My family was poor, so we had no cable or MTV, but we did get a somewhat fuzzy feed of The Box over the local airwaves. Kudos to those who remember The Box. It was a 1-900 number video jukebox over TV, and you could pay like $3 to have a music video of your choosing play. The best part was they had a ton of bands that flew under MTV's radar. Someone dialed in Dream Theater - Lie, and I saw it and was impressed. The next time it came on, I had a VHS ready to tape off of TV.
At the time, I was more into Metallica, Megadeth, and Pantera, so the heavier sound of Lie really appealed to me. But I was also trained on classical piano growing up, so I appreciated the complex musicality of DT. It took me about a half a year to get into the rest of the album, though. It was hard getting used to JLB's voice, as he sounded more like an opera singer than a metal vocalist. But around this period, I started listening to whole CDs through headphones to fall asleep, and I eventually put Awake on. The whole sequence of the album is so powerful when listened to start to finish, and the last three songs have a dreamy sort of atmosphere that helps you drift off to sleep. I was hooked after listening to the album all the way through for about the third time.
At this point, though, I'm far more of a progressive rock fan. Other than DT, my favorite rock groups are Yes, Pink Floyd, Genesis, and Radiohead. I'm also heavily into electronic music. I like music for its atmosphere and moodiness more than the technical virtuosity of the musicians. Early DT is kind of the best of both worlds, if you ask me. My favorite songs now are the semi-heavy progressive epics like Scarred, A Mind Beside Itself, Learning to Live, Take the Time, Trial of Tears, and even Stream of Consciousness. Post Kevin Moore, though, the band has lost a lot of its mysterious atmosphere and dynamic style. I'm not sure if that's actually due to Moore's absence, or simply the band pursuing one specific direction. But I'm not thrilled about the direction the band has turned in the last 15 years. It seems like MP wanted the band to become Progressive Pantera. But if I wanted to hear Pantera, I'd put on Pantera. I like DT because its more musically nerdy. Earlier DT wasn't afraid to write songs in Ionian or Mixolydian modes -- i.e. happy-sounding metal/rock that sounded more like Queensryche. Instead, they've gone a direction where almost every non power ballad they write is driven by an uptempo djent-y, palm-muted guitar riff in a minor key. I think some of this is fine and great actually. I still liked most of TOT and TGP from SDOIT, but I'm currently missing the musical diversity they used to bring. Perhaps post Portnoy, we will see more of this, but I'm not sure.
I sort of lost interest in the band after Octavarium, but in the last few weeks, I've re-discovered their older material, and am trying to catch up with what they've released since.
Topic: how did you discover Dream Theater? (Read 11098 times)
