Oh my!
1. I love Mangini's snare sound on DT12. It sound so....I dunno how to describe it.
I can describe it for you. terrible, awful, lifeless, mechanical, compressed, triggered...ok I'm done.
In all fairness on the HD version it's not as bad (still mechanical but it at least blends a little better) but on the regular album it drove me insane when I first heard it, haha.
2. Portnoy's vocals are one of the best things he brought. It sets the mood, especially on Nightmare.
Just curious, what mood do his vocals on Nightmare set for you? For me when that part comes up I cannot take the song seriously. I feel like I'm listening to a comedy album or something.
3. This Dying souls ending is one of the best instrumentai works.
If technical means "best" then that's probably true, it is pretty crazy! I would probably rank it near the bottom but I totally see why people like this one. To give you an idea, I think the solos at the beginning are 100 times better.
4. BC&SL is one of their strongest albums. Talks about real-life situations and is some times heartwrenching to listen to.
While I don't think it is near their best at all it has some amazing moments for me. The middle part of Nightmare is beautiful, JP's outro solo on Best of Times is one of his best and most emotional, and TCOT has a lot of amazing instrumental sections, like the end you mentioned later. I think a lot of the lyrics are pretty bad but those sections really make up for it. Plus I love their cover of Odyssey (much more than the original).
5. I will forever serve Dark master and he is awesome.
We really do have opposite tastes in songs lol
10. Sampling is integral on DT songs. (I love sampling)
I love it in certain songs, especially SDV (that is the absolute best use of samples in any song IMO) but most of the time it doesn't fit well, at least to me.
12. Labrie is the most talented DT song writer.
I would love for him to write more for DT. He's written some songs that rank very highly for me.