Author Topic: These Walls Appreciation Thread  (Read 3529 times)

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Offline TheOutlawXanadu

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These Walls Appreciation Thread
« on: May 19, 2017, 09:33:51 AM »
The other day, These Walls came up on a playlist, and I was floored by how awesome of a song it is. It's one of those tracks that I don't listen to often as it's not a "classic", so to speak, so it always sounds fresh. It's also one of the few Dream Theater songs that most of the people I've played it for have really enjoyed, so I think it's got some mass appeal to it as well.

Let's take a moment to appreciate this very underrated song! :metal
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Online mikeyd23

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Re: These Walls Appreciation Thread
« Reply #1 on: May 19, 2017, 10:25:35 AM »
Great song, easily one of my favorites from 8V.

Offline Scottjf8

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Re: These Walls Appreciation Thread
« Reply #2 on: May 19, 2017, 11:03:27 AM »
Tear down these walls for meeeeeeeeeeee

Online MirrorMask

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Re: These Walls Appreciation Thread
« Reply #3 on: May 19, 2017, 11:43:28 AM »
Great song, easily one of my favorites from 8V.

This.

I like the restraint about the song: no long solos, no flashy stuff, no proggy detours, just their songwriting skills at service of a concise song with a great and emotional chorus. One of their very best "easy" songs.
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Offline goo-goo

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Re: These Walls Appreciation Thread
« Reply #4 on: May 19, 2017, 12:18:51 PM »
Probably in my top 5 DT songs. I love the Gilmouresque solo. I wish Petrucci played more solos in this vein where less notes is more. But overall, the lyrics, the music, make it a great song.

Offline Kotowboy

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Re: These Walls Appreciation Thread
« Reply #5 on: May 19, 2017, 12:20:55 PM »
Really nice wide production too.

Online Adami

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Re: These Walls Appreciation Thread
« Reply #6 on: May 19, 2017, 12:22:27 PM »
Good song.


Really good song.
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Offline gzarruk

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Re: These Walls Appreciation Thread
« Reply #7 on: May 19, 2017, 01:44:42 PM »
Great song, easily one of my favorites from 8V.

Indeed.
It sounds like, "ruk, ruk, ruk, ruk, ruk." Instead of the more pleasing kick drum sound of, "gzarruk, gzarruk, gzarruk, gzarruk."

Offline Dublagent66

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Re: These Walls Appreciation Thread
« Reply #8 on: May 19, 2017, 03:48:27 PM »
Always liked it.  Been a while.  See what you made me do?  Had to go listen to it.   :tup
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Offline Madman Shepherd

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Re: These Walls Appreciation Thread
« Reply #9 on: May 19, 2017, 04:02:40 PM »
I loved that they pulled the song out on the ADTOE tour.  Never really appreciated it before.  Great live tune. 

Offline Kotowboy

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Re: These Walls Appreciation Thread
« Reply #10 on: May 19, 2017, 04:03:36 PM »
The coda with the orchestra hits is GOLD.

Offline TheCountOfNYC

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Re: These Walls Appreciation Thread
« Reply #11 on: May 19, 2017, 06:25:39 PM »
One of the best from 8vm. It's so underrated.
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Offline erwinrafael

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Re: These Walls Appreciation Thread
« Reply #12 on: May 21, 2017, 08:03:24 PM »
Probably in my top 5 DT songs. I love the Gilmouresque solo. I wish Petrucci played more solos in this vein where less notes is more.

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Offline nikatapi

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Re: These Walls Appreciation Thread
« Reply #13 on: May 22, 2017, 02:35:46 AM »
One of my favorite songs from DT. Rudess and Portnoy really do some great stuff there.

Offline rumborak

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Re: These Walls Appreciation Thread
« Reply #14 on: May 22, 2017, 07:55:36 AM »
I loved playing that song live. The main riff was simple but so enjoyable to play.
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Offline SeRoX

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Re: These Walls Appreciation Thread
« Reply #15 on: May 22, 2017, 07:57:19 AM »
One of my fav. Love the live version.
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Offline JaceTestify

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Re: These Walls Appreciation Thread
« Reply #16 on: May 22, 2017, 01:17:53 PM »
Song that got me into drumming...

Offline wolfking

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Re: These Walls Appreciation Thread
« Reply #17 on: May 22, 2017, 07:58:04 PM »
It could be a top 10 DT song for me, love it, perfect.
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Offline pcs90

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Re: These Walls Appreciation Thread
« Reply #18 on: May 23, 2017, 11:01:00 AM »
Agreed, it really is a great song. What's really great is even though it's simple and restrained, there's still a lot of little details to listen to.

Offline Nick

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Re: These Walls Appreciation Thread
« Reply #19 on: May 24, 2017, 09:42:57 AM »
Aside from the title track of Octavarium, which I still feel is the band's best song, this is the only other song from the album I'd rate as truly excellent. It had both immediate grab and staying power. And while the other tracks from the album always had at least one or two nagging problems I've never felt anything negative about this track.
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Offline bosk1

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Re: These Walls Appreciation Thread
« Reply #20 on: May 25, 2017, 08:39:54 AM »
I loved playing that song live. The main riff was simple but so enjoyable to play.

How did you guys play it?  Did you have a baritone guitar, or did you just have one that was de-tuned, or what?
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Online Adami

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Re: These Walls Appreciation Thread
« Reply #21 on: May 25, 2017, 08:41:59 AM »
I loved playing that song live. The main riff was simple but so enjoyable to play.

How did you guys play it?  Did you have a baritone guitar, or did you just have one that was de-tuned, or what?

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Offline bosk1

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Re: These Walls Appreciation Thread
« Reply #22 on: May 25, 2017, 08:50:00 AM »
Makes sense.
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Re: These Walls Appreciation Thread
« Reply #23 on: May 25, 2017, 08:53:21 AM »
Makes sense.

Which explains how he can play songs in drop D, standard C and 7 string stuff on a 6 string Petrucci (without tuning it) which, when he bought it, was just a squire strat.
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Offline rumborak

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Re: These Walls Appreciation Thread
« Reply #24 on: May 25, 2017, 09:00:10 AM »
Axe-FX (my effects unit) to the rescue on that one actually. I seriously used the detune functionality, playing the whole tune downtuned. You have to be a bit more precise than usual to make it not become mush, but luckily that wasn't too bad for These Walls.

Same thing for SOC btw, which I also played detuned, by a half step.
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Offline JLa

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Re: These Walls Appreciation Thread
« Reply #25 on: May 25, 2017, 09:04:43 AM »
Always loved this song, instant favourite when Octavarium was released. Had to go listen to it again now - flawless as always. :) MP's drumming is magnificent on this, but all band members shine, really. They even found room for a guitar solo, who would have guessed that?!  :lol

Octavarium was the last DT album I truly loved. These Walls played a strong part in that.

Offline bosk1

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Re: These Walls Appreciation Thread
« Reply #26 on: May 25, 2017, 09:36:39 AM »
Axe-FX (my effects unit) to the rescue on that one actually. I seriously used the detune functionality, playing the whole tune downtuned. You have to be a bit more precise than usual to make it not become mush, but luckily that wasn't too bad for These Walls.

Same thing for SOC btw, which I also played detuned, by a half step.
Oh, okay.  I have often wondered why, for practical reasons, guitar players don't do that more often.  I mean, it seems to me that the technology is there for it to make sense.  But hardly anyone uses that approach.  But not being much of a guitar player myself (and not being up on gear, beyond guitar, amp, and simple effects), I don't know what the limitations are.  Pretty cool that that's how you did it.
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Offline rumborak

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Re: These Walls Appreciation Thread
« Reply #27 on: May 26, 2017, 01:40:32 AM »
Honestly, I think it's a combination of misplaced pride ("I won't pollute my signal path with this digital trickery!") and ineptitude with their own equipment. I always got a kick out of the disappointment in guitarist's eyes when they asked me after a gig about my equipment (because they liked the guitar sound), only to be told that it was 100% digital :lol
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Offline Mosh

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Re: These Walls Appreciation Thread
« Reply #28 on: May 26, 2017, 05:26:25 PM »
JP's guitar sound is so processed that a digital signal doesn't really make a difference IMO.

I play songs like These Walls on a 7 string tuned down. Makes way more sense to put it down a whole step than to have a regular guitar modified IMO.
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Re: These Walls Appreciation Thread
« Reply #29 on: May 26, 2017, 07:08:56 PM »
I need Google Translate's Guitar to English function just to get through this damn page.
would have thought the same thing but seeing the OP was TAC i immediately thought Maiden or DT related
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Offline JaceTestify

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Re: These Walls Appreciation Thread
« Reply #30 on: May 27, 2017, 02:25:59 PM »
Always loved this song, instant favourite when Octavarium was released. Had to go listen to it again now - flawless as always. :) MP's drumming is magnificent on this, but all band members shine, really. They even found room for a guitar solo, who would have guessed that?!  :lol

Octavarium was the last DT album I truly loved. These Walls played a strong part in that.

Agreed :)

Offline YtseJamittaja

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Re: These Walls Appreciation Thread
« Reply #31 on: May 28, 2017, 05:05:03 AM »
Here's a piano version I made couple of years ago, still one of my favorite songs from Octavarium and top10 song from the whole catalog :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHWzSomkHgM
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Online MirrorMask

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Re: These Walls Appreciation Thread
« Reply #32 on: May 28, 2017, 05:13:23 AM »
That's quite good!
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Offline WDADU

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Re: These Walls Appreciation Thread
« Reply #33 on: June 02, 2017, 10:41:20 AM »
I think this is my favourite song off Octavarium. Heavy, melodic, no flashy unisons, etc. Just a straight-up rock song. And Portnoy shines all throughout. One of Mike's best performances, in my opinion.
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Offline pcs90

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Re: These Walls Appreciation Thread
« Reply #34 on: June 19, 2017, 06:03:49 PM »
Here's a piano version I made couple of years ago, still one of my favorite songs from Octavarium and top10 song from the whole catalog :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHWzSomkHgM
Would love to have a MIDI file of the piano to sequence it with nicer sounds and maybe make a full piano arrangement...with this slower style I think it could work really well.