Distance Over Time is the best album since MP left the band....

[wolven74]

This is not a whiny rant about how MP was a better match, missing MP, or any sort of comparison in styles for drummers. This album is solid completely. Every track is a masterpiece in my view. I'd even go so far as to say this is the best collection of songs DT has released since Metropolis Pt 2. I love every song. There are no filler tracks here. Every member's playing is on point. It's just a great album all the way through.

Prove me wrong...

Is this subjective? Of course it is! Discuss.

[Dublagent66]

I would tend to agree.  Although, ADTOE was pretty damn good, I didn't like every song on that album.  As for DT12 and TA...well you know.  So yeah, I like every song on DoT. 

[adamack]

After having time to digest the album, I'm very pleased with it overall.

One thing that is almost not even debatable - it's their best sounding album of the MM era. And one of their best sounding albums ever. If ADTOE had the mix that this D/T has, it would pass ToT and settle into my top 3.

S2N, At Wit's End, Pale Blue Dot are 3 of their best tracks in this era.

As for the negatives, I wish I could call every track a masterpiece too, but I just can't get into Room 137. Out Of Reach is a beautiful song, but it's just one of those songs I'm never in the mood for. Also, Paralyzed and Untethered Angel are solid tracks, but a bit middle-of-the-road for DT.

Excellent album overall though! FAR better than DT12, but it will never touch ADToE for me personally.

And although I have grown to like The Astonishing, I still consider this album to be a strong return to form.

[erciccio]

For people like me that love the melodic and the proggy side of Dream Theater, it is not.
I think it's a solid album and I like it, but I prefer ADTOE and The Astonishing, so for me it #3 out of 4 and actually just slightly above DT12.

I prefer ADTOE because:
 - it contains some super "moderate length" epics such as Outcry and Bridges in the Sky and of course Breaking All Illusions - my favorite Mangini-era song -  and there is nothing similar in D/T, the closest song being AWE that is anyway a bit disconnected, for me
 - I love the ballads there (especially Beneath the Surface) while I really don't like Out of Reach
 - I also love the "mainistream" pieces (OTBOA and BMUBMD), that are comparable or slight better than Paralyzed and Untethered Angel

I also love The Astonishing, because it contains some of the best melodies ever written by our guys, and one the best performances ever by James and Jordan. I also appreciated a lot the risk they have take there.

D/T on the contrary is a good album, but it lacks courage, James and Jordan performance is below (their outstanding) average and the top moments in there (the interlude of FITL, some melodies of BW, some instrumental sections in PBD) are a bit isolated and never reach the "magic" status, at least for me. No epic fails though, on this I agree

DT12 is still a good album with a few great songs (TEI, IT, STR), but the flaws are more evident (e.g. Along for the Ride production, Enigma Machine, ...) and so I would rate it below D/T.

[The Walrus]

I think it's not only their best album since MP left the band, but the best DT album since Octavarium. I have a few minor quibbles with the production - again - but it sounds far better than ADTOE or DT12 to me, the songwriting is concise, there's only maybe one song I can't see myself revisiting much (Out of Reach), and there's just some brilliant instrumental stuff going on. Hell even James has some nice active, energetic vocal lines (S2N is great for that). There's absolutely none of the stuff that brings down SC and BC&SL (to me) - no tryhard ballads or songs emulating other bands' styles, no songs that sound like they're trying too hard to be metullll or dark, just good, organic songwriting.

Great album, and Mangini especially sounds like he lets loose. I can't tell you how much I love Pale Blue Dot, that's one of the best DT songs in many years in my opinion. I also love The Astonishing, but I love it in a much different way than all their other albums. I might not play it much anymore, but I do play a few songs from time to time and there is brilliant musicianship all across the board on that album. D/T keeps that up but in a more digestible, easy-to-revisit format like their other albums.

D/T is great, hats off to Dream Theater for continuing to make great music 30 years into their career.

[lovethedrake]

For people like me that love the melodic and the proggy side of Dream Theater, it is not.
I think it's a solid album and I like it, but I prefer ADTOE and The Astonishing, so for me it #3 out of 4 and actually just slightly above DT12.

I prefer ADTOE because:
 - it contains some super "moderate length" epics such as Outcry and Bridges in the Sky and of course Breaking All Illusions - my favorite Mangini-era song -  and there is nothing similar in D/T, the closest song being AWE that is anyway a bit disconnected, for me
 - I love the ballads there (especially Beneath the Surface) while I really don't like Out of Reach
 - I also love the "mainistream" pieces (OTBOA and BMUBMD), that are comparable or slight better than Paralyzed and Untethered Angel

I also love The Astonishing, because it contains some of the best melodies ever written by our guys, and one the best performances ever by James and Jordan. I also appreciated a lot the risk they have take there.

D/T on the contrary is a good album, but it lacks courage, James and Jordan performance is below (their outstanding) average and the top moments in there (the interlude of FITL, some melodies of BW, some instrumental sections in PBD) are a bit isolated and never reach the "magic" status, at least for me. No epic fails though, on this I agree

DT12 is still a good album with a few great songs (TEI, IT, STR), but the flaws are more evident (e.g. Along for the Ride production, Enigma Machine, ...) and so I would rate it below D/T.

I like the proggy and melodic side of DT and think D/T is their best album since SDOIT.   It is filled with proggy and melodic moments and is heavy in all the right places.   I wish the chorus of PBT was a little less sinister sounding but outside of that I find it to be very much classic DT.

[bill1971]

" Distance Over Time is the best album since MP left the band...."

I wouldn't say that, I would say this is the best album since MM joined though.

[Evai]

You misspelled 'The Astonishing'

[MirrorMask]

" Distance Over Time is the best album since MP left the band...."

I wouldn't say that, I would say this is the best album since MM joined though.

Am I reading it wrong or that's like saying that Images and Words was not in 1992 the best album since Charlie Dominici left the band, but the best album since James LaBrie joined?

[bill1971]

" Distance Over Time is the best album since MP left the band...."

I wouldn't say that, I would say this is the best album since MM joined though.

Am I reading it wrong or that's like saying that Images and Words was not in 1992 the best album since Charlie Dominici left the band, but the best album since James LaBrie joined?

You're reading it right. Just being silly.

[Volante99]

ADTOE still wins for me. It’s a much more dynamic and varied album, more to sink my teeth into, which is what I want in a Dream Theater album.

I really only can get into At Wit’s End and Barstool Warrior. S2N is sort of growing on me. Fall into Light has some great Petrucci moments, otherwise the song isn’t really noteworthy to me.

Untethered Angel is the Grammy award radio friendly skip, and it’s not even on the level of Enemy Inside or OtBoA from their previous albums in my opinion.

Paralyzed sounds a biiit too much like “The Old Me” by Memphis May Fire,  not saying anyone copied anyone, it’s just not good when DT starts sounding like a Warped Tour band.

Room 137 is towards the bottom DT songs I’ve ever heard. I’ve listened to Pale Blue Dot maybe 25 times now and I honestly don’t remember what it sounds like.

[KevShmev]

I can't yet say it is better than The Astonishing, the bulk of which still gets regular play with me, but time will tell.  I like both DT12 and ADTOE (despite the muddy sound) a ton as well, so they are pretty much 4/4 for me in the Mangini era.

[ProfessorPeart]

This is not a whiny rant about how MP was a better match, missing MP, or any sort of comparison in styles for drummers. This album is solid completely. Every track is a masterpiece in my view. I'd even go so far as to say this is the best collection of songs DT has released since Metropolis Pt 2. I love every song. There are no filler tracks here. Every member's playing is on point. It's just a great album all the way through.

Prove me wrong...

Is this subjective? Of course it is! Discuss.

You pretty much read my mind. Absolutely the best since MP left. I even came to the same conclusion of possibly the best since Scenes From A Memory.

DT fell deep out of favor with me for many years. I never thought I would be excited for them again. This album totally changed that. I'm still listening to it and I can totally see this album being a top 5 or at least a top 10 on the year. They knocked it out of the park.

[bosk1]

I can't yet say it is better than The Astonishing, the bulk of which still gets regular play with me, but time will tell.  I like both DT12 and ADTOE (despite the muddy sound) a ton as well, so they are pretty much 4/4 for me in the Mangini era.

Yeah, you know, I've been feeling kind of angsty over the fact that I pretty much feel the same way.  I've been wondering whether I am losing my objectivity, since with every MM album, I have felt like it could be top 5, behind only SFAM and SDOIT.  (I kind of hold TA off to the side as something different rather than trying to rate it against the other albums, but that's just more of my own inability to relate it to more "normal" music)  With each of the three regular albums in the MM era, I liked them a lot immediately upon release.  Looking back, I have pretty much liked EVERY DT album immediately upon release.  But I guess the difference is, when I look back on the run of albums from TOT through BCSL, for every one of them, my reaction at release was "I love this album...BUT..."  With ADTOE, DT12, and d/t, there is no "...BUT..." attached to it.  Yeah, d/t still has that "new album novelty" attached to it, which will only be ramped up by seeing a big chunk of it on tour.  But as with the other two, there is just nothing about the album that I don't like, so it's hard for me to imagine it fading drastically.

[KevShmev]

I can't yet say it is better than The Astonishing, the bulk of which still gets regular play with me, but time will tell.  I like both DT12 and ADTOE (despite the muddy sound) a ton as well, so they are pretty much 4/4 for me in the Mangini era.

Yeah, you know, I've been feeling kind of angsty over the fact that I pretty much feel the same way.  I've been wondering whether I am losing my objectivity, since with every MM album, I have felt like it could be top 5, behind only SFAM and SDOIT.  (I kind of hold TA off to the side as something different rather than trying to rate it against the other albums, but that's just more of my own inability to relate it to more "normal" music)  With each of the three regular albums in the MM era, I liked them a lot immediately upon release.  Looking back, I have pretty much liked EVERY DT album immediately upon release.  But I guess the difference is, when I look back on the run of albums from TOT through BCSL, for every one of them, my reaction at release was "I love this album...BUT..."  With ADTOE, DT12, and d/t, there is no "...BUT..." attached to it.  Yeah, d/t still has that "new album novelty" attached to it, which will only be ramped up by seeing a big chunk of it on tour.  But as with the other two, there is just nothing about the album that I don't like, so it's hard for me to imagine it fading drastically.

Fair points, but for me, the true test is how much am I still listening to it a few years later. 

As much as I loved ADTOE at the time of its release, I rarely listen to it anymore, largely because the sound of it bugs me, so I have docked it a bit due to the lack of playing time it now gets with me.  I listen to DT12 and TA material far more than ADTOE material nowadays.

I don't hold the lack of playing time against the really old albums since I listened to them so much over the years that they are like retired favorites now that I only bust out one in a while.

[SeRoX]

Objectively speaking TA is the best album in every aspect possible since MP left. To my liking, DoT is better than TA just because it sounds organic, live and fresh.

ADTOE could be the best but the production is quite awful. I don't even recall the last time I listen it. I usually listen Outcry and BAI (my fave off ADTOE) from LALP.

[kociol21]

Objectively speaking TA is the best album in every aspect possible since MP left.

Oh snap... I think that TA is their worst album aside WDaDU. There is literally two tracks that I like on that one and I could never listen to all of it at one go no matter how hard I tried.

But I agree on the other part. If DToE was given the production of Distance over Time it would be better overall.

[Indiscipline]

I'm loving Distance Over Time, but I have to say it ranks as the worst album since the split ... but only because the previous three are all Top 5 DT material as far as I'm concerned. I'll go further ... TA, with the sole exception of I&W, may very well be the best album since MP JOINED.

[Pettor]

Yepp, for me D/T is easily the best since MP left ... also best album since SDOIT!

[bill1971]

I'm loving Distance Over Time, but I have to say it ranks as the worst album since the split ... but only because the previous three are all Top 5 DT material as far as I'm concerned. I'll go further ... TA, with the sole exception of I&W, may very well be the best album since MP JOINED.

I like the love TA gets on this forum. I do prefer this one but TA is so well put together and has a great range of songs.

[RoeDent]

Three of the four Mangini-era albums are my top 3 DT albums, with or without Portnoy. I don't care one jot that so-called "classic" albums like I&W are being pushed down the order. It's all about the here and now, not living in the past, and DT are still making some of the best music they've ever made, thirty years into their career.

[Polarbear]

I'll put it this way, D/T is the first album I've bought from them since ADTOE.

S/T and TA, despite having slim redeeming qualities were not worth buying IMO.

D/T is a big course correction for the band, and a very pleasant surprise!

[Max Kuehnau]

I'll put it this way, D/T is the first album I've bought from them since ADTOE.

S/T and TA, despite having slim redeeming qualities were not worth buying IMO.

D/T is a big course correction for the band, and a very pleasant surprise!

eh? Slim redeeming qualities? How about MM going mad really nicely and the wonderfully sterile and clean drum sound? Both are enjoyable aspects of DT12 IMHO. Back on the topic though: D/T isn't the best of the MM four. Too few technical sections. (granted, TA has even less of them)  IT has a 19 over 6-polyrhythm, so there's that for you. Outcry has a great instrumental section (over four minutes of great logical madness), BAI has a great instrumental section. OTBOA, LNF and BITS do as well (and, off-topic, but one wish of mine is that for DT15 and all future albums, I'd love for them to abolish any and all pathos and just focus on the notes. That's unlikely though)

Does that mean to say D/T is a bad album? No, far from it. PBD is great, Barstool has great sections, OOR has a nice arrangement and melodies.
D/T just has too few of the things I look for in music. I can see why people who hated TA love it though. (another bit of perspective here: I'm not a fan of Portnoy era DT, so all that considered, D/T still is one I will listen to regularly, along with DT12 and ADTOE. I always find myself listening to ADTOE and DT12 more often than D/T these days though)