I like my metal music to be on the darker side - more with the sound than the lyrics. Most DT music for me isn't a downer, just thoughtful and many times a song ends on a positive note (i.e., AWE, BW, ITPoE,) leaves it open or tells a story. I just don't care for metal in all sorts of major keys. Or even the opposite is ok. Like in the song 6 Degrees. Happy sound, bummer lyrics. And I am certainly not interested in a pandemic, judgey, we are all better people or should be, blah, blah. I need to be taken away from all that crud.
Ahh...I see. You use music as an escape from reality. Nothing wrong with that. And there are other great bands and music that will take that escape from reality to the next level.
Dream Theater is not only that type of band, they are also a band that can make lyrics about various type of subjects. How the music makes the lyricist feel at the time, is how they will determine the subject of their words. On D/T, the one who wrote the lyrics chose the instrumental song that spoke to them most while it was being worked on. JLB or JP saying something like "I like this, I'm gonna take this one and write the lyrics."
S2N was based off a riff from JM, and the song wasn't worked on until the very end. It seems like they asked JM to write lyrics to this as a sort of a make-up for holding off on this song until the very end of the sessions.
Mangini came in with most of Room 137, and it was a great opportunity for them to let Mangini have a chance at writing lyrics. Room 137, has some great vocal rhythms within the groove and the rhythm structure. Which JP complimented on, as MM being a drummer, has more of a sense to the rhythm of the words, more so than JP does, and can utilize this to create some interesting rhythms with the melodies and lyrics within the entire song structure. I quite enjoy how these lyrics do work within the rhythm of the song, especially the kick drums. I am really looking forward to this song live, and I think it would be a good energetic song live.