So I revisited the album once again seeing that I'm playing D/T a lot lately. I have a lot to think about:
First off, I really can't see why the album gets so many criticisms that it isn't a DT sounding album. There may not be overlong tradeoff solos in the album but there are definitely heavier parts in it, and the solos while scarce are pretty amazing. I do have issues with the guitar's tone (It improved greatly on D/T), but as for the music itself, it's professional. All the guys do an amazing job (I did end up wanting more Myung, a request that was luckily granted on D/T), but I have to give a shoutout JLB since he steals the show completely. While I do like to imagine this album with each character sung by a different singer a la Ayreon, if there's one guy who could pull it off while being the same singer is my boy the Pirate. This shit wasn't easy, specially considering you have to change your voice and technique for each of the songs and characters when they talk to each other; yet I did distinguish all of each one of the voice changes he did, and he did an outstanding job at it. While being far from his otherworldly I&W days, this is the best performance James has ever given post-Vocal Injury.
It definitely sounds better as an album. That's a strength that SFAM has over the Astonishing; the songs work as good as individual songs as they do listening the album from start to finish. TA has a lot of repeating melodies that formed together make The Astonishing a great, big song with a lot of reprises and tweaks, which sounds really good when you're giving the album a listen from start to finish; but some of the songs sound really confusing and disoriented when you listen to them alone. While SFAM also features this I feel the songs are stronger as individual ones, each one having their own distinct melody and memorable moments.
While it isn't as good an album as SFAM in my opinion I do think it would work as a play, movie or as a book much better than SFAM. Sure the music is a key part to it but this seems a lot more plot-driven than SFAM, it has more theatrical and dramatic moments as well.
That being said, my main issues with it are with the plot itself. Since they want you to focus more on the plot and lyrics of the album I found that the first act is well-structured and almost all the songs that form it are relevant to set a story; 'A Better Life' may be the one I really didn't care for, but the rest are amazing songs. 'Lord Nafaryus' is one of the albums standouts, as is 'The Gift of Music' and 'Three Days'- 'Ravenskill' is amazing too. Things get way more messy on the second act: it drags on too long. They tried to give depth to each character by making a song for each one of them portraying how they react to everything that happens on pivotal moments, and it's mostly miss (A New Beginning, Chosen, The Road to Revolution) than hit (The X Aspect). I feel that they spent too much time on this and then rushed the third act as a result.
The fact that a lot of the songs are just internal thoughts of each character really slow downs the plot, and for an album that has 34 tracks about a Revolution in a world that forbids music... Not much happens: Guy can sing, tyrant doesn't like him, tyrant's daughter falls in love with him, tyrant's son manipulates Guy's brother to betray him, brother repents and gets killed, tyrant's daughter too; tyrant repents, makes peace, happy ending. Again, this is supposed to be a bigger thing and yet the plot leaves a lot more to be desired. I wanted to know more about the people of ravenskill, whether or not there was some actual physical conflict, how the world came to be as it is, Empress Arabelle.... All that. Guess I have to pick up the book.
There are some songs that could be more relevant to the story given how good they are as songs: 'Begin Again', 'Chosen', 'Moment of Betrayal'; I love these songs and they are standouts of the second disc; but I do think they could be more relevant to the story. There are also songs that signal a very important part of the story yet for some reason I don't feel they are as grandiose or important as they should be: First one of them being 'My Last Farewell' since it comes in such a tragic moment, and the second and most disappointing of all... 'Our New World'. ONW is easily the track I disliked the most of the album. I just can't stand the 'Our new woooorld... Better woooooorld' uninspired chorus.
There are songs in the second and third acts, however, that are both important to the plot and satisfying as songs. These are total jams. 'The Path that Divides' is one of the best songs on the album since it does just that. 'The Walking Shadow' gets a lot of flak here but I fucking love it: The confusion and distortion of the song is what I expect a song to be when there are multiple killings being made
. Same with 'Hymn of a Thousand Voices' which is as moving and epic as it should be, the choir parts floored me and the melodies are total killers. I would love to see this in an actual theater play.
All in all, this isn't a bad album. I really, really like it! But it's Dream Theater we're talking here, a band that has set the bar incredibly high in terms of quality all throughout their career. The Astonishing needs a lengthy review of it mostly because of its length and also since it was given so much attention and hype before it was released. The instrumental part delivers: it has some of the most melodic and delightful leads JP and JR have ever written and the vocal work here is masterful; but the songs themselves get weak near the second act and the album doesn't really recover completely in the third. A near perfect start that becomes hit or miss from two-thirds of the album on and ultimately forms an album that is way, way stronger than the sum of its parts. Comparing it to its nearest albums It's way better than DT12, but I find D/T to be a better album, being as good as this one is in terms of musical prowess but with far more creative and memorable songs as well as better lyrics. Even if it's flawed and doesn't get to my top DT albums I applaud JP and JR for tackling this monster of a project and pulling it through (Also thanks for NOT making SFAM II or SDoIT II-This was a unique concept album that stands on its own, very much like the other two concept albums. Thank you so much for that and I hope they keep that up forever). It's definitely better than the first time I heard it, and I'll be sure to hear it more than I had listened to it in the past three years.