Which album do you feel "uses" LaBrie the least? Obviously not counting WDAUD.

[Misirlou]

This should be interesting and might take a little bit of digging, but which album do you feel uses LaBrie the least, considering he doesn´t play any instruments (sans assisting keyboard live on the 2005 tour) to my knowledge? Obviously not counting When Dream and Day Unite.

I´m referring as to in which album you feel like the vocals take a backseat the most, be it due to multiple long instrumental sections, or intros/outros, etc. You can name specific songs to help your case. Should be interesting to see what y"all think.

[TheCountOfNYC]

Black Clouds & Silver Linings. It's not the lack of vocals but more that the melodies themselves seem to be just another sonic layer instead of being the main focus of the songs.

[SeRoX]

I'd say it's A View Of The Top Of The World.

Some long and unnecessary instrumental breaks, lack of interesting vocal melodies and no catchy verses.

[WilliamMunny]

Yeah, there are a number of post 8VM albums where I feel JLB was either underutilized or just given nothing interesting to sing (in general).

AVFTTOTW and Parasomnia come to mind, but there are certainly highlights on even my least favorite DT album.

I think, as a massive JLB fan, I'm way more sensitive to the lyrics and vocal melodies than, say, the LTE-minded fan (or the small Reddit-army that wishes DT were an instrumental band!)

Obviously, their musicianship is their calling card, and I don't begrudge them pushing harder in that direction. Still, I much prefer albums like FII and Awake to some of the later albums where the vocals felt (and probably were) like an afterthought.

[wolfking]

I honestly think a lot of the later albums seem to under utilize James due to him basically becoming more limited as time goes on.  Plus, I also think it has a lot to do with the band boxing themselves into that more metal niche lately.

If DT went back to more a prog inspired sounding album, I think we'd hear James come to life more.  Imagine if DT did something like the Human Equation with a perfect mix of classic prog, hard rock and metal, James would shine.  We already saw that a little with TA, even though it's not my thing.

[Progmaniac1988]

I'd have to say view, I love that album, but always felt it is James most forgettable performance compared to the other albums. It's the only album I almost feel the vocals are a afterthought.

[HOF]

Yeah, there are a number of post 8VM albums where I feel JLB was either underutilized or just given nothing interesting to sing (in general).

AVFTTOTW and Parasomnia come to mind, but there are certainly highlights on even my least favorite DT album.

I think, as a massive JLB fan, I'm way more sensitive to the lyrics and vocal melodies than, say, the LTE-minded fan (or the small Reddit-army that wishes DT were an instrumental band!)

Obviously, their musicianship is their calling card, and I don't begrudge them pushing harder in that direction. Still, I much prefer albums like FII and Awake to some of the later albums where the vocals felt (and probably were) like an afterthought.

This should go in the controversial DT opinions thread probably, but there is an alternate universe where DT broke up after FII but LTE still happened and continued as a regular project since JR never joined DT, and then JLB had a solo career in the vein of the Mullmuzzler albums, and I might be more invested in those two projects than I am in DT post FII. 

[Misirlou]

Parasomnia has Bend The Clock, which I feel is his best lyric and vocal approach in years. The Petrucci solo is great, but that's LaBrie's baby.

I would say, to this question, it's probably Black Clouds. The only song where he really does something is Wither. Every other song has extremely long instrumental sections, and when he does appear, he doesn't really do much.

Also,I think he did great on A Dramatic Turn of Events, particularly on Beneath the Surface, but almost every song on that album (Outcry, Breaking All Illusions, Lost Not Forgotten, Bridges in the Sky) has LONG, LONG instrumental sections, like, I feel like they went a bit more crazy due to Portnoy leaving.

[MirrorMask]

This should go in the controversial DT opinions thread probably, but there is an alternate universe where DT broke up after FII but LTE still happened and continued as a regular project since JR never joined DT, and then JLB had a solo career in the vein of the Mullmuzzler albums, and I might be more invested in those two projects than I am in DT post FII. 

An even more alternate universe has JLB and the band parting ways after Six Degrees, as there was more than a 0% chance of it happening in our own timeline, this would mean that JLB would be forever cemented as the "classic" singer on masterpieces such as I&W, Awake and SFAM, and eventually in time the new singer - assuming he would stay for the long run - would surpass him both in years of tenure, and number of albums recorded.

I'm just glad it never happened frankly.

[Ben_Jamin]

I'd have to say view, I love that album, but always felt it is James most forgettable performance compared to the other albums. It's the only album I almost feel the vocals are a afterthought.

I feel the same. I enjoy the album, but the vocals are what prevent me from enjoying Sleeping Giant.

[TheBarstoolWarrior]

I guess it depends what you mean by underutilized.

If it's just time singing relative to album length then I am really not sure. It feels like an album with long songs such as ToT, BCSL or View is going to be it but I don't feel that he wasn't used as much as he should have been. The albums with the most JLB time are likely going to be the other 4 MM era albums and something like FII.

[TAC]

I guess it depends what you mean by underutilized.

Underutilized to me doesn't have anything to do with time. To me, it has to do with how much of his range is being used, vocal climaxes, and memorable vocal melodies.

[TheBarstoolWarrior]

Underutilized to me doesn't have anything to do with time. To me, it has to do with how much of his range is being used, vocal climaxes, and memorable vocal melodies.

View doesn't have much of these items. Parasomnia doesn't either but for BTC.

But in terms of range I think they're using what is available generally.

[TAC]

View doesn't have much of these items.

This is true.
I actually rate View very highly though. I think it's a monster album.

[Misirlou]

I guess it depends what you mean by underutilized.

If it's just time singing relative to album length then I am really not sure. It feels like an album with long songs such as ToT, BCSL or View is going to be it but I don't feel that he wasn't used as much as he should have been. The albums with the most JLB time are likely going to be the other 4 MM era albums and something like FII.

I feel like it´s mostly aligned with what TAC said. If we´re talking about just his abscence time, it´s probably Train of Thought or Black Clouds. And I feel like The Astonishing might be the album that rests on his shoulders the most, he´s all over the album portraying different characters, and there´s no extended instrumental sections, since the songs are of average length.

[jimgolf]

Black Clouds. James wasn't even there for the recording of the album (which he expressed displeasure with at the time).

I still like the album, but you can tell the vocal melodies weren't really written by Labrie. They seem very basic at times and likely just written and demoed by Petrucci and Portnoy.

[TAC]

Ultimately, do they capitalize on his strengths, and I think generally speaking, it's a huge missed opportunity for them.

[SeRoX]

Black Clouds. James wasn't even there for the recording of the album (which he expressed displeasure with at the time).

I still like the album, but you can tell the vocal melodies weren't really written by Labrie. They seem very basic at times and likely just written and demoed by Petrucci and Portnoy.

That's really interesting. Because ANTR and TCOT have good vocal melodies and they are some of the James' vocal highlight for me.

[Misirlou]

That's really interesting. Because ANTR and TCOT have good vocal melodies and they are some of the James' vocal highlight for me.

"Bathing in beautiful aaaaaaaaaaaaaaagony" might be his best moment on the album.