DOT may be JP's best overall performance since Six Degrees. Just the right amount of flash, technique, and melodic phrasing.
I agree with this, which makes the OP even more confusing. Not to mention the fact that his playing TA was incredibly melodic and soulful.
I’d like to see the OP come back and defend himself. Literally the ONLY album with too many shred solos was Train of Thought and that was BY DESIGN.
SDOIT was and still is fantastic. Solitary Shell, About to Crash, the Stem Cell song...Really great stuff. You can sing the choruses!
BCSL had way too many unnecessary sections that didn't add anything to the song. DOT is better in terms of making do with less, but it's still got a ways to go. The band really needs to demo songs and hire an outside producer, imho.
Even though I haven't bought an album since 8V, I've always listened to each album with an open mind. Though I'm no longer listening through the ears of a biased super fan.
I do get that DT's music takes a lot to digest, but I feel like the solos are pretty much pasted on top of sections that could be cut and pasted onto a different song.
Go back and listen to their catalog pre-2001 and you can hear a total shift in terms of songwriting. Yes, there's plenty of shred and instrumentals, but it doesn't feel completely indulgent. Even if you go back and listen to his '93 solo in the Live in Tokyo and it's like he's basically a different player. The chromatic runs were very minimal and brief. Everything had a pretty nice balanced approach.
It's hard to put a finger on it exactly since I don't know music theory but I hear a clear difference.