Dream Theater entered the studio in February v. No News is Good News

[Evermind]

I dont see what the problem is with ending the album with a long song, assuming they write such a song, isnt the best spot the last track?

I would even go as far to say that I'm disappointed when they don't end with the longest track. I love Beneath the Surface but Breaking All Illusions should absolutely be the last song you hear when listening to A Dramatic Turn of Events.

I disagree. Beneath the Surface is the perfect way to end ADTOE.

[hefdaddy42]

ITT:  DT can't win.

[King Postwhore]

We need a baby crying meme stating "I want my DT My Way!"

[Madman Shepherd]

I dont see what the problem is with ending the album with a long song, assuming they write such a song, isnt the best spot the last track?

I would even go as far to say that I'm disappointed when they don't end with the longest track. I love Beneath the Surface but Breaking All Illusions should absolutely be the last song you hear when listening to A Dramatic Turn of Events.

I disagree. Beneath the Surface is the perfect way to end ADTOE.

Truth

[The Presence of Frenemies]

I wouldn't listen to BTS no matter where it's placed on an album--fairly well-executed but just not my cup of tea. Seems like it would be odd to have it anywhere but last. Same applies to SDV. Can't really just pick back up from that.

[BlackInk]

Ending on the longest song is sooo cliche by now. It's refreshing when I see an album that has the longest track in the middle or something.

[rumborak]

ITT:  DT can't win.

I think that might be the biggest reason for not changing things up actually. Whatever they're doing right now is at a spot they know works; not everybody is happy, but enough people are to make it work. If they switched thing they might end up with a lot of people not liking it. And from what I've seen on this forum, there's a good chunk of people who are happy with DT's experimental past staying in the past, and their new output being very similar across albums.

[FLEEBS]

I've always appreciated Dream Theater's different tangents from album to album, and the recent sameness of recent releases has bothered me a bit. I'd hate for Dream Theater to become the AC/DC of progressive metal, but maybe they already have.   

[RaiseTheKnife]

I dont see what the problem is with ending the album with a long song, assuming they write such a song, isnt the best spot the last track?

I'd like DT to challenge themselves to keep the songs shortER and poignant, make difficult editorial decisions that bring each song into a sharp focus, brisk, effective and where every riff is all that more important because there a fewer necessary components.  The album could still have a track that "feels" like a juggernaut with an 8 minute running time. 

I'm not saying that DT doesn't already do this.  I would be interested to hear an album that made a deliberate effort to create an "immediate experience" with each song.

And less indulgent seven layer chocolate cake in the tone.

[TAC]

I've always appreciated Dream Theater's different tangents from album to album, and the recent sameness of recent releases has bothered me a bit. I'd hate for Dream Theater to become the AC/DC of progressive metal, but maybe they already have.   

How recent? I thought the last two albums were quite different. I also thought ADTOE was quite different than what came before it.

[cramx3]

I've always appreciated Dream Theater's different tangents from album to album, and the recent sameness of recent releases has bothered me a bit. I'd hate for Dream Theater to become the AC/DC of progressive metal, but maybe they already have.   

How recent? I thought the last two albums were quite different. I also thought ADTOE was quite different than what came before it.

While ADTOE might have been a pretty standard DT album, I agree that BC&SL and then DT12 were both quite different to say the recent releases have been the same.

[ResultsMayVary]

If I remember correctly, in the wilderness months between the auditions announcement and the documentary, when the DT fan base was reaching an unparalleled level of left-in-the-darkness psychosis, JP was featured in some guitar-techy video demoing some new feature playing a few riffs. One of those in particular appeared to be more structured and coherent than your average improvised on the spot riff. For a while there was some talk about that riff being part of the then to be announced ADTOE.
It much later turned out to be the main riff of the JP solo song Zero Tolerance, that I believe was premiered in the SA G3 tour of 2012.

When exactly is his new solo CD supposed to be released? It feels like all the songs have been around for 4+ years.

[Skeever]

ITT:  DT can't win.

 

[Setlist Scotty]

Talking about wishes, the one thing that I wish is that they'd write a lot more material than ended up on the album. And by that, I mean completed songs (including lyrics) that are recorded in the studio and saved for various other purposes, be it B-sides, extra tracks for a deluxe version, future compilations and/or other things. This way, they can work out all their ideas to the full and then pick what they feel are the best/strongest tracks for the album, instead of simply writing just enough to fill an album. I know it won't happen, based on their history, post-FII, but I'll continue to dream about it...

I still hope for "Tales from Theatrical Dreams", double CD, four 30 minute tracks (2 per CD).  The End.

In a roundabout way (no pun intended - really!) they already did this between SDoIT and BCaSL. But I get what you're saying nonetheless. Not sure if that would be a good idea tho. Certainly you can imagine that the majority of this board would be up in arms over it.
 
 

I'd love them to make a more experimental album. With each member's background, something really good can come out of it. And with such a solid fanbase, I don't think they have much to lose.

Absolutely this.

Amen. I think there could be some interesting things that happen with this, going in new directions and keeping things fresh, without sounding just like a mix of everything they've done before.
 
 

I'd like to see them jam out an album instead of their usual writing process, but that won't happen 

Um...that's pretty much how they write every album.

Bosk beat me to it. I'd like to know how SuperTaco would want things different in the writing process than what they do now.
 
 

I dont see what the problem is with ending the album with a long song, assuming they write such a song, isnt the best spot the last track?

I would even go as far to say that I'm disappointed when they don't end with the longest track. I love Beneath the Surface but Breaking All Illusions should absolutely be the last song you hear when listening to A Dramatic Turn of Events. Ditto for Scarred with Awake (although I don't really like Space-Dye Vest) and The Killing Hand for When Dream and Day Unite. The only album where the longest song not ending the album is fine is Finally Free with Scenes From a Memory but being the last part of a whole story, it's different.

Not getting the reasoning of why an album must end with the longest track - seems rather silly to me, TBH. While I think it would get tiring if the band had an epic on every album, I'm not against them periodically being on an album. But requiring them, or even just a semi-epic to be the last track on the album because it's the longest would become cliche. I'd rather them select the order of the songs based on how well they flow from one to another, rather than on some requirement.

[Rodni Demental]

I like 'epics', I don't really care where they put them and I don't expect them to do one every album, but they normally fit well as a closer so meh, might as well place it there if it fits. 

[CharlesPL]

27th June will be the star of Metal Hammer Festival in Katowice "Spodek".You play something new?

JP : No I don't think so. This year marks the thirtieth anniversary of our existence and rather, we will present our older songs also those whose long or almost never played.
Festivals are unique, because they usually do not allow for the preparation of the whole show, we play them a little less than normal. But I assure you that it will be two hours spent with Dream Theater in top form imaginable. Always we focus on perfection. We can not wait, because every meeting with Polish fans is a fantastic experience.

+

A decade ago, you released your debut solo album "Suspended Animation". You are about to record his successor?

Yes, very soon. It is not easy,  because most of my professional time I devote attention to the band.

Always the same :/


I would like to ask for your forbearance.

[ariich]

ITT:  DT can't win.

I think that might be the biggest reason for not changing things up actually. Whatever they're doing right now is at a spot they know works; not everybody is happy, but enough people are to make it work. If they switched thing they might end up with a lot of people not liking it. And from what I've seen on this forum, there's a good chunk of people who are happy with DT's experimental past staying in the past, and their new output being very similar across albums.

I also think what they're doing is pretty good for keeping the majority of their fanbase on board. They ARE changing things up, but in small ways, rather than radical ways. A new drum sound here, shorter, more concise songs there. Nothing mindblowing and not necessarily even things they haven't done in the past, but enough difference in approach from one album to the next that most (not all) fans don't get too bored.

Now, personally, I'd be quite happy with more radical changes, but I'm equally happy with what they're doing. I listen to absolutely hundreds of different bands, so if DT prefer to keep things reasonably stable, I'm fine with that.

As for the whole long songs vs short songs thing, I really don't care - that's such a specific and irrelevant requirement to me, considering I like or dislike albums with all sorts of variations in song lengths. I don't find any real correlation between those features and quality.

[Plasmastrike]

ITT:  DT can't win.

It's not about DT winning or losing or pleasing. People are just stating what they happen to prefer, and that's fine.

[King Postwhore]

Except that people (fans) go overboard in that they want and not what the band wants.  You or I may not like it but it's their music.

[TAC]

27th June will be the star of Metal Hammer Festival in Katowice "Spodek".You play something new?

JP : No I don't think so. This year marks the thirtieth anniversary of our existence and rather, we will present our older songs also those whose long or almost never played.

Well, that's disappointing. But at least there'll be some rarities. I wonder what they'll play.

[hefdaddy42]

ITT:  DT can't win.

It's not about DT winning or losing or pleasing. People are just stating what they happen to prefer, and that's fine.

Everything is fine.

[Kotowboy]

ITT:  DT can't win.

I think that might be the biggest reason for not changing things up actually. Whatever they're doing right now is at a spot they know works; not everybody is happy, but enough people are to make it work. If they switched thing they might end up with a lot of people not liking it. And from what I've seen on this forum, there's a good chunk of people who are happy with DT's experimental past staying in the past, and their new output being very similar across albums.

I also think what they're doing is pretty good for keeping the majority of their fanbase on board. They ARE changing things up, but in small ways, rather than radical ways. A new drum sound here, shorter, more concise songs there. Nothing mindblowing and not necessarily even things they haven't done in the past, but enough difference in approach from one album to the next that most (not all) fans don't get too bored.

Now, personally, I'd be quite happy with more radical changes, but I'm equally happy with what they're doing. I listen to absolutely hundreds of different bands, so if DT prefer to keep things reasonably stable, I'm fine with that.

As for the whole long songs vs short songs thing, I really don't care - that's such a specific and irrelevant requirement to me, considering I like or dislike albums with all sorts of variations in song lengths. I don't find any real correlation between those features and quality.

Yes. Id hate for them to suddenly go all Radiohead and put out a "Kid A".

[hefdaddy42]

That would be awesome.

[SuperTaco]

Um...that's pretty much how they write every album.

I was unable to locate it, but I remember reading a John Myung interview where he said the band wrote songs differently at the start of their careers, and he wanted to get back to that. This post is going to mean absolutely nothing unless I can back it up with a fact, so I will keep searching for that interview.

Does anyone else happen to remember this?

[BlobVanDam]

Um...that's pretty much how they write every album.

I was unable to locate it, but I remember reading a John Myung interview where he said the band wrote songs differently at the start of their careers, and he wanted to get back to that. This post is going to mean absolutely nothing unless I can back it up with a fact, so I will keep searching for that interview.

Does anyone else happen to remember this?

Maybe you're thinking of the WDADRU commentary?

[gmillerdrake]

I was unable to locate it, but I remember reading a John Myung interview where he said the band wrote songs differently at the start of their careers, and he wanted to get back to that. This post is going to mean absolutely nothing unless I can back it up with a fact, so I will keep searching for that interview.

Does anyone else happen to remember this?

Yeah...it was part of the drummer audition tapes. He said that he and JP had sat down and wrote songs together in the way they used to earlier in their career for ADTOE....and that he liked that format and hoped to keep doing it. Not sure if that's how they wrote DT but I do recall him saying that.

[rumborak]

ITT:  DT can't win.

I think that might be the biggest reason for not changing things up actually. Whatever they're doing right now is at a spot they know works; not everybody is happy, but enough people are to make it work. If they switched thing they might end up with a lot of people not liking it. And from what I've seen on this forum, there's a good chunk of people who are happy with DT's experimental past staying in the past, and their new output being very similar across albums.

I also think what they're doing is pretty good for keeping the majority of their fanbase on board. They ARE changing things up, but in small ways, rather than radical ways. A new drum sound here, shorter, more concise songs there. Nothing mindblowing and not necessarily even things they haven't done in the past, but enough difference in approach from one album to the next that most (not all) fans don't get too bored.

Now, personally, I'd be quite happy with more radical changes, but I'm equally happy with what they're doing. I listen to absolutely hundreds of different bands, so if DT prefer to keep things reasonably stable, I'm fine with that.

As for the whole long songs vs short songs thing, I really don't care - that's such a specific and irrelevant requirement to me, considering I like or dislike albums with all sorts of variations in song lengths. I don't find any real correlation between those features and quality.

Yes. Id hate for them to suddenly go all Radiohead and put out a "Kid A".

That's too bad, i.e. that you feel that way, since so many others feel that way too.
I find, now that Dream Theater have put out 12 full-length albums (with SDOIT, one could even count it as 13, and with ACOS even 14), there's so much well-trodden ground there, even if they released a Kid A, you'd have 14 albums to go back to if you don't like. Want an epic? About 8 tunes to choose from. Want a power ballad? 10 songs to choose from.
To me, artistically there's so little to gain at this point from the "small changes here and there" approach.

[NotePad]

I'd like to see them jam out an album instead of their usual writing process, but that won't happen 

Also

I'd love them to make a more experimental album. With each member's background, something really good can come out of it. And with such a solid fanbase, I don't think they have much to lose.

Absolutely this.

Agreed.

Isn't that their usual writing process, jamming out? They write songs as a group,. together.

I'd like to see them write an album differently. An album of individual compositions. Like Kiss, or Queen.

And what i want to see is either a power metal album from them, or something that's more traditional metal, like Maiden or Priest. Wouldn't that be aweesome? I'm a big DT fan, but lately their approach is getting very stale.

[hefdaddy42]

I was unable to locate it, but I remember reading a John Myung interview where he said the band wrote songs differently at the start of their careers, and he wanted to get back to that. This post is going to mean absolutely nothing unless I can back it up with a fact, so I will keep searching for that interview.

Does anyone else happen to remember this?

Yeah...it was part of the drummer audition tapes. He said that he and JP had sat down and wrote songs together in the way they used to earlier in their career for ADTOE....and that he liked that format and hoped to keep doing it. Not sure if that's how they wrote DT but I do recall him saying that.

The difference was that, with this "old way" he was talking about, they got together all the time and jammed and worked on music, or wrote/demoed songs before going into the studio. 

The music is still produced basically the same way (jamming together); the only difference is that now they wait to do most of their jamming/writing until they get into the studio.  So before, it was jam/write THEN studio; now it is jam/write IN studio (and has been, for the most part, since SFAM).

[bosk1]

^That is my understanding as well.

[BlackInk]

And what i want to see is either a power metal album from them, or something that's more traditional metal, like Maiden or Priest.

I hope this never happens. I have always found power metal to be extremely cheesy and I'd like every band I follow to stay away from that. And a traditional metal album from DT would be beyond disappointing. I imagine I'd listen to that once, and then never again because I rarely find 'traditional metal' interesting at all.

[rumborak]

I was unable to locate it, but I remember reading a John Myung interview where he said the band wrote songs differently at the start of their careers, and he wanted to get back to that. This post is going to mean absolutely nothing unless I can back it up with a fact, so I will keep searching for that interview.

Does anyone else happen to remember this?

Yeah...it was part of the drummer audition tapes. He said that he and JP had sat down and wrote songs together in the way they used to earlier in their career for ADTOE....and that he liked that format and hoped to keep doing it. Not sure if that's how they wrote DT but I do recall him saying that.

The difference was that, with this "old way" he was talking about, they got together all the time and jammed and worked on music, or wrote/demoed songs before going into the studio. 

The music is still produced basically the same way (jamming together); the only difference is that now they wait to do most of their jamming/writing until they get into the studio.  So before, it was jam/write THEN studio; now it is jam/write IN studio (and has been, for the most part, since SFAM).

If the statement in question is from the DVD commentary, my take was that JM missed the incremental process, i.e. jam->refine->jam->refine over the course of months.

[goo-goo]

I was unable to locate it, but I remember reading a John Myung interview where he said the band wrote songs differently at the start of their careers, and he wanted to get back to that. This post is going to mean absolutely nothing unless I can back it up with a fact, so I will keep searching for that interview.

Does anyone else happen to remember this?

Yeah...it was part of the drummer audition tapes. He said that he and JP had sat down and wrote songs together in the way they used to earlier in their career for ADTOE....and that he liked that format and hoped to keep doing it. Not sure if that's how they wrote DT but I do recall him saying that.

The difference was that, with this "old way" he was talking about, they got together all the time and jammed and worked on music, or wrote/demoed songs before going into the studio. 

The music is still produced basically the same way (jamming together); the only difference is that now they wait to do most of their jamming/writing until they get into the studio.  So before, it was jam/write THEN studio; now it is jam/write IN studio (and has been, for the most part, since SFAM).

If I recall correctly, they shifted a bit from that approach in the ToT sessions. I thought they jammed in a rehearsal space for a couple of weeks and then went into the studio.

[Stadler]

Here's a novel idea:  let them put out the album they want to put out.  If I wanted to hear an album like Maiden or Priest, I'd put on an album by Maiden or Priest (first concert ever, Maiden opening for Priest on the Screaming tour).    If I wanted a power metal album, I'd put on something by Yngwie (I don't really listen to power metal).  If I wanted to listen to Kid A, I'd go out and get wasted (I strongly dislike Radiohead.  Unlistenable to me.) 

[emtee]

I thought about asking this question in a dedicated thread but instead will ask here.

What do you think this next album means to DT?

-Nothing more than any other album in their past. Everything is fine. Nothing to prove. Just try to make music they are happy with.
-Needs to make a statement. Attendance trending slightly down. Album sales trending slightly down.
-Want to make a significant artistic statement late in career. Nothing else is more important.

There are many other possible questions, I'm just wondering what they actually set out to do when they had their meeting(s) prior
to getting into the studio. And after 30 years as a band I'm curious as to what others think. I would have loved to be a fly on the
wall and hear their comments on this album.