New LTE - LTE 3 2021!!

[MinistroRaven]

DT Facebook page it’s promoting the new LTE album, very classy.

[faizoff]

The bonus disc jams are also great, they actually feel like with a little rework they could have fit on the main disc. I'm so glad they decided to release it.

[HOF]

My CD was delivered this evening and had to run some errands so got to listen to the first 4 tracks in the car. Think it’s gonna be a fun driving album. Of those 4 tracks, the middle two blew me away while the other two were also cool but a bit heavy handed. Nothing bad, just not as interesting to me. But I do really like the sound of this, and it definitely captures the vibe and spirit of what made LTE so exciting back in the day.

Edit: heh, just realized track 4 was The Passage of Time (the one track I had already heard). Wasn’t looking at the track list while driving and hadn’t really internalized the song enough to recognize it I guess. Checking out the CD liner and I’m a little bummed there aren’t any liner notes like in the first two albums. Always thought that was a fun touch.

Second edit: what’s up with Inside Out releases not having the artwork uploaded to the Microsoft database for when you rip a CD? Surprisingly The Absolute Universe did, but the last two IO albums I got before that didn’t and neither does LTE3. Annoying.

[The Letter M]

My CD was delivered this evening and had to run some errands so got to listen to the first 4 tracks in the car. Think it’s gonna be a fun driving album. Of those 4 tracks, the middle two blew me away while the other two were also cool but a bit heavy handed. Nothing bad, just not as interesting to me. But I do really like the sound of this, and it definitely captures the vibe and spirit of what made LTE so exciting back in the day.

Edit: heh, just realized track 4 was The Passage of Time (the one track I had already heard). Wasn’t looking at the track list while driving and hadn’t really internalized the song enough to recognize it I guess. Checking out the CD liner and I’m a little bummed there aren’t any liner notes like in the first two albums. Always thought that was a fun touch.

Second edit: what’s up with Inside Out releases not having the artwork uploaded to the Microsoft database for when you rip a CD? Surprisingly The Absolute Universe did, but the last two IO albums I got before that didn’t and neither does LTE3. Annoying.

The CD-only set doesn't have the liner notes?? I'm glad I got the artbook then! There's a printed foreward/intro, interview and tidbits for each song.

-Marc.

[HOF]

My CD was delivered this evening and had to run some errands so got to listen to the first 4 tracks in the car. Think it’s gonna be a fun driving album. Of those 4 tracks, the middle two blew me away while the other two were also cool but a bit heavy handed. Nothing bad, just not as interesting to me. But I do really like the sound of this, and it definitely captures the vibe and spirit of what made LTE so exciting back in the day.

Edit: heh, just realized track 4 was The Passage of Time (the one track I had already heard). Wasn’t looking at the track list while driving and hadn’t really internalized the song enough to recognize it I guess. Checking out the CD liner and I’m a little bummed there aren’t any liner notes like in the first two albums. Always thought that was a fun touch.

Second edit: what’s up with Inside Out releases not having the artwork uploaded to the Microsoft database for when you rip a CD? Surprisingly The Absolute Universe did, but the last two IO albums I got before that didn’t and neither does LTE3. Annoying.

The CD-only set doesn't have the liner notes?? I'm glad I got the artbook then! There's a printed foreward/intro, interview and tidbits for each song.

-Marc.

Nope. It's the song tidbits I was hoping for. I get needing to keep some stuff exclusive to the special package, but those song blurbs were a bit of an LTE tradition. There's just photos of the band (which are pretty cool) with a few thanks/acknowledgements by each guy.

[faizoff]

Yea those liner notes or "lyrics"   on the artbook are great. I have to go through the essay as well. I'm loving these artbooks everyone has been putting out.
There's no mention of the video of the guys jamming Ya Mon, you have to click the '3' on the bluray menu to view it. It's not even listed anywhere and is a nice surprise honeslty.

[The Letter M]

Yea those liner notes or "lyrics"   on the artbook are great. I have to go through the essay as well. I'm loving these artbooks everyone has been putting out.
There's no mention of the video of the guys jamming Ya Mon, you have to click the '3' on the bluray menu to view it. It's not even listed anywhere and is a nice surprise honeslty.

Wait...there's a legit on-disc Easter Egg?! What is this, 1999? Hot damn, I'll have to check this out! Thanks for the heads up!

-Marc.

[lonestar]

Blink of an Eye is fucking insane.

[HOF]

Blink of an Eye is fucking insane.

I’m two tracks in on the jam disc, and both of these are great so far. In some ways I’m enjoying these more than the main disc.

[Peter Mc]

DT Facebook page it’s promoting the new LTE album, very classy.

Why wouldn’t they when 2 members of DT are in the band?

[Lonk]

Blink of an Eye is fucking insane.

I’m two tracks in on the jam disc, and both of these are great so far. In some ways I’m enjoying these more than the main disc.

That's how I feel, the main disc is good and enjoyable but the jams capture their chemistry so perfectly and it reflects throughout in a very organic way.

Blink of an eye, Solid resolution and Your Beard is Good are my favorite so far.

[darkshade]

LTE3 is really giving me the SFAM/6DoIT vibes, but with something a little extra in there. The energy level is so high on this album.

[darkshade]

You knew it was coming. Where do you rank LTE3 among the other LTE studio albums and DT studio albums? I stuck in the JP solo albums as well..

*****
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
Images and Words
Awake
Scenes From A Memory
Liquid Tension Experiment 2
Octavarium

****
Train of Thought
Liquid Tension Experiment 3
Liquid Tension Experiment
Black Clouds & Silver Linings
Falling Into Infinity

***
A Dramatic Turn of Events
Terminal Velocity
Suspended Animation
Systematic Chaos
Distance Over Time

**
When Dream and Day Unite
DT12
Spontaneous Combustion
The Astonishing

LTE2 is hard to top for me, but I think LTE3 is at least as good as LTE1. I'm giving it the edge because I am just loving this entire release.

[KevShmev]

It is waaaay too soon for me to rank LTE3, but I know that LTE1 and LTE2 would rank ahead of every DT album for me not named Awake, Scenes from a Memory or Images and Words.

[darkshade]

Oh man, that last tune, Key to the Imagination is so good. There's a lot to chew on with that one.

[Revenge319]

I've only heard LTE3 once, so I couldn't reasonably rank it yet. That said, LTE + DT for me is as follows:


1. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
2. Black Clouds & Silver Linings
3. Octavarium
4. Liquid Tension Experiment 2
5. Liquid Tension Experiment
6. Metropolis Part 2: Scenes From A Memory
7. A Dramatic Turn of Events
8. The Astonishing
9. Distance Over Time
10. Systematic Chaos
11. Images & Words
12. Awake
13. Dream Theater
14. Train of Thought
15. Falling Into Infinity
16. When Dream and Day Unite
17. Spontaneous Combustion

[HOF]

Oh man, that last tune, Key to the Imagination is so good. There's a lot to chew on with that one.

Yep, it’s kind of the When The Water Breaks of this album. Some really cool and unique passages. It has some amazing playing by Tony. Someone said they though he was too low in the mix, but I thought he came through really well on both discs and might be the star of the album.

[darkshade]

Oh man, that last tune, Key to the Imagination is so good. There's a lot to chew on with that one.

Yep, it’s kind of the When The Water Breaks of this album. Some really cool and unique passages. It has some amazing playing by Tony. Someone said they though he was too low in the mix, but I thought he came through really well on both discs and might be the star of the album.

On my good speakers, Levin's bass cuts right through. I think he's mixed better here than on the first 2 albums.

[Ben_Jamin]

This album contains the spirit of the music I felt dissipated over time in DT. There's a freshness to the music that seemed to not be there as much when DT signed over to Roadrunner. This album surely ranks up there with the first two LTE albums, but the energy of those two albums carried over to DT world and stayed there until Octavarium imo. After that album, while there have been great moments throughout, and I have a soft spot for BC&SL, to me, musically, the last 6 DT albums have either felt stale/uninspired, overly complex for the sake of it without regard to composition, contain more than one awkward transition in their songs, and/or sound like DT-by-numbers.

LTE3 is none of that. Throw in some JLB vocals on a few of the tunes somewhere, and this is what should have followed up Octavarium.

Funny thing for me is, That is the sound that I felt got stale in Dream Theater, and the sound I was kind of getting tired of hearing, every album had that, oh, here's another LTE inspired type of instrumental.

And what's even funnier, is that LTE 3 has certain sections that are really reminiscent of Systematic Chaos and Black Clouds and Silver Linings...

In Beating The Odds, they basically do a re-do of In The Presence of Enemies Pt. 2 end instrumental section at 2:14, especially MP's drum parts, they sound exactly the same  ...and at about 1:30, and 4:30 they do something that reminds me of Ministry of Lost Souls. But the main riff and groove remind me of the "My brother gabriel...music is the gift he brings" part of The Gift of Music. 

I wouldn't mind it at all, if MP played Drum Parts that are not reminiscent of those past songs, almost even playing an identical drum pattern for those sections. 

But, I do enjoy it a bit. Not as much as the other two, because of this reason that most of these songs sound like Dream Theater songs. And not vice-versa, My favorites are Liquid Evolution and The Keys to The Imagination. Now these are what I wanted to hear from LTE.

Shades of Hope was vastly disappointing to me because it sounds so similar to The Best of Times, and it doesn't have that same impact as Hourglass, State of Grace or Freedom of Speech. I do hear this though in Liquid Evolution...

Rhapsody In Blue is a great cover. I just wish it was relegated to the bonus disk or left off the album completely. This would've left room for another full composition.

I haven't listened to the bonus disk yet, but I am starting to think I may end up enjoying those more than the actual album...

For my first listen ranking it'd go:

1. Liquid Evolution
2. Keys to The Imagination
3. Hypersonic
4. Beating The Odds
5. The Passage of Time
6. Rhapsody In Blue
7. Chris and Kevin's Amazing Odyssey


Edit: I am listening again, and the ITPOE pt.2 sections are also in The Passage of Time as well. And it's due to Portnoys drum patterns being pretty similar.

[JPX]

In LTE, Rudess has more freedom. I think he used to have more freedom in DT when he first joined too, but both he and MP have stated "things are different in DT" in regards to LTE comparisons.

In general Rudess sounds way more creative outside of DT these days. Listen to Rudess/Minnemann/Levin and the same is true.

[JPX]

You knew it was coming. Where do you rank LTE3 among the other LTE studio albums and DT studio albums? I stuck in the JP solo albums as well..

*****
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
Images and Words
Awake
Scenes From A Memory
Liquid Tension Experiment 2
Octavarium

****
Train of Thought
Liquid Tension Experiment 3
Liquid Tension Experiment
Black Clouds & Silver Linings
Falling Into Infinity

***
A Dramatic Turn of Events
Terminal Velocity
Suspended Animation
Systematic Chaos
Distance Over Time

**
When Dream and Day Unite
DT12
Spontaneous Combustion
The Astonishing

LTE2 is hard to top for me, but I think LTE3 is at least as good as LTE1. I'm giving it the edge because I am just loving this entire release.

Album ranking after less than 24 hours ROFL

[HOF]

Oh man, that last tune, Key to the Imagination is so good. There's a lot to chew on with that one.

Yep, it’s kind of the When The Water Breaks of this album. Some really cool and unique passages. It has some amazing playing by Tony. Someone said they though he was too low in the mix, but I thought he came through really well on both discs and might be the star of the album.

On my good speakers, Levin's bass cuts right through. I think he's mixed better here than on the first 2 albums.

Some of what I’m hearing might be JP’s bottom string (not sure if he’s playing 7 string or what). I do think the sound and mix are pretty great overall.

[HOF]

This album contains the spirit of the music I felt dissipated over time in DT. There's a freshness to the music that seemed to not be there as much when DT signed over to Roadrunner. This album surely ranks up there with the first two LTE albums, but the energy of those two albums carried over to DT world and stayed there until Octavarium imo. After that album, while there have been great moments throughout, and I have a soft spot for BC&SL, to me, musically, the last 6 DT albums have either felt stale/uninspired, overly complex for the sake of it without regard to composition, contain more than one awkward transition in their songs, and/or sound like DT-by-numbers.

LTE3 is none of that. Throw in some JLB vocals on a few of the tunes somewhere, and this is what should have followed up Octavarium.

Funny thing for me is, That is the sound that I felt got stale in Dream Theater, and the sound I was kind of getting tired of hearing, every album had that, oh, here's another LTE inspired type of instrumental.

I always felt like the band struggled to incorporate the LTE style into Dream Theater when Jordan joined the band. It’s more fun when it’s just a crazy instrumental thing and less fun when you try to turn it into actual songs with a singer. I do hear a lot of the same over-the-top stylings as modern DT on this album, but I can deal with it better in this context. No James trying to sing about the smell of stale sweat and shit over it.

[DT89]

Liquid Tension Experiment | Key to the Imagination | Guitar Tab

[Hypnotherapist]

My Japanese edition arrived yesterday (waiting for my artbook, which hasn't even left Germany ..... crazy world). Very minimalist insert, some photos and thanks, but the content of the CDs (and particularly in this edition in BSCD2) makes up for everything that was missing, in this case I didn't really need a word.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/xjd9lngwirivr09/20210417_130822.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/qtju6348x14ecw1/20210417_130838.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/dr1g3rkt88eo94k/20210417_130939.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/mmucbqn48v7is72/20210417_131136.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/qr5xqfib846in7w/20210417_131210.jpg?dl=0

[Fritzinger]

My CD was delivered this evening and had to run some errands so got to listen to the first 4 tracks in the car. Think it’s gonna be a fun driving album. Of those 4 tracks, the middle two blew me away while the other two were also cool but a bit heavy handed. Nothing bad, just not as interesting to me. But I do really like the sound of this, and it definitely captures the vibe and spirit of what made LTE so exciting back in the day.

Edit: heh, just realized track 4 was The Passage of Time (the one track I had already heard). Wasn’t looking at the track list while driving and hadn’t really internalized the song enough to recognize it I guess. Checking out the CD liner and I’m a little bummed there aren’t any liner notes like in the first two albums. Always thought that was a fun touch.

Second edit: what’s up with Inside Out releases not having the artwork uploaded to the Microsoft database for when you rip a CD? Surprisingly The Absolute Universe did, but the last two IO albums I got before that didn’t and neither does LTE3. Annoying.

The CD-only set doesn't have the liner notes?? I'm glad I got the artbook then! There's a printed foreward/intro, interview and tidbits for each song.

-Marc.

Nope. It's the song tidbits I was hoping for. I get needing to keep some stuff exclusive to the special package, but those song blurbs were a bit of an LTE tradition. There's just photos of the band (which are pretty cool) with a few thanks/acknowledgements by each guy.

Did anyone order the 3LP boxset and has received it already? Does that version include the liner notes?

DT Facebook page it’s promoting the new LTE album, very classy.

Why wouldn’t they when 2 members of DT are in the band?

Because under every post, there's always half a million annoying comments about Portnoy having to return to Dream Theater and once they post something that's actually about Portnoy, those half a million become a full million.

[Setlist Scotty]

DT Facebook page it’s promoting the new LTE album, very classy.

Why wouldn’t they when 2 members of DT are in the band?

Because under every post, there's always half a million annoying comments about Portnoy having to return to Dream Theater and once they post something that's actually about Portnoy, those half a million become a full million.

Ummmm - didn't DT's Facebook page also promote JP's last solo album, which also had MP? 

I think they've learned to deal with and accept that. 

[TheCountOfNYC]

Song ranking time!

1: Key to the Imagination
2: Beating the Odds
3: Hypersonic
4: The Passage of Time
5: Rhapsody in Blue (I only have it this low because it’s a cover but I absolutely love it)
6: Liquid Evolution
7: Shades of Hope
8: Chris & Kevin’s Amazing Odyssey

[HOF]

Song ranking time!

1: Key to the Imagination
2: Beating the Odds
3: Hypersonic
4: The Passage of Time
5: Rhapsody in Blue (I only have it this low because it’s a cover but I absolutely love it)
6: Liquid Evolution
7: Shades of Hope
8: Chris & Kevin’s Amazing Odyssey

I actually really like the Chris & Kevin track, and Liquid Evolution is amazing. Probably my favorite so far. Beating the Odds is really good too though. I’d say my early favorites are:

1. Liquid Evolution
2. Beating the Odds
3. Key to the Imagination

But I also think the jams from the second disc may top some of those.

[Hypnotherapist]

A note line from Mike regarding the bonus disc:

[The Letter M]

https://shop.mikeportnoy.com/collections/dvds/products/mike-portnoy-lte-3-liquid-tension-experiment-3-drum-cam-dvd

Mike has listed his Drum Cam DVD up for sale! I ordered it as fast as I possibly could! Cannot wait to watch it!

-Marc.

[Hypnotherapist]

A note line from Mike regarding the bonus disc
https://photos.app.goo.gl/YC4Y65yp3UKy5YVq7
(For some reason I can't post the photos directly here) 

[The Letter M]

A note line from Mike regarding the bonus disc
https://photos.app.goo.gl/YC4Y65yp3UKy5YVq7
(For some reason I can't post the photos directly here) 

Does this work?

-Marc.

[devieira73]

I also really like Chris and Kevin's Amazing Odyssey, it reminds me a lot some drums/bass jams that Primus does live.

[Hypnotherapist]

A note line from Mike regarding the bonus disc
https://photos.app.goo.gl/YC4Y65yp3UKy5YVq7
(For some reason I can't post the photos directly here) 

Does this work?

-Marc.

Yes, now it's worked. Do you know what happened?