Listened to it for the first time recently. I say it's decent, kinda disappointed with how it turned out. I love the first half of the album, FAS, TEI, The Looking Glass and Enigma Machine are all pretty solid imo.
The Bigger Picture, Behind the Veil, Surrender to Reason and Along for the Ride don't stand out much to me. idk how to explain it but they all seem too... simple and straightforward. Illumination Theory is the best song in the album, but it could have been much better. IT just doesn't flow very well, it's too cut up. Individually each part of the song is brilliant but it's just not cohesive. I could also do without the very end of IT (the piano part). Overall it's a good album, just not as strong as I hoped it would be. Still not sure if I prefer ADToE more.
I absolutely love Myung and Rudess on this album, I hope we can hear Myungs bass like this in future albums. JLB is great as well, especially in Illumination Theory. Mangini was solid throughout the album, but he mainly stood out to me in Illumination Theory. Petrucci was kinda disappointing on this album, the guitar solo's just weren't very notable to me though the tone is pretty good.