Wow... I slept in today and woke up to this thread being BLOWN UP. Nice
Alrighty...well the artwork is pretty good. Not too complicated or pretentious (the track names do that already
). It's a subtle statement - here's Dream Theater, we're here to take over the planet, and there's nothing you can do about it.
The track list looks good. Interesting and unique names, a slight continuation of ADTOE (which had good titles like "Bridges In The Sky" and "Breaking All Illusions"). My favorites have to be "Enigma Machine", "Behind The Veil" and "Illumination Theory".
Also, abbreviations for future use:
FAS
TEI
TLG
EM
TBP
BTV
STR
AFTR
IT
Doesn't look like there are any over-laps with older song titles' abbreviations, so we're good for this album!
As for "False Awakening Suite" being "Opening/YARGGG", it's not entirely unlikely. Just because the opening was written last doesn't mean it was going to be a shorter song. I can see it being a 7-10 minute track in 3 parts. Remember that "The Killing Hand" is only about 9 minutes long and is FIVE parts, so I think a 7-10 minute track in 3 would be doable, but the progress chart noted that "YARGGG" would not have lyrics, so it is curious if the whole song is "YARGGG"/instrumental or if it's just the first part ("Sleep Paralysis") that will have no lyrics... guess time will tell.
It also looks like they kept the working title of "Along For The Ride" and that "Epic" turned out to be "Illumination Theory" (great title, interesting movement names too). The instrumental could be either "Enigma Machine" or "Behind The Veil", I think, but the former more likely. It just sounds like it'll be a musically complicated song, perfect for an instrumental featuring Mangini and his intense drumming.
As for it being a concept album...well, it's possible there could be themes and ideas carried throughout the whole album, just by looking at the titles. We have "Surrender To Reason" and then "Surrender, Trust & Passion" in the end of "Illumination Theory". Also titles like "The Looking Glass" and "Behind The Veil" seem to suggest songs about things being hidden from truth (or being light...illumination?), a word used twice in the movement titles of the last song. "The Enemy Inside" suggests there's a song about something within, again an idea of something hidden (possibly from the truth, or from being revealed). "The Bigger Picture" could be relating everything to how it all works together, taking a look at how everything fits, like parts of a machine (an Enigma Machine?). The opening suite is interesting, though, and perhaps sets the tooooooone for the whole album, and the titles seem to indicate that perhaps this all occurs during a dream, that these ideas and thoughts happen as one sleeps, and they wake up when the last song comes around.
This is going to be a good album, I have a really good feeling about this!
-Marc.