*Official* The Astonishing discussion thread

[Dream Team]

About 10 listens in now . . . I NEVER thought anything would ever top Images and Words, but this is becoming my favorite album of all time. I'm speechless as to how good James is. That run of songs on the 2nd half of disc 1 is insanely good.

[AngelBack]

At this point I don't think it's too soon to call this thing a true masterpiece.   

[BlobVanDam]

I think it is.

Too soon, that is, not the masterpiece bit.

[James Sucellus]

I'm not going to temper my enthusiasm due to today's date. This is a great album and only gets better with each listen. I pretty much love it all now.

[Kotowboy]

I think this could be their best album...

We'll have to see how well it holds up over time.

[James Sucellus]

It's LaBrie's best album. 

[Kotowboy]

It's 100% definitely the best produced of the last 3.

[BlobVanDam]

It's 100% definitely the best produced of the last 3.

Not that that means much. The two before it were easily among DT's worst sounding albums. I really like the production on TA though. By far their best of the RR era.

[Kotowboy]

It's 100% definitely the best produced of the last 3.

Not that that means much. The two before it were easily among DT's worst sounding albums. I really like the production on TA though. By far their best of the RR era.

Yes. if we're doing a really specific ranking :

Production of the RoadRunner albums :

1. The Astonishing
2. Black Clouds & Silver Linings
3. Systematic Chaos
4. A Dramatic Turn of Events
5. DT12

Although I don't mind the sound of Dramatic Turn. It's just a bit demoey sounding and the drum mix is too quiet.

[SuperTaco]

Not that that means much. The two before it were easily among DT's worst sounding albums. I really like the production on TA though. By far their best of the RR era.

For me, there's one specific sign that shows I like the production on an album: When I don't think about the production at all.

I listened to the whole album without thinking things like "MM is too mechanical" or "JM isn't loud enough" or "JP is too loud". Everything is balanced, easy on the ears but still powerful.

[Kotowboy]

JP's solo production efforts are getting better each time. As long as they don't go backwards and do another brickwalled effort like DT12 - Rich Chycki could continue to be their engineer and

almost co-producer. He seems to be able to get a good performance out of LaBrie.

[ariich]

It's 100% definitely the best produced of the last 3.

Not that that means much. The two before it were easily among DT's worst sounding albums. I really like the production on TA though. By far their best of the RR era.

Yes. if we're doing a really specific ranking :

Production of the RoadRunner albums :

1. The Astonishing
2. Black Clouds & Silver Linings
3. Systematic Chaos
4. A Dramatic Turn of Events
5. DT12

Although I don't mind the sound of Dramatic Turn. It's just a bit demoey sounding and the drum mix is too quiet.

I would agree with all of this.

[YOWspotter]

So I've given this thing a few spins and my conclusion is that it's not really for me.  There's no questioning the creativity and musicianship required to conceive and execute such an album; it's just that this isn't what I what DT to be applying all that talent towards.

I don't think I can fall in love with this album.  The fantastic moments, and there are many, are frustratingly buried in stuff I'm not overly keen on and/or are under-developed.  I can't count how many times while listening I hear a wonderful theme that I want to latch onto and ride for a while, only to have it end way too soon for my liking.

For example, in The X Aspect, I wish the concept part from 2:34 to 3:34 was a 6 minute song ... instead of a 1 minute "snippet"!

Anyway, with all that said, I can get on board with the following more or less from start to finish:
 
A Better Life (probably my favourite overall)
Ravenskill
Moment of Betrayal
The Path that Divides

PS. does anyone else feel like A Better Life could easily find a home on a Rocky soundtrack?  That's a good thing ...

[Kotowboy]

It's crazy that one person ( ie me ) can listen to The Astonishing and be like

" This is incredible. This is MUSIC. Easily the best thing they've done since Octavarium. Just gorgeous  "

And another person can listen to the exact same album and be like

" Ehhhh. It's bland and boring "

[CDrice]

Well it's not that hard to top Octavarium.

[emtee]

I'm not sure "under-developed" would be an accurate description since they spent the better part of 2 years writing and fleshing
out ideas. I'm totally cool with people not liking it but for the reasons people have mentioned not liking it, I am feeling the opposite.
I have felt that far too many DT songs went on 2-5 minutes longer than necessary and found myself skipping long endings.
So for me this album represents a DT that gets concise and focused and keeps me wanting more. I never feel like skipping sections
of songs and I am always anxious to spin the whole thing again.

[Kotowboy]

Well it's not that hard to top Octavarium.

Ohhhhhhhhhhh

[Awaken]

PS. does anyone else feel like A Better Life could easily find a home on a Rocky soundtrack?  That's a good thing ...

Absolutely - that's the first thing I thought of and can't get it out of my head.  From the JPs solo through the end, it definitely reminds me of the music in Rocky IV.

[Lax]

Haha you wish there would be a 8 disc version with all the improvisations and solos cut off ?

I listened over 20 times now, still feeling new things and changing favorites, this is so dense and multi-layered !

[pretorios]

I'm not sure "under-developed" would be an accurate description since they spent the better part of 2 years writing and fleshing
out ideas. I'm totally cool with people not liking it but for the reasons people have mentioned not liking it, I am feeling the opposite.
I have felt that far too many DT songs went on 2-5 minutes longer than necessary and found myself skipping long endings.
So for me this album represents a DT that gets concise and focused and keeps me wanting more. I never feel like skipping sections
of songs and I am always anxious to spin the whole thing again.

I do like the shorter more focused songs. Whether they thought shorter songs would work better for TA or they've learned to be more disciplined--I really hope it's the latter, as I want to see more of this format in the future. There's nothing wrong with an epic song now and then, but DT's more recent albums--BCASL and ADTOE might be the biggest offenders--have been overwrought with long songs. Sometimes less is more, and to leave a listener wanting more--isn't that the ultimate compliment to an artist?

[Train of Naught]

Has been a while since I've posted here.

I'm now at the point where I can very much enjoy listening to a lot of these songs separately, especially for such a concept-based album that's pretty cool.

[bosk1]

I have listened to it every day since release.  Sometimes multiple times.  I usually play it first thing when I get in to work.  Today, decided to give it a break and listen to Retrospect instead.  I will queue The Astonishing up for later. 

[ariich]

I don't think I can fall in love with this album.  The fantastic moments, and there are many, are frustratingly buried in stuff I'm not overly keen on and/or are under-developed.  I can't count how many times while listening I hear a wonderful theme that I want to latch onto and ride for a while, only to have it end way too soon for my liking.

For example, in The X Aspect, I wish the concept part from 2:34 to 3:34 was a 6 minute song ... instead of a 1 minute "snippet"!

I sort of understand you, though I agree with emtee that I'm not sure "under-developed" is really the right word. I really do feel that they did an excellent and very careful job with recurring themes, music fitting narrative, and so on.

That said, for me personally the themes that seem to recur the most - Brother Can You Hear Me, for example - are the ones I'm generally least excited about. Whereas my favourite themes/melodies have little or no recurrence, like the two different Evangeline bits, all that great stuff in Three Days, the climax in Ravenskill, pretty much everything in A Life Left Behind.

[rumborak]

My ranking of the album slowly settles on "mid tier" for me. It's nowhere near as bad as some online rankings make it out to be, but it's also not top-tier. A ton better than DT12 for sure, maybe similar to ADTOE.

[Luoto]

That said, for me personally the themes that seem to recur the most - Brother Can You Hear Me, for example - are the ones I'm generally least excited about. Whereas my favourite themes/melodies have little or no recurrence, like the two different Evangeline bits, all that great stuff in Three Days, the climax in Ravenskill, pretty much everything in A Life Left Behind.

BCYHM doesn't actually recur that often, it's just very identifiable whenever it comes up. Not sure what you mean by climax in Ravenskill - the heavy middle section or the ending - but both of those do recur more than once. Especially the latter is one of the most dynamic motifs of the whole thing.

[Architeuthis]

It's 100% definitely the best produced of the last 3.

Not that that means much. The two before it were easily among DT's worst sounding albums. I really like the production on TA though. By far their best of the RR era.

I actually think the production on DT12 is quite good, one of my fav DT albums.. The production TA is top notch though, very easy on the ears!

[nikatapi]

That said, for me personally the themes that seem to recur the most - Brother Can You Hear Me, for example - are the ones I'm generally least excited about. Whereas my favourite themes/melodies have little or no recurrence, like the two different Evangeline bits, all that great stuff in Three Days, the climax in Ravenskill, pretty much everything in A Life Left Behind.

I agree with you on that, especially the evangeline melody is very cool, sad to only hear it twice in the album.

[Evermind]

That said, for me personally the themes that seem to recur the most - Brother Can You Hear Me, for example - are the ones I'm generally least excited about. Whereas my favourite themes/melodies have little or no recurrence, like the two different Evangeline bits, all that great stuff in Three Days, the climax in Ravenskill, pretty much everything in A Life Left Behind.

I don't know what theme recurs how often, but I have the same feeling. The themes I don't like - Brother Can You Hear Me and Faythe's theme - I feel like they're all over the album. And yeah, absolutely gorgeous Evangeline theme almost isn't featured at all.

[rab7]

BCYHM doesn't actually recur that often, it's just very identifiable whenever it comes up.

Off the top of my head, it occurs in:

Dystopian Overture (under the Lion King vocalizing)
BCYHM (duh)
The X Aspect (bagpipes)
Astonishing (Ghost Arhys)

....

And I just proved your point, I thought it showed up a lot more

[ariich]

BCYHM doesn't actually recur that often, it's just very identifiable whenever it comes up.

For sure it's not that often, but still more than any other I think.

Not sure what you mean by climax in Ravenskill - the heavy middle section or the ending - but both of those do recur more than once. Especially the latter is one of the most dynamic motifs of the whole thing.

I especially mean the meeting between Faythe and Arhys - really fantastic stuff. The build up just before that is great too. I didn't think either of those recurred, but I haven't spotted everything yet.

[TAC]

So I've given this thing a few spins and my conclusion is that it's not really for me.  There's no questioning the creativity and musicianship required to conceive and execute such an album; it's just that this isn't what I what DT to be applying all that talent towards.

I don't think I can fall in love with this album.  The fantastic moments, and there are many, are frustratingly buried in stuff I'm not overly keen on and/or are under-developed.  I can't count how many times while listening I hear a wonderful theme that I want to latch onto and ride for a while, only to have it end way too soon for my liking.

For example, in The X Aspect, I wish the concept part from 2:34 to 3:34 was a 6 minute song ... instead of a 1 minute "snippet"!

I love the album, but I completely agree with the bolded part.

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

Listened to this today.  It was pretty good.

When I got to around :41 in 2285 Entr'acte, it reminded me of the line around :21 in War Inside My Head.

[gm5k]

So I've given this thing a few spins and my conclusion is that it's not really for me.  There's no questioning the creativity and musicianship required to conceive and execute such an album; it's just that this isn't what I what DT to be applying all that talent towards.

I don't think I can fall in love with this album.  The fantastic moments, and there are many, are frustratingly buried in stuff I'm not overly keen on and/or are under-developed.  I can't count how many times while listening I hear a wonderful theme that I want to latch onto and ride for a while, only to have it end way too soon for my liking.

For example, in The X Aspect, I wish the concept part from 2:34 to 3:34 was a 6 minute song ... instead of a 1 minute "snippet"!

I love the album, but I completely agree with the bolded part.

Yea 2:50 - 3:06 is one of my favorite DT moments in a long time.

I kinda love that about this album, though.  So many short lived moments that give me chills.  Not quite like any other album I've ever experienced for sure.

[cramx3]

That said, for me personally the themes that seem to recur the most - Brother Can You Hear Me, for example - are the ones I'm generally least excited about. Whereas my favourite themes/melodies have little or no recurrence, like the two different Evangeline bits, all that great stuff in Three Days, the climax in Ravenskill, pretty much everything in A Life Left Behind.

I don't know what theme recurs how often, but I have the same feeling. The themes I don't like - Brother Can You Hear Me and Faythe's theme - I feel like they're all over the album. And yeah, absolutely gorgeous Evangeline theme almost isn't featured at all.

+1 on the Evangeline theme, it's awesome. 

[TAC]

+2