*Official* The Astonishing discussion thread

[hefdaddy42]

What's with all this obsession about DR doing rap?

Who is DR?

[CDrice]

What's with all this obsession about DR doing rap?

Who is DR?

DJames Raprie from the band Dream Rapper?

[MirrorMask]

Just finished to hear once again the album.... I still get shivers at the end of Astonishing. Can't wait to see it all live, 2 exact weeks and it will be my turn!!!

[Prog Snob]

What's with all this obsession about DR doing rap?

Who is DR?

Django Reinhardt?

[hefdaddy42]

What's with all this obsession about DR doing rap?

Who is DR?

Django Reinhardt?

Pretty sure he didn't do very much rapping.

[Prog Snob]

What's with all this obsession about DR doing rap?

Who is DR?

Django Reinhardt?

Pretty sure he didn't do very much rapping.

Not that we know of.   

[SebastianPratesi]

What's with all this obsession about DR doing rap?

Who is DR?

Django Reinhardt?

No, Derek Roddy. He was the actual drummer/rapper who recorded those parts back in the day. Much later in 2010 he was offered the full time job, but he declined (because he hadn't been given credit on the albums). It's very clear in the docummentary, you can see how angry he was about that: https://youtu.be/NiDZKY96H9Y?t=1m57s

[DarkLord_Lalinc]

What's with all this obsession about DR doing rap?

Who is DR?

Django Reinhardt?

No, Derek Roddy. He was the actual drummer/rapper who recorded those parts back in the day. Much later in 2010 he was offered the full time job, but he declined (because he hadn't been given credit on the albums). It's very clear in the docummentary, you can see how angry he was about that: https://youtu.be/NiDZKY96H9Y?t=1m57s

The snake guy?

[chaossystem]

What's with all this obsession about DR doing rap?

Who is DR?

Blame the Kindle I was using at the time! That thing doesn't know how to SPELL!

[Prog Snob]

What's with all this obsession about DR doing rap?

Who is DR?

Blame the Kindle I was using at the time! That thing doesn't know how to SPELL!

You mean the Kingdle?

[red barchetta]

This is my review of cd 1.  I have about 20 listens of it.  I tried to be honest with my feelings.  Overall, I like it more than before but it is certainly the album that is taking me the longest time to enjoy it.  It has nothing to do by the fact that it is a concept album.  For instance, when Marillion released Misplaced childhood in 1986, it was a fantastic album right from the start and basically perfect from A to Z after a few listens. For me, even with my best attempt of liking that album, I don't find great melodies in an amount of number that can surpass some of the previous album of DT.  Just for example, ADTOE has way much more quality harmonies than TA.  But that's my opinion and I know there is a large amount of guys who do not agree.  So here is what I think of cd 1 which by the way looks like a much better one that cd 2.

Descent of the Nomacs                                             Digital intro
Dystopian overture                                                   Themes of the album, good stuff
The gift of music                                                       Good rock tune.
The answer                                                              short ballad, good
A better life                                                               ballad, good
Lord Nafaryus                                                           Old fashioned Queenish rock song
A savior in the square                                                Beautiful harmony on the chorus
When your time has come                                          Hollow years type of song, nice
Act of Faythe                                                             A Disney theme ballad
Three days                                                                Portnoy would have loved to sing on that one
The hovering sojourn                                                 Digital stuff
Brother can you hear me?                                          ballad, a military anthem, nice one
A life left behind                                                        beautiful ballad
Ravenskill                                                                  I don't get this one
Chosen                                                                     ballad, sounds like repeating the previous ones
A tempting offer                                                        don't like it
Digital discord                                                            digital stuff again
The x aspect                                                              ballad with a beginning sounding like Days of our lives theme
Anew beginning                                           good rock song with Kansas influence.  the guitar solo at the end is boring and too long.  Reminds me of the one at the end of Genesis's Abacab.
The road to revolution                                                A ballad, a pop rock, a hard rock and a operarock in the same song.

So there are good parts and some beautiful harmonies.  I can't deny that it is good.  I am not hooked that much.  Only the songs or parts that I have noted Beautiful are great moment for me on cd 1.

[Enigmachine]

A better life                                                               ballad, good
Brother can you hear me?                                          ballad, a military anthem, nice one
A life left behind                                                        beautiful ballad

tbh I wouldn't call any of those ballads. At least not purely (around 2-3 mins of ALLB is a ballad, but the rest frame it in a way that the song becomes not one if that makes sense). A Better Life is a Prog Metal song and BCYHM is as you said, an anthem. Glad to see the album has grown on you though. I'm interested in why you don't like Ravenskill or A Temping Offer. Those may be some of my favourite tracks on the album.

[1neeto]

There's only one rap song in that album. And it's pretty bad. 

Honor Thy Father?

Lol yep. The only song from that album I actually skip.

[pantsofeternity]

What's with all this obsession about DR doing rap?

Who is DR?

Django Reinhardt?

Pretty sure he didn't do very much rapping.

Not that we know of.   

Um, clearly you guys haven't heard his underground mixtape, "Django Unchained."

[red barchetta]

A better life                                                               ballad, good
Brother can you hear me?                                          ballad, a military anthem, nice one
A life left behind                                                        beautiful ballad

tbh I wouldn't call any of those ballads. At least not purely (around 2-3 mins of ALLB is a ballad, but the rest frame it in a way that the song becomes not one if that makes sense). A Better Life is a Prog Metal song and BCYHM is as you said, an anthem. Glad to see the album has grown on you though. I'm interested in why you don't like Ravenskill or A Temping Offer. Those may be some of my favourite tracks on the album.

Ravenskill isn't bad.  The last part of it is my favorite.  But for the rest, the intro is long and boring to me.  SHHHHH voice by James with nothing special in the music (for me).  And when they get going, nothing really appealing.

A tempting offer, I simply don't get catch by that piece of music.  I don't feel anything fun in it.  The last part with the violin is the only thing good to me.

A better life, for me it's a ballad.  Just like This is the life on ADTOE is one. But really it doesn't matter.  That's one of the very good song of the album.

Brother..., sounds like an anthem but the pace of it is like a ballad to me.  A very good song.

A life left behind, the beginning is not a ballad of course but then... you know when you can balance your arms up from left to right in a concert... that's quite a ballad.  A very good song.

[Prog Snob]

What's with all this obsession about DR doing rap?

Who is DR?

Django Reinhardt?

Pretty sure he didn't do very much rapping.

Not that we know of.   

Um, clearly you guys haven't heard his underground mixtape, "Django Unchained."

[SjundeInseglet]

Anew beginning                                           good rock song with Kansas influence.  the guitar solo at the end is boring and too long.  Reminds me of the one at the end of Genesis's Abacab.

Good luck with that one. You're probably the first person I've seen say that. To each his own but to me, that's one of the best JP solos in years. It has a beautiful flow to it and (if anything) most people wanted it to actually last longer than it does.

[red barchetta]

Anew beginning                                           good rock song with Kansas influence.  the guitar solo at the end is boring and too long.  Reminds me of the one at the end of Genesis's Abacab.

Good luck with that one. You're probably the first person I've seen say that. To each his own but to me, that's one of the best JP solos in years. It has a beautiful flow to it and (if anything) most people wanted it to actually last longer than it does.

Not only the guitar solo is boring but most importantly all the music composure is.  Usually JP will take us with his solos using different tempos, often taking us to a crescendo part.  If I feel something, I would tell.  Here it is like they just fill a space with a long solo.  And honestly, that is not a complicated one, certainly not to JP standards.  If you listen to Lines on the sand or The spirit carries on, you will notice all the variations on the volume, the picking, a certain blues approach at times.  And in fact, as I was saying, all the components of the solo could have been better. If there would have been some kind of explosions from the drum parts, you know, something happening a little bit more to make my eyes open and say wow.  That's my opinion.

[Luoto]

Here it is like they just fill a space with a long solo.  And honestly, that is not a complicated one, certainly not to JP standards.  If you listen to Lines on the sand or The spirit carries on, you will notice all the variations on the volume, the picking, a certain blues approach at times.  And in fact, as I was saying, all the components of the solo could have been better. If there would have been some kind of explosions from the drum parts, you know, something happening a little bit more to make my eyes open and say wow.  That's my opinion.

The solo is characterised by the fact it's backed by a couple of recurring musical motifs that appear earlier on the album, which is why the structure is relatively simple. Note the "catch phrase" at 5:44 that gets repeated later.

[dparrott]

There's only one rap song in that album. And it's pretty bad. 

Honor Thy Father?

Lol yep. The only song from that album I actually skip.

Haha oh yeah.  I don't mind it though, and I love that intro riff! 

[mike099]

I like Honor Thy Father.  Don't cross the crooked step

[gm5k]

 If there would have been some kind of explosions from the drum parts, you know, something happening a little bit more to make my eyes open and say wow.  That's my opinion.

I know most people love it BECAUSE they didn't do all those things and it just "grooves"...but I agree with this. Wish they had the done the more usual DT thing, building it and building it with crescendo/various creative ideas and fills from Mangini.  Although I do love the song and even quite like the solo, I would have enjoyed the ending much more that way.  Since so many love it it's probably for the better the way it is though.  A very unique moment in DT's history.

Also, the instrumental passage right before the solo might be my favorite instrumental moment on the album.  Sounds so videogamey in the best way 

[thosava]

I have to say you're not the only one who is not crazy about the solo. I like it a lot, but what makes the song amazing is everything before the solo. It was better live with another minute or so added to it!

[SebastianPratesi]

I just read a few tweets by James - I guess this ends our speculation about the Nafaryus' spoken voice:

Charlie, Rich doesn't voice any one of the characters on the album, it is all me. Originally what we use each night as the intro to the show was going to be included on the album but we ran out of space or data. What u hear at the beginning of each show is Rich's voice.

https://twitter.com/jameslabrie/status/705487313447591937
https://twitter.com/jameslabrie/status/705487723591819264

This was in response to a question by a fan:
https://twitter.com/david0akes/status/705151117647282176

[BlobVanDam]

I suspected that was the part that was credited to Chycki.

[mikeyd23]

So the show intro was intended to be on the album as well, huh. They really did run out of room on that first disc, cutting that and fading ANB solo too.

[Enigmachine]

So the full Act I is around 83 minutes (as Jordan Rudess keeps saying the album is 2h 13m), enough to be a double album on its own. It could've made sense for DT to take advantage of the digital format and present the full Act I without the CD-limit cuts. Not that big a deal though, considering it's only 3 mins and aren't crucual to the album.

[Another_Won]

I would defininatley buy the ANB release without the fadout!  I'd probably pay for the other stuff too.  Let the pressure on the band to release these commence

[SystematicThought]

I wonder then if the "Attention Battalion" is just from a sound catalogue

[Logain Ablar]

Personally, I'm ok with them cutting out the spoken intro. It was pretty cool as an intro to the live show, but I think it may have been a little distracting, and a step too far on the album.

Just leave the music to tell the story.

[MirrorMask]

This short "Interview" (Actually sounds more like an extract from another interview) from an italian webzine has Petrucci making an important point:

https://www.metallus.it/news/dream-theater-la-musica-oggi-e-consumata-in-modo-passivo-parola-di-john-petrucci/

"There are two ways to see it. Years ago, to have commercial success and be first in the charts, you had to sell so many albums, so only pop artists were making it. You couldn't even compete with them, 'cause they were the only ones who could sell million of copies. Now phisical CD sales are dropped a lot so a band like ours, with such a vast audience, is able to compete without having to seell millions of albums and chart in the top 10. Problem is, and this is also the underlying message of the album, that music is consumed in a more passive way. With  streaming and downloading it all became too much easy, so we chose to write something that almost forces you to si down and listen to it, and we were inspired a lot by our own experience. As teenagers, we listened to full albums of Rush, full albums of Pink Floyd, staying there with lights out, and it was wonderful. It wasn't like today, when you barely listen to a song for 30 seconds."


Well, nothing that we couldn't figure out by ourselves, but I like the "Sit down and listen to this for 2 hours dammit" approach, hehe!

[IdoSC]

Pretty late to the party on saying that, but just saw "red barchetta"'s review of CD1 and it reminded me how much it surprises me when people think Disney before SDOIT (specifically Goodnight Kiss) when they listen to Act of Faythe. I mean yeah, there is some resemblance to Disney there, but am I the only one who really feels like that's basically Goodnight Kiss 2.0 (and love it for that)?

The Answer and Chosen give off a much stronger Disney/Aladdin vibe to me, but then again, I love Disney music so that's not an issue for me personally (also Lord Nafaryus is basically James LaBrie doing Matthew Bellamy doing a Disney villain impersonation, aka best song on the album).

[jakepriest]

I don't see any similiarity between Goodnight Kiss and Act of Faythe.

[Enigmachine]

I don't see any similiarity between Goodnight Kiss and Act of Faythe.

Other than the general progression of the track (gets gradually louder), I don't either.

[SystematicThought]

Personally, I'm ok with them cutting out the spoken intro. It was pretty cool as an intro to the live show, but I think it may have been a little distracting, and a step too far on the album.

Just leave the music to tell the story.

I would have loved that extra noise from the NOMAC at the end of Descent of the NOMACs