Dream Theater: The Astonishing (now with moment of betrayal!)

[dvargas]

Has anybody thought about the word Astonishing here being used as a gerund?

An adjective without a subject wouldn't make much sense. 

[Kotowboy]

It's been discussed at length.

[dvargas]

Problem of a 29 page thread!

[Kotowboy]

A few of us have noted that it sounds like an event or a happening.

Like the time has come for The Great Astonishing.

Or The Astonishing is at hand.

[The Presence of Frenemies]

What's different is the top of the inner circle (above the two green circles in the right image). It's not there in the left image. Wonder what that means.

[dvargas]

A few of us have noted that it sounds like an event or a happening.

Like the time has come for The Great Astonishing.

Or The Astonishing is at hand.

Agree.

[Progmetty]

Has anybody thought about the word Astonishing here being used as a gerund?

An adjective without a subject wouldn't make much sense.

It's Dream Theater - The Astonishing, like Spiderman - The Amazing

[Nearmyth]

I can't help but think of South Park's "The Startling"

[erwinrafael]

Has anybody thought about the word Astonishing here being used as a gerund?

An adjective without a subject wouldn't make much sense.

That's not uncommon in English.

The Brave. The Bold. The Beautiful. The Mighty. The Powerful.

[dvargas]

Has anybody thought about the word Astonishing here being used as a gerund?

An adjective without a subject wouldn't make much sense.

That's not uncommon in English.

The Brave. The Bold. The Beautiful. The Mighty. The Powerful.

Yes.  But a gerund works, as astonish is a verb as well.  For instance "the killing", "the stoning" etc.

But I completely agree with you that u don't need the subject for the adjective to work.  That's my bad.

[Darkstarshades]

He's got a point.
You don't "beautiful" someone, yet you do "Astonish" people.
I find no connection between The Astonishing and the plot that the tracklist appears to reveal, however,

[Peter Mc]

Have certain trepidation about the story but, as others have said, the story is not really all that important. It's not a book and DT aren't celebrated novelists. It's not like I sit down and read Operation Mindcrime as a piece of literature.

If we're talking about Scenes from a Memory, the rancid lyrical concept actually holds the music hostage.

Lyrics mean a great deal to me when I'm listening to progressive music (obviously), and much of these songs are just bloated vehicles used to deliver story exposition and scene descriptions.

I agree that lyrics are important and I love some of the lyrics in Mindcrime but the overall story is pretty basic generic stuff. It's cool that there is a story but the actual quality of the story does not make or break the album. Mindcrime also had it's spoken word moments which worked pretty well.

[lucasembarbosa]

What if... The two videos on the "Astonishing" page are some kind of production to be played along the songs, like a "screentrack" instead of a soundtrack?

[BlobVanDam]

What if... The two videos on the "Astonishing" page are some kind of production to be played along the songs, like a "screentrack" instead of a soundtrack?

I think anything lengthy would be reserved for the live show, but we may see bits like that if it's a music video / lyric video.

I'm thinking possibly more along the lines of behind the scenes footage with some teasers, or the band discussing the concept/music, that kind of thing. Similar to what we got last time with DT12 perhaps.

I don't know, this whole thing is so different to usual, that I wouldn't want to bet either way.

[IDontNotDoThings]

What if, He's being projected by a NOMAC.

What if, He stepped out of the NOMAC.  Like they can be driven.

That's what I was thinking, maybe he's on the inside of a NOMAC, piloting it.

[ResultsMayVary]

The funny thing about this album with DT is that I don't know what to think. I can't think of another album cycle I've been through (fan since 8VM) where I've had almost no clue of what was happening.

[dparrott]

Seems like this album is going to need some special packaging.  I can't picture all of these tracks fitting on the back cover of a CD.  Probably will have to use two panels inside.

[Crow]

i wonder how they're going to release any singles

[jsbru]

Did the NOMACS image get updated? I don't remember there being a "Red Dot" in the reflection above it's "eyes"

Yeah, I definitely don't remember that being there previously.

I do remember it being there previously.

[BlobVanDam]

I remember it being there, because I remember wondering if it would eventually light up as a third button or something.

[jsbru]

What if... The two videos on the "Astonishing" page are some kind of production to be played along the songs, like a "screentrack" instead of a soundtrack?

I think anything lengthy would be reserved for the live show, but we may see bits like that if it's a music video / lyric video.

I'm thinking possibly more along the lines of behind the scenes footage with some teasers, or the band discussing the concept/music, that kind of thing. Similar to what we got last time with DT12 perhaps.

I don't know, this whole thing is so different to usual, that I wouldn't want to bet either way.

For a minute, I thought that maybe it WILL be a triple album, but the third disc would be a DVD/BluRay, and you could watch the story unfold.  That way, the length would still be 160 minutes.

But the only way for them to accomplish this without word leaking out would be to do some sort of animation or something.  You couldn't hire a group of actors and expect none of them to leak to their friend that they're working on a DT production.  We would have heard something already.  You could reasonably expect one animator/artist to keep a lid on it (this new artist just for the album art seems to have done so).

[mikemangioy]

i wonder when they're going to release any singles

FTFM

[jsbru]

Anyway, there's a betrayal here.  Who is betraying whom?

Does Ahrys sell out to the Empire?

BTW, I love how we now just assume it's the Empire that is the evil ones, even though the original e-mail signups had the "good side" being the empire.  But that, of course, could have been Newspeak.

[Lucien]

I wouldn't be surprised if neither side is actually evil (or maybe both are evil)

[BlobVanDam]

What part of Lord Nafaryus needs further explanation?

It seems like a pretty standard story of dystopian oppression to me, with a musical twist for the rebels.

[Viking of the Sagas]

Plot twist: Nafaryus just tried to protect the people from evil NOMACs

[jsbru]

I wouldn't be surprised if neither side is actually evil (or maybe both are evil)

I would hope that's the case.  Or that it's more in line with the Dune story (where the protagonist ends up being less than a hero) than with something Ayn Rand wrote (supposedly the motivation for 2112).

[scorpa65]

There are 20 songs on Act 1 and 3 songs listed so far on Act 2. These might be shorter songs. And maybe some epocs pn Act2. We will see as the track listing grows I've been checking every few days from my source. Which is from DT.

[alexofsweden]

I´ll continue to speculate around my theories, that the nomacs are the actual songs and the rest are parts. Yes i know there´s no Nomac icon in the 2:nd act...but maybe they´ll show in the next update.

Btw, look at the Nomac...there´s 3 eyes on both sides...3 speakers...3 eyes= 2 discs with 3 songs on each disc. ACT 1is the "The Great Northern Empire" and disc 2 "The Ravenskill Rebel Militia"..."choose your side"

ACT I

1. Descent of the Nomacs

I. Dystophian Overture
II. The Gift of Music
III. The Answer
IV. A Better Life
V. Lord Nafaryus
VI. A Savior in the Square
VII. When Your Time Has Come
VIII. Act of Fayte
IX. Three Days

2. The Hovering Sojourn

I. Brother, Can You Hear Me
II. A Life Left Behind
III. Ravenskill
IV. Chosen
V. A Tempting Offer

3. Digital Discord

I. The X Aspect
II. A New Beginning
III. The Road To Revolution


ACT II

1. 2285 entr´acte

I. Moment Of Betrayal
II. Heaven´s Cove

[Nefarius]

We've had some fun theories in this post and its evil predecessor.

But trying to stay realistic I would guess the tracks are primarily there for navigating the story, not necessarily for individual songs, with a high probability of plot sections seguing into each other and not too many breaks of silence between tracks.

Of course that's perfectly fine for a story driven album like The Astonishing obviously will be. But it may turn out to be a little cumbersome discussing individual parts of the music that span more than one track. And I won't even begin to imagine the never ending posts about which parts of the album actually constitute a proper song and which parts don't.

Something I've always loved about DT are recurring themes, chord progressions, and melodies. With an album structured like this one I really hope we're about to get some of those again.

Greetings...
Nef (a.k.a. "The N Aspect")

[MirrorMask]

ACT II

1. 2285 entr´acte

I. Moment Of Betrayal
II. Heaven´s Cove

"Entr'acte" is another way to say "Intermission", "Overture", etc, it's the middle of an act during a play. No way a "real" long song is gonna be called Entr'acte, just like a suite wouldn't be called "Dystopian Overture". Overture = beginning, Entr'acte = middle.

Furthermore, as someone pointed out, the self titled tracklist was definitive; False Awakenings was track 1 and had three movements. Thes 20 tracks will be 20 songs on the CD.

[The Stray Seed]

What if, He stepped out of the NOMAC.  Like they can be driven.

That's what I was thinking, maybe he's on the inside of a NOMAC, piloting it.

About the theory of driven NOMACs, I wrote something some ten pages ago. Maybe it just got lost. Here:

My own speculations:

What if the "Hovering Sojourn" is about the Chosen One who infiltrates a NOMAC and uses it to broadcast his own stirring, forbidden melody? Just like a loudspeaker. That would be his Hovering Sojourn. After all, the NOMACs are huge, there might be some room within their structure. This would also explain the Majesty-shaped chassis, since the NOMACs are'n going to be a negative force forever, they will be hacked by Ravenskill and used against the Empire. This might also explain why the NOMAC is so important and such a recurrent theme: because it's going to play a main role in the story.

"Brother can you hear me" might be a first attempt to communicate via the NOMAC. Obviously, the first person he will try to get in touch with is most likely his brother.

"A life left behind", may just speak for itself. He's on a mission now, and will leave his life behind.

"Ravenskill" and "The Chosen": well, isn't he meant to be the Chosen of this faction? Maybe these tracks will tell us about the faction and about our hero; it may be his past or something about the character in general.

"A Tempting Offer" Let's assume we're getting close to the end of first disk: it's about time for a nice plot twist. The Empire tries to negotiate with him, to corrupt him in order to prevent him from destroying the whole system. Will they try to deceive him? To tell him lies to take him on their side? Or maybe some kind of confession (with some truth in it), to try and destabilize him?

"Digital Discord" might represent the uncertain end of the first disk, to make you eager to know how the story will develop in the future. Strange, disharmonic sounds that spring from him as he fights with himself while seeing things under a new light.

[IDontNotDoThings]

^I must admit, I kinda tl;dr'd that post, but after reading it, that is quite an interesting theory. I'd definitely buy it if it was proposed as some kind of story leak. Then again, I am kinda gullible...

[The Stray Seed]

Now we know "Digital Discord" is not the end of the first act, since three more track titles were published, but we know for sure that there will be a "Moment of Betrayal". So, "A Tempting Offer" might definitely be related to this treason.

[emtee]

This is certainly something "different"...

Props for that.