Will, I have just finished my first two listens of the album, and my overall impression is not that positive.
Of course the level of quality and musicianship is super-high as usual, but I am totally missing the "magic" of the Dream Theater I love.
My favorite songs so far are the two singles (I had not listened to them before today, so they are pretty fresh for me) and The Sleeping Giant; the ATC, TT and ATM are okish, while I found the epic just boring.
The main issues I have with this disc are:
- JP's background work on the verses; he is basically chugga-chugging all time, he never plays chords, harmony or just keeps silent for a while...
- JP solos are not memorable at all, none of them.
- the lack of any real highlight in the whole album (and I am not talking about a full song, there is not even a 2-minutes section that really stands out)
- the "flatness" of the composition approach; yes, there is TT that is upbeat and major, but all the rest of the album has basically the same flavour
- the mix: it's true that the drums and bass are great this time, but all the rest is quite muddled for my ears. James in particular is really low and his voice never stands out.
After 2 hours with AVFTTOTW I switched to Breaking all Illusions for just a couple of minutes, and it was a musical relief..
I am sorry to say that, but the new album is well below my expectations (same as D/T).
Hope it will get better with time, but I feel like I'm not going back to it many more times...