Dream Theater - New album title revealed

[Symphony]

Dream Theater have confirmed that their forthcoming new album will be entitled The Astonishing. The new material will follow 2013’s worldwide smash album Dream Theater, which earned a second Grammy nomination for the band and made top 5 chart debuts in Japan, Germany, Italy, Canada, Argentina, Switzerland, Holland, and Finland, as well as top 10 debuts in Denmark, Austria, Norway and the US, with career high debuts in the United Kingdom and Australia.

Dream Theater has announced new tour dates for a momentous European headline run which is set to kickoff February 18th at the Palladium in London, England. The winter run will see the prog-titans delivering a one-of-a-kind set in which they will be debuting their forthcoming album live in its entirety.

The unique tour is set to make stops at prestigious theaters around Europe including Amsterdam’s Carre Theater, Oslo’s Konserthus, Stockholm’s Cirkus, Paris’ Palais des Congres and Milan’s Teatro Degli Arcimboldi with additional dates to be announced (see itinerary below). Pre-sale tickets for select dates will be available on Wednesday, November 4th with general on-sale for all dates beginning on Friday, November 6th.

The European tour comes in anticipation of Dream Theater’s forthcoming album which is expected to arrive in early 2016.



Dream Theater European Tour 2016

February
18 - London, England - Palladium
22 - Amsterdam, Holland - Carre Theater
28 - Oslo, Norway - Konserthus

March
2 - Stockholm, Sweden - Cirkus
5 - Paris, France - Palais des Congres
6 - Paris, France - Palais des Congres
18 - Milan, Italy -Teatro Degli Arcimboldi

 

[Power_Metal_Dom]

Goes without saying the excitement for this is high. DT standards and execution are rarely anything short of breathtaking. I'd love to go to that gig but tickets are around £55 - ouch.

 

[Symphony]

Yeah it's not a cheap night out is it? I might see if I can squirrel away a few pennies for this before it sells out as I'm sure it will pretty quickly

 

[1928]

There are a lot of people it seems giving this album flack already, which I think is silly. Sure the text/dialogue is hammy as hell and the names of some of the characters are silly but this is the type of ambitious metal I really dig, especially from Dream Theater.

http://www.dreamtheater.net/theastonishing

Check it out... there are character designs, and a fucking MAP! Details will be revealed over time I assume. And the first disc's track listing is there! Color me HYPED!

 

[Power_Metal_Dom]

Oh wow! This might shape up to be some sort of fantasy RPG metal opera!

 

[Cronopio]

Say what? They're doing a fantasy epic now?

 

[Symphony]

Alex! Hope you are well dude

Looks like some new DT tuneage has appeared

http://bravewords.com/news/dream-theater-stream-new-song-the-gift-of-music

 

[1928]

Good tune, but something about James's voice the last several albums has really irked me. Part of me wants to say DT just needs to get a new singer because it really seems like James is well past his prime and I keep wondering what else they could do with the vocal melodies if they got another guy. His inflections bug the hell out of me these days.

Other than that, solid! Love the drumming and drum sound and the guitar-keyboard interplay is tasty. Can't wait to hear the rest of the album.

 

[Cronopio]

Alex! Hope you are well dude

Looks like some new DT tuneage has appeared

http://bravewords.com/news/dream-theater-stream-new-song-the-gift-of-music

Hey Steve! I'm fine, hope you are too. Long time, no talk. Still, the quest must go on. ;-)

I have absolutely no problem with DT going in a more commercial direction. I may get a slap for this, but I think I prefer ADOE to ST just because it's more ... accessible. Make no mistake, I like 'em both, but there's something to be said for catchiness ...

 

[Power_Metal_Dom]

Yeah that was nice enough. Kinda short and sweet. Not much substance to really go off but I enjoyed it while it lasted. Leaves me wanting WAY more!

 

[1928]

So... The Astonishing. WOW. I'd be here all day typing up my thoughts on this album. Basically, I think it is easily the best since Six Degrees, which is my favorite DT album. Unreal. I am digging the hell out of this.

And for other DT fans, when you listen to this album, read these track write-ups at the same time. Gives so much more insight into the Astonishing world. So cool.

http://www.dreamtheater.net/theastonishingtracks

 

[Thematt202]

The Astonishing is just magical. The only other DT album that comes close is Scenes. It blows the rest away, IMO.

 

[Cronopio]

It's more mellow and more of a prog rock opera, but since I'm all in for the cheesiness, I won't complain. Kudos to them for making 2 hours seem like 45 too.

 

[Power_Metal_Dom]

In preparation for The Astonishing I finished off my entire Dream Theater discography playthrough to give everything context then gave it a full listen while reading the track by track write up (which is awfully written by the way).

I liked it.

I mean, it’s an absurd story. Flips between ridiculous and super sugary sweet saccharine. But it’s moving in an over-the-top Disney kind of way. As a big, grand, stage show, musical, metal “opera” thing it’s quite pleasing and makes a nice, fresh change in direction for DT.

But as a prog metal or even just a metal album, it’ll let you down. Except for those nuggets of Petrucci shred.

I get how a lot of the criticism towards it says it plays like 80% sentimental ballads but the story kinda demands that. So yeah...cheesy mellow prog rock opera indeed but it'd be nicer if they dialed back the bizarre and dialed UP the heavy metal.

 

[Thematt202]

I've listened a few more times and my opinion has changed slightly. It's even better than Scenes (and I never thought I'd say that)!

The album is just so full of melody and wonder, it's nothing short of epic. I guess if you're into the TOT/Systematic Chaos type stuff, I can see why you may find it hard to get into, but seriously, there's just so much beautiful music here that I don't understand how anyone can criticise it for "not enufh metalz". That's not aimed at anyone here by the way, just a few comments that I've read on the net.

 

[Symphony]

Still not got round to picking this one up, which is unusual for me when it comes to DT.

 

[Thematt202]

Still not got round to picking this one up, which is unusual for me when it comes to DT.

Buy it, listen to it a couple of times until the themes start to appear and you'll be astonished how a band this late in their career can produce something so mesmerizing. I'm not saying it's perfect, but it's damn close.

 

[Dave_MTFC]

I must admit, I have never listened to a Dream Theater album. My music taste has changed over the years and still keeps changing now ha ha.

There are still some more albums I want to buy, was just wondering if you guys would recommend any Dream Theater albums please? I'll add it to my list and buy it when I can.

 

[Kingface]

I must admit, I have never listened to a Dream Theater album. My music taste has changed over the years and still keeps changing now ha ha.

There are still some more albums I want to buy, was just wondering if you guys would recommend any Dream Theater albums please? I'll add it to my list and buy it when I can.

Buy the Images & Words album as soon as possible.

 

[1928]

Amen to that. Pick up Images & Words, and (in my opinion) Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, ASAP. Both are easily my top 2 Dream Theater albums.