- " The Astonishing " - One Year -- er, SEVEN YEARS On.

[JPX]

I've been revisiting this album recently after the disappointment of AWFTTOTW and man it's fucking good.

A Life Left Behind might lowkey be one of their best intros of all time.

[JPX]

Listening to my 16 track 73 minute Astonishing Abridged tonight and I must say that James is so amazing on this.

The X Aspect 

What does the abridged version omit outside of the noise tracks?

[Kotowboy]

What does the abridged version omit outside of the noise tracks?

13 additional tracks.

[Trav86]

What does the abridged version omit outside of the noise tracks?

13 additional tracks.

[Kotowboy]

[TAC]

Listening to my 16 track 73 minute Astonishing Abridged tonight and I must say that James is so amazing on this.

The X Aspect 

What does the abridged version omit outside of the noise tracks?

This is my version..

The Gift Of Music
Lord Nafaryus
A Savior In the Square
When Your Time Has Come
Act Of Faythe
Three Days
Ravenskill
A Tempting Offer
The X Aspect
A New Beginning
Moment Of Betrayal
Heaven's Cove
The Path That Divides
The Walking Shadow
My Last Farewell
Hymn Of A Thousand Voices


With the exception of I&W, I enjoy this mix as much as I do any of their albums.

[Kotowboy]

No " Our New World "

Worst playlist EVER.

[Trav86]

Listening to my 16 track 73 minute Astonishing Abridged tonight and I must say that James is so amazing on this.

The X Aspect 

What does the abridged version omit outside of the noise tracks?

This is my version..

The Gift Of Music
Lord Nafaryus
A Savior In the Square
When Your Time Has Come
Act Of Faythe
Three Days
Ravenskill
A Tempting Offer
The X Aspect
A New Beginning
Moment Of Betrayal
Heaven's Cove
The Path That Divides
The Walking Shadow
My Last Farewell
Hymn Of A Thousand Voices


With the exception of I&W, I enjoy this mix as much as I do any of their albums.

Can I ask why you omit Our New World? Do you not like it? Do you not like it ending the album? Both?

[TAC]

I don't think Our New World is a great tune, and the whole point of making an abridged version is to cut out some of the fluff. I just don't think it really adds anything to my experience.

To me, I prefer the epic ending of the Hymn Of A Thousand Voices.

[Trav86]

I don't think Our New World is a great tune, and the whole point of making an abridged version is to cut out some of the fluff. I just don't think it really adds anything to my experience.

To me, I prefer the epic ending of the Hymn Of A Thousand Voices.

I get that.

[TAC]

I love The Astonishing. There's tons of great music on it and I appreciate what they tried to do with it. I mean, reading people call the new album DT by Numbers kind of blows my mind. They are probably the same people that don't appreciate TA.

[Trav86]

I love The Astonishing. There's tons of great music on it and I appreciate what they tried to do with it. I mean, reading people call the new album DT by Numbers kind of blows my mind. They are probably the same people that don't appreciate TA.

“Never Enough”

[NoFred]

I've been revisiting this album recently after the disappointment of AWFTTOTW and man it's fucking good.

A Life Left Behind might lowkey be one of their best intros of all time.

My favorite song from TA and maybe a top 20-25 overall.

[WilliamMunny]

I've been revisiting this album recently after the disappointment of AWFTTOTW and man it's fucking good.

A Life Left Behind might lowkey be one of their best intros of all time.

My favorite song from TA and maybe a top 20-25 overall.

This!

I'd go one step further and say it is probably a top-15 for me. If TA was 90 minutes of 'that,' it'd be one of my favorite DT albums.

[Ben_Jamin]

A Life Left Behind is a great song. It captures that moment of clarity for Faythe. With the intro, I hear that as if she's listening to it on her music player.

I also enjoy the part about Arabelle mentioning the disconnect between her and Faythe. How she lost her a long time ago, meaning she won't listen to her.  It's cool how the relationship between a mother and daughter is shown in this song.

It has to be mentioned that I also feel the target audience of this story are the young adults specifically the young females. Since JP has daughters of his own, this may be his personal life interweaving into the concept. With the overall story's target audience being for the younger teen girls whom do have a passion for music, and not the music made by the noise machines that young girls are hip for.

Faythe is that representation of those young girls, it's why she feels the way she does in this song, and in the story of the album. (There were young teens and young adults that I saw cosplaying as Faythe for the Astonishing shows I saw).

There is a common theme as well in the concept of 'The Path That Divides' mentioned in Gabriel's song, When Your Time Has Come. Which every character experiences in the story. Faythes 'Path That Divides' is in A Life Left Behind. This is where she has that crossroads moment of which path to take, and she trusts in the sound of Gabriel's voice to know which choice is right. So she leaves the Empire to be in Ravenskill. To which Arabelle still being Faythes mother sends Daryus after her, whom also has his own 'Path That Divides' which is determined through jealousy, to gain his father's pride which Nefaryus has for Faythe and neglects Daryus, the future king. That is at least how Daryus perceives his father's pride for him.

[Dublagent66]

The X Aspect is probably my favorite out of the 9 or so tracks I actually like.  A few others are ALLB, ONW, TGoM...

[Ben_Jamin]

I'll list my favorites...

Losing Faythe
Begin Again
Chosen
The Road to Revolution
The X Aspect
Act of Faythe
A Tempting Offer
Moment of Betrayal
The Gift of Music
A Better Life
A Life Left Behind
The Answer

[TAC]

The X Aspect is one of DT finest moments. I believe that.

[Ben_Jamin]

The X Aspect is one of DT finest moments. I believe that.

At least I saw it once, before they chose to drop the song. It was amazing live.

[JPX]

I love The Astonishing. There's tons of great music on it and I appreciate what they tried to do with it. I mean, reading people call the new album DT by Numbers kind of blows my mind. They are probably the same people that don't appreciate TA.

I don't like the new album at all but I think The Astonishing is outstanding. It's got tons of great ideas on it, the playing is awesome and it feels like a concept should. Scenes was a more concise so it's easier to digest, which is why TA benefits from a full play-thru in one sitting.

[Awaken]

spun this in it's entirety today.  TA tour was my first DT show w my son (and probably his last as his tastes have changed a bunch) - forgot how many gems are here.  This is such an underrated effort! 

[bosk1]

The X Aspect is one of DT finest moments. I believe that.

I agree.  And I just adore the run from Ravenskill through The X Aspect.  That run of songs alone lifts the entire album for me.

And I like your playlist.  It isn't exactly what I would have chosen, but it's pretty nice as an abbreviated song list. 

Any little nitpicks I have of the album can be summed up this way: 

Act 1 is pretty much perfect from my perspective, with one exception:  I still just don't feel the impact of the war and the GNE's oppression of the people, notwithstanding some things that are said about it in the first few tracks.  I know the focus of the album is on how the conflict impacted and was impacted by the two families that make up the character list.  But, for me, it would have more of an impact if the stakes for everyone else were given more weight, and I wish they dedicated a song to that aspect.

Act 2 starts incredibly strong with 2285 Entr/acte into Moment of Betrayal.  But then I feel like it just meanders from Heaven's Cove through Whispers on the Wind.  I wish this could be tightened up a bit.  And one of the few times I find it hard to resist being deferential to artistic choice is the choice of samples for the crying when Faythe dies.  To me, it is so distracting that it sucks out any potential emotional impact of her apparent death. 

I know that extending Act 1 and trimming Act 2 would exacerbate what I already perceive to be an imbalanced album where Act 1 has a lot going on, but needs more, and Act 2 has a lot of songs that don't cover much territory.  But that could also be remedies by altering the structure to make it a 3 act production rather than 2 acts.  Have Act 1 introduce the characters and conflict (as it does), and end with A life Left Behind (with something inserted that deals better with the war).  Act 2 escalates the conflict with Ravenskill through Moment of Betrayal.  And keep Entr'Acte because it is a pretty cool instrumental, but for obvious reasons, change the title since it would no longer be an "entr-acte."  Then the resolution comes in Act 3 with something of a trimmed down Heaven's Cove through Astonishing.

That's my personal wish list.  But as with anything, I respect and enjoy what they actually did, so I hope my words aren't taken as being overly critical.

[Ben_Jamin]

Brother, Can You Hear Me would've been the perfect opportunity to showcase that impact. This is where they could've introduced more of why Ahrys is the leader for the Ravenskill militia, by talking about the war.

But then, that's how the book starts, it begins talking about the war and the effects of the NOMACS. Could be why JP wanted to write the book too, so he could expand upon those elements he had no time or space to include in the album.

[Trav86]

The X Aspect is one of DT finest moments. I believe that.

I agree.  And I just adore the run from Ravenskill through The X Aspect.  That run of songs alone lifts the entire album for me.

And I like your playlist.  It isn't exactly what I would have chosen, but it's pretty nice as an abbreviated song list. 

Any little nitpicks I have of the album can be summed up this way: 

Act 1 is pretty much perfect from my perspective, with one exception:  I still just don't feel the impact of the war and the GNE's oppression of the people, notwithstanding some things that are said about it in the first few tracks.  I know the focus of the album is on how the conflict impacted and was impacted by the two families that make up the character list.  But, for me, it would have more of an impact if the stakes for everyone else were given more weight, and I wish they dedicated a song to that aspect.

Act 2 starts incredibly strong with 2285 Entr/acte into Moment of Betrayal.  But then I feel like it just meanders from Heaven's Cove through Whispers on the Wind.  I wish this could be tightened up a bit.  And one of the few times I find it hard to resist being deferential to artistic choice is the choice of samples for the crying when Faythe dies.  To me, it is so distracting that it sucks out any potential emotional impact of her apparent death. 

I know that extending Act 1 and trimming Act 2 would exacerbate what I already perceive to be an imbalanced album where Act 1 has a lot going on, but needs more, and Act 2 has a lot of songs that don't cover much territory.  But that could also be remedies by altering the structure to make it a 3 act production rather than 2 acts.  Have Act 1 introduce the characters and conflict (as it does), and end with A life Left Behind (with something inserted that deals better with the war).  Act 2 escalates the conflict with Ravenskill through Moment of Betrayal.  And keep Entr'Acte because it is a pretty cool instrumental, but for obvious reasons, change the title since it would no longer be an "entr-acte."  Then the resolution comes in Act 3 with something of a trimmed down Heaven's Cove through Astonishing.

That's my personal wish list.  But as with anything, I respect and enjoy what they actually did, so I hope my words aren't taken as being overly critical.

This sums up exactly how I feel. The first disc is more like two acts and the second disc is the third act. I guess it really doesn’t matter. But, it strangely makes it more of a chore to get through the second, shorter, disc. You used the word “meander”. I think that fits it perfectly. It was like they thought they had to spend a lot of time on what is basically two scenes, because it was so important.

[Kotowboy]

Hilarious how "DT fans" call this album "unlistenable" when the performance and production is on par with the best of their catalogue.

What they really mean is TOO MUCH PIANO NOT ENOUGH METAL = SHIT


When Load came out I really liked it and it wasn't until years later that the internet informed me that I was supposed to hate it with every cell in my body.

I still find it funny that "SOME" metal heads cannot enjoy music unless its  DROP Z RIFFS AND BLASTS

[bosk1]

OK...well, while I admire your love of the album and zeal in defending it, nobody (or at least, almost nobody) is arguing the points your are arguing against, so I don't know what to tell you. 

[Kotowboy]

When the album came out there were LOADS of "too much piano not enough prog" posts.

[Trav86]

  I imagine that the biggest problem with the album isn’t necessarily that it’s just not “metal” enough. I think a lot of it is that the album is structured like a musical, and not a typical rock album. A lot of the comparisons to Scenes From a Memory are because that album is like a normal Dream Theater album, the lyrics just happened to tell a story. The Astonishing is structured like a musical. So much of it is made up of songs that are just there to have transitions throughout the story. And if you’re not fully invested (or at least somewhat invested) in the story, then it’s hard to understand that.
 Nearly every negative review I have read of TA has talked about it being “overlong” and full of “fluff”. Songs like The Answer, Brother, Can You Hear Me?, and Whispers On the Wind are there to transition and move the story along. Like being played during a set change.
  Yes, there are people who don’t like the music or the story, or both. But it seems like a lot of people’s problems with it are that people wanted a typical DT album, and that isn’t it. A two and a half hour long album that involves a lot of attention (it took me a year to “get”) is something fans nowadays are going to be into. Especially the younger ones. I’m sure that’s the risk JP knew getting into it.

[Kotowboy]

I feel bad for JP - knowing he wanted to do this for a long time - took a year to write it and a year to record it.

And it gets this huge backlash. OK maybe not huge - it was still a big selling album. But the tour was allegedly under-attended as well.

It's almost like Distance Over Time was 100% Dream Theater to try and win back some fans.

I doubt they'll be doing another concept album again.

[Chino]

One of the saddest things for me was he and JR started a pretty cool Youtube series going over all the intricacies of the album. They called it quits after just 3 episodes or so.

[Trav86]

I feel bad for JP - knowing he wanted to do this for a long time - took a year to write it and a year to record it.

And it gets this huge backlash. OK maybe not huge - it was still a big selling album. But the tour was allegedly under-attended as well.

It's almost like Distance Over Time was 100% Dream Theater to try and win back some fans.

I doubt they'll be doing another concept album again.

This is true. The thing is that most of the people who saw those live shows, thoroughly enjoyed it. I’ve heard fans say that the live shows won them over and turned them on to The Astonishing.  But you have to get people to go!

One of the saddest things for me was he and JR started a pretty cool Youtube series going over all the intricacies of the album. They called it quits after just 3 episodes or so.

Thanks for reminding me about this. I’m going to find time to watch them again. I think they even realized that there was so much going on musically, that it was going over people’s heads. They tried these to explain a little, but fans just didn’t care.

[Kotowboy]

People don't care about story, characters, motifs, recurring themes, melody, yadda yadda

WER AM DUH DUBLE BASS

To be fair though i'm not a 'metal' head. I was bought up on whatever my dad listened to and he doesnt even like distorted guitar.

I dont listen to metal outside of my fave bands Metallica, Trivium, Dream Theater, Mastodon - who are more like a heavy Led Zeppelin than METAL.

So i'm way more into the song side of things than how low the guitar is tuned.

[Trav86]

People don't care about story, characters, motifs, recurring themes, melody, yadda yadda

WER AM DUH DUBLE BASS

Don’t forget that on the new album there can’t be too much shred. And it can’t be too complex. DT fans are like Goldilocks. It has to be juuuuust right.

[Ben_Jamin]

  I imagine that the biggest problem with the album isn’t necessarily that it’s just not “metal” enough. I think a lot of it is that the album is structured like a musical, and not a typical rock album. A lot of the comparisons to Scenes From a Memory are because that album is like a normal Dream Theater album, the lyrics just happened to tell a story. The Astonishing is structured like a musical. So much of it is made up of songs that are just there to have transitions throughout the story. And if you’re not fully invested (or at least somewhat invested) in the story, then it’s hard to understand that.
 Nearly every negative review I have read of TA has talked about it being “overlong” and full of “fluff”. Songs like The Answer, Brother, Can You Hear Me?, and Whispers On the Wind are there to transition and move the story along. Like being played during a set change.
  Yes, there are people who don’t like the music or the story, or both. But it seems like a lot of people’s problems with it are that people wanted a typical DT album, and that isn’t it. A two and a half hour long album that involves a lot of attention (it took me a year to “get”) is something fans nowadays are going to be into. Especially the younger ones. I’m sure that’s the risk JP knew getting into it.

I've said exactly this as well. It's more of a Broadway style cd than a casual music album.

[Architeuthis]

TA is still one of my favorite DT albums and always will be.  There's only one kind of cringeworthy part as Bosk pointed out,  is the crying samples when Faythe dies. You'd think after all that time spending two years to make this album, they could have addressed that one thing..lol!    But instead they're like,, hey you know what, this is perfect.....let's use it.   
 
Other than that, I can easily sit through the entire album and not skip a single track. The song writing and melodies are too powerful to ignore, and the variety.  Not just JLB, but all DT members really shine throughout the record.