but the cheesy vocals render it unlistenable (someone needs to tell LaBrie to stop singing ballads)
I'm curious, if you don't mind elaborating, what do you mean by cheesy? I think he's too airy/breathy on the softer parts sometimes but other than that I don't see anything wrong here. Except maybe those strained high vocals in Viper King.
I mean no disrespect to LeBrie, who is a fantastic singer (lots of range, power, and style). I just don't care for breathy or overly emotional vocals, at least not in prog metal. It just feels awkward.
Some other recent DT tracks I skip:
- Most of The Astonishing
- The Bigger Picture
- Along for the Ride
- This Is the Life
- Far from Heaven
- Beneath the Surface
It's not a new development. I've been skipping these since I bought Images and Words in 1992:
- Another Day
- Surrounded
- Wait for Sleep (though once in a while I'll play this as it is a beautiful song... but there are many piano-only covers that I prefer)
I have the same opinion of Iron Maiden and Bruce Dickinson: most of their recent albums have had ballads (or pseudo ballads) that I find skippable, at least partly because of vocals:
- Tears of a Clown
- Coming Home
- Out of the Shadows
- The Thin Line Between Love and Hate
That last one is a really cool song for the most part, but When Dickinson sings "The Thin Line Between Love and Hate" at 6 minutes in and again near the end, I cringe... it's not that he sings poorly, but I find it over the top.
Many Maiden/Dickinson fans adore those songs, especially Coming Home. To me it sounds terrible.
Just so I'm not accused of singling out the singers, sometimes it's that the guitars feel cheesy.
And it's not that I dislike all slow songs by prog/metal bands... in the case of Maiden, Journeyman works quite well. So does Infinite Dreams. Metallic's Unforgiven, Nothing Else Matters, and Until It Sleeps are great tunes.
Just my opinion. To each his own.