They have made it so difficult in the past week or two to just discuss the music and not mention the whole weird social media drama-laden promo cycle.
Derek's statements and Mike's blowing up were incredibly silly, but I'm not personally offended nor withdrawing support - they're not hurting me by that behavior, they're hurting themselves. Yes, Mike Portnoy is Mike Portnoy and he'll always be doing these things, but he never claimed to be any other way. Frankly, I do appreciate musicians talking about the negatives of the industry and having a fanbase, but, having said all that... it almost gives me second hand embarrassment to see this grown man still taking criticism so poorly. If people see you take shots at a website, or a fan, or a fan forum, it's never going to make you look like the bigger man, no matter how right you are about them (Blabbermouth really is pretty terrible) and how funny your comment is. Furthermore, you can't be a friend with Jordan Rudess and let your keyboardist take shots at him through fucking Twitter.
Furtherfurthermore, Derek's comments are just so cheap. You can't assemble a band for maximum likeability and fandom crossover, write extremely inoffensive songs with almost no creative risks and call yourselves the new kings of prog. Even if you're joking. If you're inviting people to compare you to Dream Theater and other prog bands, prepare for the opportunity that they'll say your music isn't all that prog, and that Dream Theater is better.
I have liked one and a half out of the last five DT albums, but they are still doing their thing and taking different turns and insisting on things people hate about them, because they know those are the things their core fanbase loves about them. When Derek says there's no weird vocals or weird keyboards or weird shit on the SoA album... what is left? Because right now their songs sound even more like "look at my fingers gooooo" than Dream Theater. The only draw is the players and the singer, because the solos and the riffs are pasted onto beige metal songs about ~life and stuff~. I don't fucking care about John Petrucci's Disney musical but he went out there and just fucking did his cheesy thing, you know? SoA sounds pleasant. Nice. Good driving music. Not kings of prog music.