then I realised how low budget it was and JLB face everywhere.   :rollin

Then again, I don't even want Dream Theater to go high budget on their videos because it ends up being pointless crap that tries to make a fake story out of the song (I know that's an unfair generalisation, but it's a generalisation :P). AROP was about right (apart form the edits), the band playing a song, looking all badass n stuff, with symbolism and imagery that is appropriate for the song.