Hi everyone! Although I have not been one of the registered users of the late MP.com forum, I have been following that forum since I got into Dream Theater, I think around the time Systematic Chaos was released. (Over the years I tried multiple times to get registered but somehow the process always failed, no idea why.) It has been part of my daily routine to look up MP.com forum and also this DT forum and get hints to new music and so on… That being said, it’s sad to see this place getting shut down, even as “non- active guest”, whatever the reason for the shutdown is.
As for the “advertising campaign” for the SoA album - while reading all the tweets, announcements and comments to the album, I try not to read too much into them. After all, they need to advertise their product, and for me it seems absolutely normal that superlatives are being used doing this. So for me it is no surprise that they advertise the album somewhat as the best thing after toilet paper and Nutella (to my knowledge nobody has said that, just a term I keep using…
). That DS with his tweets is taking this a little too far in many people’s eyes is just due to his personality, I guess. To me it seems he, from his point of view, is only having fun, but others are finding his kind of fun crossing the line and insulting – and he doesn’t realize that or just doesn’t care. MPs behavior on this matter,… just leaves me speechless. Don’t know what to think about that, to be honest.
But, personally I can manage to separate my admiration for the music from the artist. Although, yes, I form an image of the artist, his personality and character, based on what I know about him (or I think I know, that may be different things…), it does usually not affect if like the music or not. (Years ago I had to learn that I have to separate the person itself from what this person does when I got to talk to an NFL player that I really liked to watch playing football– in the chat I had with him I got the impression of him being an absolute douchebag).
As far as the so far released songs are concerned, I like them, but I don’t see them as really groundbreaking as their “advertisement” suggests – but then again, see above. I believe though, that they will grow on me with more listens (I try not to listen to the so far released two songs too often before album release, since I prefer listening to full albums). Usually if I really really really like a song on first listen it gets boring relatively quickly, while the songs that have to grow on me with time I go back to even years later, still liking them. So it seems SoA has a good chance!
Also I find that sometimes, in context of the full album, individual songs can leave a different mark (for lack of a better term) than when I listen to them individually. “Permanating” of Steven Wilson’s “To The Bone” comes to mind – my initial reaction was “Meh. Seriously?”, but listening to the full album, I think it fits perfectly. Maybe the SoA album will work the same way for me.
Wow, long first post. Thanks for adding me to the forum, by the way!