DoT has not aged well for me. .... the songs just aren't there, except for a few, and JLB's limitations cannot be masked any more with studio magic, not to mention his vocals are drenched in effects like never before.
About where I am at (deleted the parts I didn't want to focus on). It is a good album. I just want more than a good album from my favorite band, even if we are up to 14 releases. It's an album I could listen to all the way through and not feel compelled to skip anything, yet would only have my ears perk up during At Wit's End. And James, despite age and limitations, has way more to bring to the table than this.
His vocals just bore me now, and sometimes make me cringe at how bad they are. For all the drama, I think JLB needed MP to push him in the studio to put out a better performance. Every album since MP left, JLB just sounds like he's doing his job then going home. Maybe a little more effort was put in for The Astonishing, but that's because that concept required a bit more from him. Like Rudess, I think his ability to shine in a super metal context has passed. Both he and JR seem more inspired in less metal environments.
MP is a great producer as he can envision and hear how the album should sound. He has a great ear for this, and it shows. He is a music fan at heart, and this helped him develop an ear that a producer needs to have, a diverse ear. He has so many albums and has heard different types of productions. MP also has a good ear for vocals because he likes to sing, and can sing the melodies enough to showcase what he has in his head. He's adamant about getting the album to sound like it does in his head.
JP is not that great of a producer. He's not bad, but not great either. He doesn't really have that ear, or personality to be that producer that MP is. JP let's his singer have more of the final say, because JP is not a good singer. He works with LaBrie, and let's him have a choice of how the melody should be worked out.
I do not know if they still have that Lyricist create the vocal melody rule anymore? I'm guessing not, as JP works with Myung to develop vocal melodies and rearrange his words to fit vocally better in the song and it's melodies.
But, in actuality, they're just producers with two different styles of producing.
Reminds me of how Arjen works with his singers, and how he is happy with what they give him, but sometimes the singers go the extra mile themselves and do some things Arjen wouldnt have even thought of...Mike Mills singing his layered 01's in The Day That The World Breaks Down.
And how Tobias Sammet got Geoff Tate to showcase just how good his vocals still are, and that he is more than capable of singing better. I feel, this have Geoff an extra boost and good kick in the ass about his vocals. The last time I saw him he was pretty good, not amazing like in his prime, but still great enough to tolerate now, for me anyways.